And if they’re good at something, make them do that all the time, and it’s usually the stuff that they like to do. Just to go back a minute, you said that you believed in publishing, you published a lot. Read More
When you were doing, working with your veterinarians that were full-time when you were director or assistant director, or even your residents, did you instill in them or want to instill in them the idea that publishing was important?… Read More
We had some difficulties there, our manager wasn’t very good and I went in there and I, “All right, I wanna know, what do you like to do?… Read More
Well, I like to let people, I don’t think I try to micromanage. I like them to use their talents, and I think I’ve realized that people are best at the things that they like to do. And if I can give somebody the stuff that they like to do,… Read More
‘Cause I mean, you’re doing a lot of painting, and somebody else is doing tiling. You know, somebody else is working on masonry work. Do you really like painting, or would you rather be doing this or that?” And give the person the stuff that they like to do, and… Read More
What was your management style?… Read More
How would you describe it?… Read More
So development and fundraising has become a huge part of running the zoo, and so it makes sense to have a president whose primary responsibilities are fundraising. And then as director I did what, ran the zoo. You had, again just a quick question. You indicated the person they hired… Read More
You’re now the director of the zoo, 2002?… Read More
2002, correct. And you’ve gone from the first full-time veterinarian of the zoo to now the director of the zoo. We won’t say it was a meteoric rise, ’cause you moved steadily. Sure. Read More
If we needed to raise money, we had to get it, you know?… Read More
And over the years now, all those people have been added to the zoo. And so development is a big operation. And I talked about before, the Zoo Museum District that got established in 1972, which changed the zoo from just being supported by the city of St. Louis to… Read More
You don’t have to park on our parking lot, there’s street parking, come in for free. You don’t have to buy refreshments at the zoo. All of that you can do and not have to spend a penny. But you can also, and so back then, about half of our… Read More
And two, can you tell me about the governance in general of the St. Louis Zoo?… Read More
If we needed to hire somebody, we were the HR department. Read More
Yeah, when I speak of the governance, I think of our commission, which is the ruling body that really makes the decisions. The biggest decision, of course was, “Okay, well who is gonna be director or president there?” But they do oversee major things. I mean you know, they go… Read More
I guess I wanna ask two questions. In your opinion, obviously it worked out. Read More
In your opinion, why do you think they wanted this change in governance from everything else that had happened?… Read More
And then Steve came with me, came to me and he says, you know, and we had lunch together and he said, “We wanna make you director of the zoo, but we wanna bring somebody else in as president and CEO over you. Well what do you think about that?”… Read More
If this is a guy I can work with, yeah I’ll probably, that’ll be fine,” you know?… Read More