Raymond B. King has been the president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia, since 2010. He talked to blooloop about his career to date, the path that brought him to the zoo, his brush with cancer, and how it changed his outlook.
“I was born and raised in Atlanta, I never lived anywhere else,” he begins.
“I went to school at Georgia Tech. Then I became a banker, I followed my father into the banking world where I spent 22 years at SunTrust, primarily in various corporate banking functions. People always ask me, ‘Well, how did you go from being a banker to running a zoo?’”
Community connections
For the last eight years at the bank, King was senior vice president for community relations.
“That put me deep in the non-profit and the philanthropic world,” he says. “I had been very civically active throughout my career; it was part of our corporate culture.”
He knew if he ever left the bank it would be to do something in the non-profit sector. However:
“I’m not one for a lot of change,” he says. “I had lived in Atlanta my whole life, and I’d only had one job at that point. I thought I was a lifetime banker, but then, out of the blue, this thing called cancer came along.”
Having been healthy all his life, in 2009 he contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
“The bank was incredibly supportive, but in the midst of that, the zoo opportunity came up. It was a freak deal where timing is everything. “
Zoo Atlanta: a change of career
The opportunity came down, he explains, to relationships:
“I just happened to be friends with the chairman of the board of the zoo, whom I had met a few years earlier. We had stayed in touch. I also knew the outgoing CEO of the zoo. I sent them both a note saying, ‘Congratulations, Dennis, on your new job; condolences, Brad on having to find a new CEO.’”
(Dennis Kelly, president and CEO of Zoo Atlanta since 2003, left to take up a position as the new executive of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington.)
“I meant nothing by it,” King continues:
“But Brad [Benton] flipped a note back saying, ‘You want to run the zoo?’ It was a situation where it’s helpful to have a strong spouse. My wife gave me a little push and said, ‘How often are you going to get a chance like this in your life? You have to give it a try.’”
At that point, King wasn’t sufficiently healthy to do it, but, realising the search for a CEO would take time, he put his name forward, not really thinking anything would come of it:
“That was 11 and a half years ago,” he says. “It was a great step in my career.”
A new chapter
People sometimes ask him if he misses the business world:
“I run a $25 million business. It just happens to be a non-profit that doesn’t pay taxes, but it’s still a business, so no: I don’t miss the business world. This is a great way to put my love of civic engagement together with my business skills.”
Additionally, he adds:
“I’ve got a deep background in fundraising, which helped me get the job. Zoo Atlanta was in a position in its evolution where it needed to raise a lot of money, and to build connections locally. I had the right Rolodex and the right background to fit the profile.”
It made him popular at home, too:
“At the time my daughter was 9 or 10. She loved animals, practically grew up at the zoo, and she thought she wanted to be a zookeeper. She had never been too interested in what I did when I was at the bank, but when I was running a zoo, all of a sudden I was a hero at home. That made it extra special.”
Zoo Atlanta
Zoo Atlanta is the oldest cultural institution in Atlanta, dating back to 1889.
King explains:
“We are probably best known for our care of Western lowland gorillas, and Pandas. There are only three zoos in the country that have Pandas, so that differentiates us – and we have the largest collection of gorillas, including the oldest living male gorilla on record. We have pretty deep expertise in the care of these animals.”
(Subsequent to this interview, Ozzie the gorilla died peacefully at the great ages of 61.
The changing role of zoos
He defines the function, in his eyes, of a zoo in the 21st century:
“50 years ago, I would have said it is to entertain the public, in the best and most cost-effective way. Today, that is absolutely not the case. Entertaining people is a means to an end, but what the zoo is about is conservation.
“It’s about trying to save those animals, and to do that, you have to get people to see them. So yes: we entertain people as a way to bring them in, but our goal is to educate them, to get them to be believers, to help them figure out what they can do to help, while at the same time enhancing the care delivery on an ongoing basis.”
Entertaining people is a means to an end, but what the zoo is about is conservation. It’s about trying to save those animals, and to do that, you have to get people to see them.
“It’s one of those things you’re never finished doing; you can always enhance the care. Are we doing things today in terms of preventive maintenance and care for animals that we weren’t doing five years ago? Absolutely.
“Zoo Atlanta was one of the first zoos that learned how to do a voluntary blood draw from a gorilla, for example, where we developed a special apparatus that he put his arm in to get his blood pressure taken. This sort of thing is made easy because of the trust that is built up between the animal caregivers and the animals.”
Excellence in animal care
Having a gorilla reach the age of 60 is a glowing testament to Zoo Atlanta’s animal welfare strategy.
“We have several very geriatric animals, particularly gorillas,” he says. “We are so well-versed in their care that when a gorilla gets old in another zoo, we are usually called either to advise on how to take care of the animal, or to take it off their hands, like a retirement home for gorillas.”
The zoo also has a reputation for the excellence and extent of its conservation work and reseach:
“We partner with a lot of research institutions and have several PhDs on staff. We try to maximise the value of our collection, not only for the enjoyment of the public who come to see them, but also in terms of conservation stories, research, elevating animal care within the zoo community, and trying to prolong the life of species.”
