A banker and fundraiser by training and trade—with no experience whatsoever in managing animals—King was hired in 2010 to lead the nonprofit zoo back into sound financial shape. Since then, zoo attendance has grown 30 percent and its physical footprint 20 percent thanks to King’s shrewd guidance. It’s no wonder King has been named Atlanta’s Most Admired Nonprofit CEO two years in a row. The Alumni Magazine caught up with this proud Yellow Jacket to discuss the secret to Zoo Atlanta’s success—and his changing feelings about reptiles.
Tell us about your background. What did you do before Zoo Atlanta?
I was born and raised in Atlanta and went to St. Pius X Catholic High School. I spent one year outside of Atlanta at Erskine College, where I played on the college tennis team before transferring to Georgia Tech to study management. I’m the son of a banker, so I kind of knew I wanted to go into banking. I grew up in a neighborhood of bankers, many of whom were SunTrust executives. I joined the SunTrust management-training program straight out of Tech. I then spent the next 15 years in a variety of corporate banking and middle-market leadership capacities.
How on earth did you move from banking to running a zoo?
It’s a long story. The bridge was that after being a corporate banker all those years, I had gotten more and more involved in the community and really enjoyed it. I didn’t think SunTrust was doing all they could in terms of service, so I raised my hand to lead our community affairs effort and was given that responsibility. For the next seven years, I was deeply involved in the non-profit world and served as the face of the bank for anything they needed. I got to know a lot of community leaders and forged important relationships.
But then something happened to you that refocused your priorities.
In 2009, I was diagnosed with cancer and that makes you think about what’s important to you. With that as a backdrop, the head of Zoo Atlanta at the time, Dennis Kelly, ME 76, resigned to head the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. I happened to know Dennis and I happened to know the chair of the board at the time, Brad Benton. I just sent an innocent email to both of them at the same time saying congratulations to Dennis, and condolences to Brad, because he was going to have to find a new person to lead the zoo. I had absolutely no intention behind that email whatsoever. But I got a note back from Brad that said, “So do you want to run the zoo?” I really thought he was kidding. But he wasn’t.
Wasn’t this a huge change?
I had been a lifetime banker, had been at the bank 22 years and obviously was not one for a lot of change. But fortunately I had a wife who could see a change like this would do me well and pushed me out on a limb. “What do you have to lose?” she said. “Put your name in the hat.” Lo and behold, it all worked out.
Did you have any previous interest or experience with wildlife?
I had no background whatsoever with animals—beyond having a dog. That was the extent of it. But I truly believed that it didn’t matter. We have a great team here that knows everything about taking care of animals, animal management, conservation and veterinary care. That is not what the board needed. The board was looking for someone that had a balance of skills in business, leadership and a network in Atlanta. I had that balance of skills.
What challenges did Zoo Atlanta face when you took the job five years ago?
The No. 1 challenge was that the zoo had lost money eight out of the previous 10 years. So that’s not what you would call a sustainable organization. It had tremendous deferred maintenance and there had been very little reinvestment in the facility. There was a huge capital investment that needed to happen. The only way a nonprofit can raise money like that is philanthropically. And you’re not going to raise money philanthropically if you’re losing money. So game plan No. 1 was to stabilize operations and quit losing money. Fortunately, a lot of the hard work had been done in terms of cost cutting. But we could not cost-cut our way to success.
What did you see as the path to success?
We had to grow our way to success. We had plateaued for quite a while at about 675,000 visitors per year. Today, in 2015, we’re at a little over 900,000. That growth has a huge impact on the bottom line. We’ve now gone from losing $1 million a year to making $1 million a year, and that allows us to reinvest in the zoo the way it needs to be reinvested in. More importantly, it allows us to raise money in the philanthropic community where we previously could not. That enables me to use my No. 1 skill set, which is raising money.
How did you manage to grow the zoo’s attendance by 30 percent?
There’s no magic bullet answer. It’s a lot of little things that add up. If you had to summarize it, it comes down to collectively building buzz about the zoo. You do that a lot of different ways. The most obvious and easiest, but most expensive, is increasing advertising. We also became very active on social media. We partnered with the Georgia Public Library Service to offer a statewide program where essentially any resident of the state can go to their local library and check out a pass for a family of four to come to the zoo for free once a year. It gives us exposure in all those library branches—all those communities—and people are certainly using it. Roughly 75,000 people have taken advantage of it in the course of a year. They’re coming for free, but they’re spending money while they’re here and they’re telling their friends about it.
