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
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
You’re now the director of the zoo, 2002?… Read More
If we needed to raise money, we had to get it, you know?… 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 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
And two, can you tell me about the governance in general of the St. Louis Zoo?… 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
If we needed to hire somebody, we were the HR department. Read More
In your opinion, why do you think they wanted this change in governance from everything else that had happened?… Read More
I guess I wanna ask two questions. In your opinion, obviously it worked out. Read More
If this is a guy I can work with, yeah I’ll probably, that’ll be fine,” you know?… 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
And so that’s what came about, and they hired Jeff Bonner as the president and CEO, and I was the director and COO, director of operations. So when Jeff and I first got together, and Jeff and I worked it out. And it’s like Jeff said, “Okay, I want you… Read More
Certainly with him. Oh, well Charlie stayed on. You know Charlie thought, well, he’d retire at 65, and he didn’t, and then he, well a little bit more. He’s got this project to do, and so forth. And so then when Charlie did retire, I was a candidate to take… Read More
By the time he was ready to retire, yes. Yeah, we talked about that. Was he in favor of it, or- He wrote all kinds of letters of recommendation for me to follow him. So they did a big search. When Charlie was about to retire, they did a national… Read More
But had you and Charlie talked about that, did he know your thought process?… Read More
Yeah, I guess that was always, you know thinking, “Well you know, Charlie’s, you know, 10 to 15 years older than me. Read More
Now while you’re assistant director doing these kinda things and involved in these various projects, in the back of your mind, did you think about the position of director?… Read More
When Charlie retires, would I wanna be director?” You know and, “Yeah, I think so,” and- Did you have those conversations with him?… Read More