Banking on KC – Sean Putney of Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium: Creating Wild Connections
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Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Sean Putney, the CEO of the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium. Welcome, Sean.
Sean Putney: Thanks for having me. Great to be here
Kelly Scanlon: Well, you have so many new things going on. I wanna talk about those changes and really recently, you've had a lot, but really.
Over the last few decades, the, the zoo, as I know it now with my grandchildren, is not the same as the zoo I knew growing up. A lot of great changes. One of the things that's shifted is from being a city operated zoo to a nonprofit management under Friends of the Zoo, and that happened in 2000 and then voter approved Zoological district was established in 2012. So how has the combination of private fundraising and the public sales tax funding shaped the zoo's financial model and allowed you to make so many of these changes,
Sean Putney: I'll say in the 115 plus year history of the zoo. Those two things that you brought up are, at least in the top five things that have affected our history and, and our direction.
Certainly, friends of the zoo taking over the management of the zoo. Now everybody should know that all of the property and everything sits on it is still owned by the city, but we manage things and having. People that have experience in not only the animals, but conservation, education. Everything about a zoo is now being managed by a group that knows how to manage zoos as opposed to the city trying to management with all the other stuff that they have to manage.
Right? So I feel it works out on both ends and I give a lot of credit to the board and my predecessor. For getting us past that point and getting us kind of rolling in the right direction. And then you, you mentioned the zoological district that was passed by the voters in Clay and Jackson County allows us the opportunity to bring in funds that allow us to be world class before we were able to do a project here and there.
Maybe a few million dollars. Polar Bear was our last project before the Zoological District, and that was about $7 million. But really when you compare us across the board with other great zoos, we needed to not only. Have great new exhibits, but also fix some of the older exhibits and replace them. And bringing in that tax money has helped us do that over the years.
And the most recent one being the aquarium at $77 million and half of that was coming from the buildup of funds from the zoological district, but the other half was.. From local donors, regional donors, I should say. And so it's really a, a public private partnership that has worked out wonderfully and I think has made our crown and the jewel of the city is a little bit brighter, a little bit more shiny now.
Kelly Scanlon: Oh yeah. That aquarium is wonderful. And that opened in September, 2023 and it brought your total animal residence. I thought this number was astounding. 1700 to nearly 10,000.
Sean Putney: It's a, it's a little bit cheating in the animal world because when you're counting coral. Which Oh, are colonies.
Kelly Scanlon: Okay. I wonder where that came from.
Sean Putney: It's one thing when you're counting elephants everybody can look at those in a tangible manner. But when you're counting corals, it's a little bit of an estimate there. But yes, it, it's significantly increased the number of animals that we have on grounds.
Kelly Scanlon: And you talked a little bit about the funding that allowed that to happen, but when you make that kind of an expansion whether they're corals or not, there's a lot of different things involved.
1700 to nearly 10,000 and you've got infrastructure to put in place and so forth. So how long did it take and what was the process that guided all that?
Sean Putney: Realistically, I tell people this story all the time in 2014. That's really when we. First started having a conversation about it. One of our, our donors had a, a conversation with my predecessor, Randy Woff, and asked, have, have you ever thought about building an aquarium?
And this is right after we opened up Burg Penguin Plaza. And of course the answer is yes. We, we'd love to have one, but they are also very expensive. So we did a, a couple year study and we wanted to make sure, is this, is this. Feasible. And once we found out that it was feasible, we started putting a little bit more energy into it and looking at fundraising and were we going to be able to raise the, the appropriate amount of money?
How big, how many exhibit, what are the number of animals? What kinds of animals, what zones would they be coming from? So all that happened over the years afterwards leading up into the actual construction, which started in 2020, which also wasn't a great year to begin construction. So we had a lot of bumps in the road, but we think the final product was something that was perfect for us.
We got as much bang for the buck as we possibly could, and we've, we've gotten a lot of positive feedback that it's a, a great addition to what we already have.
Kelly Scanlon: Some of the other recent additions, you've mentioned a couple of them, the Polar Bear passage, the Helzburg Penguin Plaza, and the Orangutan Canopy.
So tell us about those, including how they've been accepted by the public.
Sean Putney: Polar bear, like I said, was a, a bigger project back in the day. 2010 is when we opened that and it, it had been decades since we had bears at the zoo and, and one of the number one. In the top 10 feedback we would get is, why, why don't we have bears anymore?
Well, the reason why we took bears away is because the exhibits that they had were, were old and from the fifties and sixties, and not in the greatest of shape, not something that you wanted to hold animals in. So in order to have them, we had to build new exhibits. So when we added that in, it was a great way to add bears.
It was right up front. Another complaint that we had from people as you come. Into the zoo, or you came into the zoo back then and you had to walk a couple hundred yards before you even saw the first animal. So that added that the, the penguin exhibit was the first exhibit that we built after the tax district.
It was something that we promised and, and utilized that during the vote. And we, we met those head on and brought in penguins. That building opened in the fall of 2013 and continues to be a huge hit. Everybody loves penguins. Yeah, yeah. Orangutans was more of a modification on what we already had.
It was, it's really a beautiful exhibit. Now, the outdoor area, it looks like it could be in Borneo somewhere, but before that it was we joke around about it looking like from Mad Max beyond Thunderdome where it was, it was fine for the animals as far as what their wants and needs were, but just didn't have a great look to it.