Zoo Atlanta has been undergoing some major changes recently. You’ve built the new Scaly Slimy Spectacular facility for amphibians and reptiles. And you’ll add a new event space when the Cyclorama Civil War painting moves to the Atlanta History Center. What can you tell us about these projects?
Between the Cyclorama project and the amphibian and reptile project, we will grow the public footprint of the zoo by 20 percent. The Cyclorama project is truly an historic opportunity for the Zoo and for Grant Park. Between the private philanthropy we’ll raise and the public investment the city will put into parking— added to the amphibian and reptile complex — you’re talking $80 million in the course of eight years. The zoo is on the move.
How has Scaly Slimy Spectacular been received by visitors?
Scaly Slimy Spectacular may not havedriven attendance initially, but people who come to the zoo have been blown away by the complex. Even visitors who don’t like reptiles have enjoyed it. I was the parent who used to sit on the bench outside the old reptile house while my daughter went in. I wouldn’t even go in—I was too scared of the snakes and lizards. I knew we had reached success with Scaly Slimy Spectacular when I found myself wanting to go in that building each day. That’s why we’re here: to get people to appreciate the animals and be comfortable with them.
Did you expect to get the land and building where the Cyclorama was housed?
The Cyclorama was frankly not in our plans. I had not planned on another capital fundraising campaign this soon. But you have to seize opportunities when they come up. If we had not stabilized our finances, we wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of this. There would have been a big ripple effect: The Cyclorama painting would have had to stay in place and it would have continued to decline. Also, the Atlanta History Center would not have received the painting and been able to benefit from its relocation. That also means Oakland Cemetery would not have gotten the green house they’re getting from the History Center. The domino effect of us reforming our finances is sort of like an “It’s a Wonderful Life” movie—it makes you feel pretty good about what you’ve accomplished. I have to say that’s one of the most exciting fundraising projects I’ve been involved in.
What will the new event space be like?
It will house 1,000 people. Right now, if you’re holding a 1,000-person event, the only places you can really go are the Georgia Aquarium or a hotel ballroom. Subsequently, Atlantans wind up going to a ton of events at the Georgia Aquarium - which is beautiful - but this will be a completely different experience. Here, you will overlook a huge African savanna with elephants and giraffes, which will be breathtaking.
The new event space also provides an opportunity to build a new area for the elephants and giraffes. Was this part of Zoo Atlanta’s plan?
We’ll more than triple the space allocated to elephants. Today, we only have two elephants. Long term, we’ll have more and become a breeding program for elephants. A lot of zoos have had to let go of their elephant programs because new industry standards require zoos to have more space and more elephants; you can’t have just two. It’s for the welfare of the elephants, they’re highly social animals, but it’s costly. More than 20 zoos have had to stop hosting elephants and we were close to having to do that, too—had this opportunity not come up. I did not consider it acceptable for Atlanta not to have elephants, and fortunately the mayor did not either. He agreed to not only give us the Cyclorama building but five acres around it.
We wanted to make a statement because elephants are very vulnerable right now. To increase our commitment to elephants was very important.
The area around Zoo Atlanta is experiencing a lot of growth and development. What does that mean for the zoo?
Memorial Drive is seeing an unprecedented amount of development. The whole corridor is getting redeveloped. The Grant Park area is really on the rise.Turner Field is going to get redeveloped, and I think you’ll see a lot of development between Turner Field and the zoo, which will be nice. More and more people want to live in town. It’s all positive.
How has your tenure as CEO been different than you imagined?
It’s been more exciting than I expected. I don’t think I envisioned that we would have already embarked on such an ambitious second project as we have, so that’s good. I didn’t anticipate we’d make as much progress as we have in terms of growth, so that’s good. At the same time, I’m energized that I see tremendous opportunity, particularly now that we’re in a better financial situation. That just allows you to do things that you couldn’t otherwise do.
Is Zoo Atlanta involved in any wildlife conservation efforts?
That’s why we exist. Too often people think of us as just an attraction. That’s part of who we are, but the attraction funds our mission. Our mission is to make sure the people who come through our gates value wildlife and take steps to ensure the future of these animals. One of the things we do is make our own direct conservation investments. Collectively last year, U.S. zoos invested $160 million in conservation programs. Our biggest conservation investment by far is pandas. We’ve invested more than $10 million into their conservation and it’s a huge success story. If you look at the numbers on most of the high-profile species, whether it’s rhinos or tigers or elephants, they’re all in decline and in serious threat of extinction. Pandas are fortunately on the rise, both in captivity and in the wild, and that’s largely because of the huge investment we and other zoos have made to conservation.
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