Interview 34507 – Caption Index: 635
In your opinion, your professional opinion, what’s your view regarding zoos, maintaining elephants, and how should it be done correctly?… Read More
In your opinion, your professional opinion, what’s your view regarding zoos, maintaining elephants, and how should it be done correctly?… Read More
The Minnesota Zoo is really a good zoo. Chicago has two good zoos. And, and there are different structures. Totally. Which is, which is interesting. I don’t have to lecture you about the zoos in Chicago, but I think the Brookfield Zoo now, now they, they got a good director… Read More
And then there’s, you know, there, there’s some small, a lot of good small zoos too. But again, the mentality is you should always be, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re never the number one, you always want to be better. You know, like that rental car thing, you always, that… Read More
It’s a Belgian zoo. And, and it’s a, it’s a private owner and he just put all his money into it. It’s, it’s, it’s a enormous put, we stayed in a room that the window was looking into the bear exhibit, and the bears was sleeping right outside our, our… Read More
When I analyze a zoo, I analyze leadership, the quality of the keeper staff and the behind the scenes. I don’t analyze it by attendance and budget and, and, and marketing campaigns, you know, totally different. And when I do it that way, it changes because the zoos change. But… Read More
They’re dynamic. They’re, they’re innovative. They, they’re always pushing the envelope. And then in South America, they’re, they’re not, they’re not a Singapore, but the Ali Zoo that we were at, there’s a zoo outside of Bo, not the Buenos Air Zoo, but outside of Buenos Air Time Aiken, these… Read More
Are there any that say to that, you go, these are good zeuss, but why do you say that?… Read More
And, and where are they?… Read More
So they, they let me form a task force. They said, you have to lead the task force. I had advice from another board member saying, Rick, don’t lead the task force. You’re new to this community. You gotta have somebody that’s born on the plantation, is what he said. Read More
So it never happened. So I got, I got a man named Bill Barnett who was, he was the managing partner of Baker bots of biggest law firm in Houston at the time, but also the chairman of the Rice University board. Bill was unbelievable. People couldn’t believe, first of… Read More
He did it for, he, he just passed away. And he was, he was my mentor. He was a good man. Mm, sorry. That’s okay. Did he give you some good sage advice that, that stayed with You Always take the high road no matter what the audience is. I… Read More
I came in, they, they headhunted me and they, and, and people said, why the hell you wanna go to Houston?… Read More
I’d just come off at Disney, you know, I was getting paid pretty well, you know, now, now I come to, I’m gonna accept a job at Houston, which was a city zoo. The salary was half of what I was making, you know. But I went out there and… Read More
This is the year 2000, right?… Read More
Or, or Disney?… Read More
Were there other things that you were very proud of achieving at Houston?… Read More
Well, I saw that question earlier, you know, and I, I, I always am I just anxious to go on to the next thing all the time. So, you know, I go back to Disney and I say, yeah, I guess, I guess the, the forming that, that, that advisory… Read More
Justin Judson said, you’re, he didn’t say you’re right at that point. But we, we had, we got a lot more money. Only ’cause of, only ’cause of Bill Connoway. So the, the board, the advisory board was a wonderful accomplishment. Read More
And, but that dynamic there, it, it got, it got tension filled. One time when Judson Green, who was our, the head of Disney Parks, was talking to Bill Conway and, and the board, and, and Bill and Russ, and were recommending that they establish a fund for conservation before… Read More
But are things that you wanted to, that you Yeah, bring an elephant, bring, bringing, bringing a herd of elephants in from Krueger, very controversial, but they were calling elephants in Krueger National Park. This is 1994. Because they had too many, well, they said they had too many. So… Read More