Part of a series of interviews with Members of the Chester Business Club
The members of Chester Business Club are business leaders from a wide range of sectors and professions. Here is another in our series of “Member Spotlight” interviews with Club members, this time with Jamie Christon, Chief Executive of Chester Zoo.
Q: Jamie, tell us a little about yourself and your journey to Chester Zoo.
I’m originally from North Yorkshire, but Chester has been home for well over a decade now, and it’s fair to say the city has got under my skin in the best possible way. Before the zoo, I spent years in airport management, which sounds like a world away from conservation, but there’s more crossover than people expect – both are complex, high-footfall visitor operations with big teams, big infrastructure and a lot of moving parts. That background gave me a real grounding in operations and customer experience, which I’ve carried with me ever since.
I joined Chester Zoo and worked my way through operational leadership before becoming Chief Executive. It’s the best job I could have wished for – leading an organisation whose entire purpose is preventing extinction, while also being one of the country’s biggest visitor attractions and employers.
Q: What does your role as Chief Executive involve?
No two days are the same, which is exactly how I like it. On any given week I might be deep in our conservation masterplan, in Westminster talking to government about the visitor economy or environmental policy, on camera with a broadcaster, or across the table with our leadership team shaping the culture and values of the organisation.
At its heart, my job is to make sure everything we do – whether that’s a visitor buying an ice cream or a scientist working on a species reintroduction programme thousands of miles away – ladders up to the same mission. We’re a conservation and education charity first and foremost, and every part of the business exists to fund and support that work.
Q: For anyone meeting you for the first time, what’s Chester Zoo all about?
We’re a conservation powerhouse, and I don’t say that lightly. We’ve got teams working right now on species recovery both here in Chester and out in the field – from habitat restoration to conservation breeding programmes to reintroductions back into the wild. As England’s national zoo, we’re proud to be part of Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, working to bring some of the UK’s most threatened native species back from the brink.
But we’re also an education charity and a major UK visitor attraction, welcoming millions of people a year. That scale is what makes the conservation possible – every visit funds the conservation work.
Q: Chester Zoo has been very active on issues beyond the gates recently – what’s driving that?
Where we’ve got genuine expertise, we think it’s our responsibility to use it. Earlier this year we brought together the Met Office, DCMS and CEOs from sixteen major UK attractions for a summit on misleading weather app icons, because we could see first-hand the impact inaccurate forecasts have on visitor behaviour. That’s the kind of thing we’re increasingly prepared to put our head above the parapet on – we’re a science-led organisation, and we want to use that credibility to get important issues onto the national agenda.
Q: What’s your vision for Chester and your role in the wider business community?
I’m hugely invested in Chester as a city, not just as the location of the zoo. I chair Marketing Cheshire, which brings the visitor economy together across the public and private sector to give Cheshire and Warrington a single voice – something that was missing for a long time. I’m also on the Business Advisory Board for the Combined Authority and chair of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which keeps me close to the sector nationally as well as locally. Outside the business sector, I am also a governor at The Kings School in the city. In 2023 I was commissioned as a Deputy Lieutenant of Cheshire.
My hope for Chester is a thriving, confident city – full of independent businesses, a strong events calendar, and organisations genuinely pulling in the same direction. We’re closer to that than we’ve ever been.
Q: What have been some of the highlights of your time at the zoo?
Reopening after 208 days of pandemic closures remains one of the proudest and most emotional days of my career – the effort the whole team put in was extraordinary. More recently, we’ve had some wonderful conservation moments – successful breeding and reintroduction work with species on the very edge of extinction, and joys like the birth of a snow leopard cub, which had the whole team buzzing.
We’ve also just refreshed our organisational values, which has been a brilliant process of stepping back and asking what kind of place we want Chester Zoo to be for the people who work here, not just the people who visit.
Q: What excites you most about the future?
The pace of change in conservation science and in how we tell our story to the public. We’re constantly finding new ways to connect people with the natural world, and new partners – government, other attractions, broadcasters, other zoos – willing to work with us on it. There’s real momentum behind treating conservation as something the whole visitor economy has a stake in, not just something zoos do alone.
Q: Outside work, what keeps you busy?
A good walk with my dog Maisie is still one of my favourite ways to switch off. I’m a keen cook, I enjoy travelling when time allows, and I’ll happily lose an evening to Lego Technic – it’s oddly therapeutic after a day of spreadsheets and stakeholder meetings.
Q: What does the Chester Business Club mean to you?
Chester’s strength as a city comes from its business community pulling together, and organisations like Chester Business Club are a big part of making that happen. It’s a place where people who care about Chester – whatever sector they’re in – can meet, support one another and back good causes together. That spirit of collaboration is exactly what the city needs more of, and I’m glad to be part of it.
For more information about Jamie Christon and Chester Zoo, visit www.chesterzoo.org