Conservation education
One of Zoo Atlanta’s primary focuses is connecting people with conservation. He says:
“If you ran an ad in the paper, saying ‘Come to the zoo and learn about conservation,’ I don’t think there’d be a long line at the door. But if you market it as a fun thing to come do with your family, it’s different.
“You may not even know you love animals, but when you get there you fall in love with them.
“Our job, once you’re there, is to begin educating you about the challenges that wildlife faces, what we’re doing at the zoo to address those challenges, and what people can do in their everyday lives that helps the cause. Ideally, we get them to join the zoo as a member, and then they hear regularly about our conservation work.”
It takes perseverance:
“It’s a crowded space out there. There’s a lot of noise, and people often have to hear the messaging 5, 6, 7 times before it starts registering. Once they become a member, they get hit regularly with it, and they begin to learn that the zoo is not just an attraction where you can look at fun animals, but really has a role in conservation.
“Collectively, the work done by the zoos and aquariums that make up AZA makes us one of the largest conservation organisations in the world. It may not be huge, but collectively it’s very powerful, and the zoos all work very closely together.”
Zoo Atlanta: making a difference
Zoos, he contends, are a major weapon in the battle against the challenges facing the natural world.
“Are the challenges huge? Absolutely,” he says. “But I’ve spent a lot of time during COVID reading history. Sometimes we think challenges today are new. They’re not new; we’ve had huge challenges for hundreds of years, and, somehow, we seem to address them.”
“I’m cautiously optimistic that the future is bright. There are certainly some great success stories out there, and then there are animals that struggle more than others, but I think there’s an awareness now, and an appreciation, and that’s where we play a big role.
“If the public couldn’t see a panda or a gorilla, they wouldn’t connect with or care about them in the same way. Because they can come to the zoo and see the animals and learn their personalities, they get attached, they learn about their importance to the ecosystem, and they care. If the people care, hopefully, the public sector will care enough to help, too.”
Species survival
Zoo Atlanta is active in a number of species survival plans:
“A lot of people don’t quite understand what that means. It means that we don’t just worry about a single animal, but about that species. Decisions are made about that one animal so that they benefit the species. That’s where all the coordination between the zoos comes into play, maximising the health of the population.
“There are some animals, too, that are extinct in the wild now, and that only exist in zoos. The golden Panama frog is one of them, here at Zoo Atlanta. Zoos play so many different roles that people don’t necessarily understand, but that first one is building those connections. Like I said earlier, life all revolves around relationships.”
My philosophy is to give everybody a reason to want to come to the zoo, whether they think they like animals or not, and then they’ll get there and they’ll buy in.
Often, he concedes, the people coming to the zoo with their children are those who are interested in conservation messaging:
“We probably preach more to the choir than the others, but I think that’s just a reflection of the fact most people do get it and understand it and love animals. But we still reach the others as well. One way we do that is by offering other events and opportunities to engage with the zoo.
“My philosophy is to give everybody a reason to want to come to the zoo, whether they think they like animals or not, and then they’ll get there and they’ll buy in.”
Events at Zoo Atlanta
Zoo events include Brew at the Zoo, a beer tasting event, and Boo at the Zoo for Halloween:
“People come without even seeing the animals, and say, ‘Wow, this place is really special; I want to come back.’”
“We have just built a brand new event venue that looks out over a brand new African Savannah. You’re literally in a ballroom with terraces right on top of elephants and giraffes. People are coming for fundraising galas, corporate events, weddings. They look out and say, ‘Wow, this isn’t the zoo I grew up with; I need to come back.’
“It’s about getting people to the zoo for whatever reason, and then converting them.”
Expansion projects
Zoo Atlanta has just gone through a major six-year expansion.
“We call it the Grand New View,” says King. “When the opportunity came up, our number-one priority was the animal care complex. We were ready to do that; we had designed it, and were all set to go.”
“For years an institution called the Cyclorama, a diorama of the civil war, had existed in a historic building right next to the zoo. There was no synergy between that and the zoo. People that came to the zoo weren’t necessarily interested in civil war history, and vice versa.
“When we were privatised from the city in 1985, the diorama stayed part of the city, so never had any private investment in it. It was just a distraction for the city.
“There were years of trying to figure out what to do with this thing. It took a lot of money to maintain this painting, there are controversies around the civil war – there were just so many challenges.”
Timing is everything
Eventually, King explains, all the stars lined up:
“What happened was that we had a donor in Atlanta. He and his wife had been reading the paper every day, trying to figure out what their legacy was going to be. They read about the challenge of this painting and what to do with it.
“They called my peer at the Atlanta History Centre and said, ‘Can we take you to breakfast tomorrow?’ He said, sure, and went to breakfast. He didn’t know who these people were. They then proceeded to pledge 15 billion to allow the process to begin. They would endow this painting so it could be cared for going forward, if the history centre could raise the money to move it to the history centre, where it really belonged.
“The city could only do that if they had another use for the historic Cyclorama building, which was beautiful, but it was also in bad shape, so there wasn’t a long line of people looking to buy that building. We had the proverbial bear on our back: everybody was looking to us to take that building over so that the painting could move.
