george, thank you very much. please welcome now, dr. dennis bartel the executive director of the exporatorium and truly a driving force behind this remarkable and amazing project. [ applause ] >> wow. what an amazing journey. i know, my chairman was nervous for a second that i was going to use an expletive. we are unbelievably excited to open the exporatorium at piers, 15 and 17 here to the entire san francisco community and the world beyond. it has been many years coming and it took an army of thousands to put it together. there is just a few special groups that i want to highlight here today. the first from the bottom of my heart this tireless, staff, this leslie, yes i am going to do it, this lovely band of miss fits anywhere in the world who pulled this together, thank you. >> to our board of directors and their leadership and support. never waivering, that unflagging optimism and vision to finally land here on san francisco's front porch. to our architects led by mark batalion to our contractors led by midy brother and our banks, led by the bank