Jim Dean, President and CEO of the Memphis Zoo, steps down from the position

Memphis Zoo President and CEO Jim Dean announced Thursday morning he will retire from the position, with Executive Director and Vice President Matt Thompson replacing him.

"It was an honor and a privilege to be able to come back home to Memphis and be a part of this amazing team and help in the great work that they do every day," Dean said in a press release.

Dean took over as president of the zoo in 2019, when he signed a three-year contract and during protests over a proposed parking lot expansion into an open, grassy area of Overton Park known as the Greensward. That contract expired in April 2022 and the hunt began for a new president.

"I had talked to the board a while ago about my interest in succeeding Jim," Thompson said. "So we've had those conversations for some time."

Although announcing he would focus on building a parking garage at the time, plans to expand the lot returned last winter. By March 2022, that plan was scrapped in favor of moving employee parking and turning that into guest parking.

Memphis Zoo: No parking on Greensward; Memphis, Zoo and Overton Park announce deal

While president of the zoo, Dean also served on the Overton Park Conservancy board of directors – which he attributes to how the parking situation was able to be figured out. Although stepping down Thursday, Dean will still oversee the parking project.

Dean also led the zoo through the pandemic, where it was temporarily shuttered. In late 2020, CARES Act funding was used to cover some of the Memphis Zoo's pandemic losses.

Thompson, who will be the zoo's new president and CEO, has 26 years of experience with the Memphis Zoo. He started as a zookeeper and "will bring a passion for the animals at the Memphis Zoo, as he embodies the Zoo's mission of Creating Adventures and Saving Wildlife."

Of his experience with Dean, Thompson said, "Jim had a keen attention to guest experience and appearance of the zoo that significantly impacts guest's view of the zoo as soon as they walk through the front gates. He impacted the internal experience for the employees in many ways, most importantly though, he increased communication between departments across the entire zoo."

A veteran takes over

When Thompson first moved to Memphis from Nashville in 1995, he started working at the Memphis Zoo as a seasonal zookeeper and did not work winter months. Shortly after, he was hired full-time to work the Animals of the Night exhibit – where nocturnal animals can be found.

Over the years, he moved up in the ranks as the assistant curator, then curator, then director of animal programs until he found himself as the vice president with his first "big" oversight project: the giant panda exhibit.

"I really got to get my feet wet with project management and construction and overseeing a new animal program when pandas came," Thompson said. "So I got to be a part of planning that exhibit and working with the architects on design. And then I go to China to get the pandas and fly back with them. And that kind of thing just continues to be a high point in my career."

The contract between the Memphis Zoo, Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens and China’s State Forestry Administration is slated to end in 2023 – which would send Ya Ya and Le Le back to China if not re-signed. Although Thompson would not say if the contract would be extended to have the pandas remain in Memphis, or if the zoo would acquire new ones, he was optimistic about the future of giant pandas at the Memphis Zoo.

"Our intention is definitely to continue a relationship with [China]," he said. "And we would very much like to [either keep the pandas or get new ones]. But we very recently had a visit from the Chinese embassy, who came to talk to us about pandas, and that visit went extremely well. And they were very pleased with what they saw. Our relationship with them is good, and we don't know exactly where that's going yet, but I feel good about our relationship with China."

As the new president of the zoo, Thompson wants to be just as collaborative as his predecessor was. That collaborative spirit saw Dean as a board member for the Overton Park Conservancy (OPC), where he worked with other members to strike a deal about the parking project.

"My intentions are to be every bit as collaborative as Jim was and I know our place in this community is extremely important," he said. "I value that greatly and the progress that has been made is also very important. So I look to continue building a strong relationship with all of our neighbors, including OPC."

Looking forward, Thompson wouldn't specify any coming attractions as the zoo is working on a new master plan for updates and new features for the zoo, but he said the state of the aquarium, reptile house, and aviary needs to be addressed soon.

He anticipates the difficulties of running a zoo but is confident in the groundwork he watched be set during his nearly three-decade stint as an employee. For Thompson, the animals will always come first and he said he is proud of the work that takes place at the Memphis Zoo.

"Running a zoo is both an incredible experience and an incredible responsibility," Thompson said. "The amount of work that goes into running a zoo is just incredible. Being a zookeeper is an undersung position because these are people that are taking care of some of the rarest animals in the world and working in all elements, holidays, nights, and weekends. The needs of the animals never stop. The animal care here at the Memphis Zoo is second to none – and I'm very proud of that fact."

Lucas Finton is a news reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Jim Dean, President and CEO of the Memphis Zoo, steps down