“Obviously, I wanted us to do our part to facilitate that, but I had to put the zoo’s fiduciary obligations first. We had to figure out a way to make this a win-win.”
Savanna Hall at Zoo Atlanta
In the end, the former Cyclorama building has been given a new lease of life as Savanna Hall, a one-of-a-kind event destination overlooking the wonders of the new African Savanna, where African elephants and other wildlife roam new and significantly expanded habitats.
King explains how this outcome was reached:
“Fortunately, the timing worked out well. The standard of care for all our animals has increased over the years. One of the standards for elephants is that you can no longer only have two elephants. You must have three or more, and for a good reason; they’re highly social animals.
“We only had two and didn’t have room for a third. We had been operating under an exemption for a while, but the clock was ticking, and if we didn’t find a new place at the zoo to house more elephants, we would have to let go of them.”
Seizing the opportunity
Accordingly:
“When this opportunity came up, we told the mayor that if we could take that building they were to give us the five acres of land behind it, we could move our elephants into a brand-new home, enhancing their care, while also creating this venue for special events that will strengthen the zoo, and be an asset to the community.
“It was our win, win, win situation.”
The zoo now has three elephants: “We have a male and two females. Our females are past breeding age, so we’re on a waiting list to get some young females so we can breed them. We’ve now got the capability to house up to seven.”
It has been, he says, quite a journey.
“The former Cyclorama building dated from 1919 and was falling apart. It didn’t even have a very good foundation. We wanted to make sure we preserved its history, so we got federal and state historic tax credits to do that, making a beautiful new asset for Atlanta and creating a new home for elephants all at the same time.
“That opportunity unfolded in 2014, and we had the grand opening of the new event centre the week before COVID shut everything down.
“The timing of COVID could not have been worse for us. We were just coming out of our season, capital was at its lowest. We were about to enter our high season where we make all our money.”
COVID-19 and Zoo Atlanta
When the pandemic hit, all of Zoo Atlanta’s scheduled events were postponed indefinitely, and revenue fell to zero as the institution closed for two months.
“That was just frightening,” says King. “I literally couldn’t tell my staff for sure that we would survive.”
“We took action very quickly because we didn’t have a choice, making tough decisions about laying people off and so on. Fortunately, we were able to bring those people back pretty quickly, because we were able to raise emergency fundraising money and to get PPP money from the federal government.
“At the end of the day, it didn’t impact our staff. They were laid off, but then they were brought back. Unbelievably, we came out of COVID stronger than we entered it.”
Community support
There was so much support for the institution within the community that $5 million was easily raised from crisis philanthropy:
“Then we cut expenses. Then we raised the PPP money and literally came back with more money in the bank than we had started with. It was just something I never imagined.”
In some ways, the crisis created opportunities, King explains:
“As they say, never waste a crisis. We had been doing virtual programming before the pandemic in the education field. All of a sudden, everything had to be virtual. We had to double down and create new programming so that we could continue to serve the community and stay relevant while this shutdown happened. Now, we’re serving students all over the world and realising that this isn’t just a short-term dynamic.”
Continuous improvement
Going forward, there will always be a strong in-person visitorship:
“You can’t replace that in-person experience,” he says. “But there are plenty of people that can’t get to the zoo, and who need to learn. We now can do that through virtual programming. The crisis forced us to accelerate our capabilities in that area so that, again, we came out stronger than we entered it.”
Social media plays a role here, too.
“I don’t like social media for a lot of reasons,” King says. “In this case, however, it does allow us to broaden our reach in a big way. People love following us on social media, so even though we were closed we still had an impact.”
Despite having just implemented a major expansion, King’s sights are set on the future, He comments:
“I try to remind my team that, as an organization, we’re one of continuous improvement. It can be demoralising, we’ve worked so hard to get through a big project, but that doesn’t mean we can let up.
“We have been very successful. We’re in the best health financially we’ve ever been, which is something I never thought I could say after COVID. We’ve made great progress, but we can’t rest on our laurels, so we’re already talking about the next project.”
The next chapter for Zoo Atlanta
The next project is a new animal care complex.
“It will be a vet clinic or hospital. We give great care today, including preventative care. The animals get better care than I do, but my staff have to work in less-than-optimal conditions, and it just doesn’t fit the profile of the rest of the zoo. So, we’re going to build a new animal care complex.
“It will be a $15 m state-of-the-art complex with CT machines and all the equipment we need. So, we won’t need to take the animals off-site to do tests. It will bring us to where we ought to be in that field.”
Zoos, King stresses, are capital-intensive:
“You build something state-of-the-art, then you move to the next thing. By the time you get around the zoo, that first thing you did is almost obsolete, so you re-do it. It’s a process of constant reinvesting and renewal.
“Frankly, for years the zoo was not doing sufficiently well financially to reinvest. Right now, we’re doing really well, and are able to reinvest on an annual basis, enhancing our programmes, our staff morale, and our talent development, and bringing the facilities to the standard where they belong.”
