ML - Boston Common

2014 - Issue 5 - Late Fall

Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.

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PRESIDENT AND CEO, ZOO NEW ENGLAND JOHN LINEHAN If you want to upset John Linehan, tell him a zoo is just a place to go and see animals. "Too many people view a zoo as a place to gawk at animals and laugh and go home," bristles Linehan, president and CEO of Zoo New England since 2002. "My biggest challenge is getting people to understand its role in conservation and research." Under his leadership, the zoo has not only dramatically improved the stewardship of the animals under his care—the gorillas now get cardiac ultrasounds, for example—but has also expanded beyond Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo to participate in breeding and environmental programs around the world. Linehan originally dreamed of going to Africa or Alaska to work on wildlife conservation before he got a temporary job at the zoo in 1980. Nearly 34 years later, he relishes Zoo New England's role as an entry point for urban children and their families to experience nature. This fall, Zoo New England hopes to double down on that commitment with an ambitious new $6.6 million Children's Zoo at Franklin Park that will eschew high-tech gizmos for high-touch experiential exhibits. "People are losing their connection with nature—that hands-on, getting-dirty, climbing-up-and-crawling-under experience," he says. "In some ways, we are an antidote to an overdigitized world." Leadership is… "Passion. In this b u siness you're making a commit- ment to care for an animal throughout its life. People need to see you will not sacrifice animal care or conservation when hard times come." Jacket ($1,898), plaid shirt ($248), and trousers ($398), John Varvatos. Copley Place, 617-236-8650; johnvarvatos.com Photo assistant: Josh Campbell Styling by Faye Power Hair and makeup by Erica Ryan Fagan, Team Artist Representative Accommodations provided by Boston Harbor Hotel

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