Tourism Business Chat - With Claudia Roberts - CEO of Zoological Society of East Anglia

Whatever your moral feelings towards zoos, there’s no denying that conservation is vitally important in a world with ever-decreasing natural habitats, and Banham Zoo is a leading example of this. Claudia Roberts is CEO of the Zoological Society of East Anglia (ZSEA) which operates Banham Zoo and Africa Alive. The charity was formed in 2013 to secure the long-term future of the zoos and in the interest of improving animal welfare, or as Claudia puts it ‘profit for purpose’

Claudia’s step into both the zoo and charity world was a big one, having previously been commercial director of a national garden centre chain, leading the retail buying and marketing.

She was brought in to help get things back on track after the catastrophic impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns, giving an us insight into her time in front of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee for support.

Claudia doesn’t shy away from the criticism and controversy that surrounded her appointment, and how she handled media scrutiny. She maintains that a strong, resilient business model is needed to back up charitable objectives, and believes that you need to take the stakeholder along with you when making changes.

Learn more about the ZSEA here

Book your tickets for Banham Zoo here, and Africa Alive here 

GET IN TOUCH! We would love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode, email us at podcasts@larking-gowen.co.uk.

We would also love it if you could rate us 5 STARS on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, this really helps people find us!

Find more episodes from the series by visiting larking-gowen.co.uk/tourism-insights

You can also now watch on YouTube too, just click here