And you, you look at modern zoological practices and it was great to replace that with what we currently have. But each year we try to do something. Else. We try to make it a little bit better. We, and it could be with the animal exhibits, it could be with the pathways around the zoo grounds, just improving things so that the experience for our guests, the experience for our animals, or for our staff, all are getting better every year.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah, I, I remember the, the great ape house when I was a kid, you know, it was like this big white dome. And now of course it's completely different. But if I remember right, um, the polar bears, they have a, a cam in that exhibit, don't they?
Sean Putney: Yeah, we do over the exhibit area. Mm-hmm. You can watch him roaming around and that's available on our website. So yeah, if you haven't seen it yet feel free to visit.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, it has followers outside of Kansas City. Sure. My sister, who's a teacher in San Antonio from here, but she has it up in her classroom every day. Fun. And the kids look forward to seeing what the polar bear's up to down in Hot San Antonio in the middle of the winter.
Sean Putney: Those are always great stories to hear. We've especially during the pandemic, we got a lot of feedback from folks watching our cams and they, I think it gave them a little bit of escape from reality mm-hmm. That they people were having to deal with. Sure. And putting a smile on people's faces.
So we love to be able to do that.
Kelly Scanlon: So, um, the zoo is accredited by AZA and it's part of a broader network WAZA, and both are committed to global conservation and animal welfare standards. How does maintaining that accreditation influence your brand reputation? The partnerships that you have and your fundraising?
Sean Putney: Well, most people probably don't understand that as, as well as we do internally at the zoo. But being a part of AZA is incredibly difficult to do. You go through an accreditation process every five years. In fact, ours is next year where we, we will be going through that process again. And it, it gives you credibility in that people should know that.
By being accredited, you are meeting extremely high standards. So you hear stories about roadside zoos and you, and you see things and sometimes we get associated with them. And really we're, we're putting as much as we can into the care for the animals whether it be day to day husbandry or veterinary care, um, nutrition.
You can be assured if somebody is AZA accredited, that they're meeting some incredibly high standards and, and we're very proud to be amongst them. And you talk about conservation and education it's not just about the animals, although that's one of the priorities within accreditation, but also.
Everything else.How are you doing monetarily? Are, are you sustainable? Do you have input in conservation? What are you doing around the world? We, we want to make sure that we're leaders in conservation where zoos and aquariums are so much different than where we were back in the seventies. You, you went to a zoo back then and it was basically just to see animals in a pen and, and now we're so much more than that and we're trying to.
Be leaders in the field and, and, and all of our visitors or people who go to our website, we want them to know that we are, are meeting and exceeding the, the standards and trying to put forth, walk, the walk as, as opposed to just talking the talk.
Kelly Scanlon: And a part of that conservation is actually your involvement in some species survival initiatives and in fact, some of the membership and admission revenue.
Goes towards those goals. But how do you strike a balance between fulfilling those conservation goals and yet delivering a great guest experience? 'cause I have heard sometimes because they have such expansive areas to Rome, that sometimes people come in, well, I didn't get to see such and such animal because they were way off somewhere else.
Sean Putney: It's a very fine line. Some of it goes with exhibit design. Some of it goes with how are you setting the exhibit up to be viewed by our guests. So that is very difficult because you wanna make sure that you have an area where the animals are comfortable and they're able to have all their.
Their needs met. But at the same time, yes, we have heard, we have customer satisfaction scores that come back and we read all of those comments. Sometimes when a gorilla might be taking a nap behind a tree that's what you, you, you get we try to set it up so that, wherever the animals are, they're still able to be seen, but.
Um, yes, that does present a problem at times. So I go back to the design and making sure that we're putting everything we can into, not just are the animals happy, but is it a usable space for our employees too? And also are the guests able to see the animals without getting frustrated?
Kelly Scanlon: I guess the big overriding question is why do zoos matter?
Sean Putney: We talked a little bit about conservation education. There's a lot of folks who live here in the region that will come visit our zoo, that may never go to the ocean, may never go to another continent or another country to see some of these animals where they are. And it's one thing to be able to see a giraffe or a hippo rhino, elephant on.
TV and get a 2D effect. But really, I think a lot of people make a connection when they're at the zoo and they can see some of these animals or hear some of these animals or just watch them roaming around. You get a much better indication of what they do. And then we hope that people fall in love with animals while they're there.
And then they'll not only care about the animals, but also the areas from which they come and. If you can do that, then we're making a difference. And, and we hope that people and kids especially as they continue to grow up, they have a care for not only the animals, but for the environment. And we, we are stewards and, and trying to pass along.
Those messages to our, our guests, our visitors, our conservation programs where we have people that go out and they're in the field. We hope they're bringing back messages that they can relay to our guests as well, and putting up signs and videos and things on our website that show people again, that we are trying to not only preach, but practice what we preach.
Kelly Scanlon: I've heard zoos and, and maybe it's not a good comparison, but I'll ask you, I've heard zoos compared to museums. Would you say that a zoo is a living animal museum?
Sean Putney: Kind of. We try to make it a little bit more than that because if you, if you talk about things just being static, then it loses a little bit of its luster, and what we're trying to convey is these things being living.
It is interesting that you say that because the government views us as in, in the museum, do they world. So so that is kind of how we're represented in the government's eyes. Um, but there are so many. Things about animals that are living, animals that are different from static dinosaurs or, or other things.
And I, I'm certainly not saying that those things aren't important too, because they certainly have their importance in our world too. But we do try to distance ourselves a little bit because we have a, a living collection. Yes. In fact, before it was called our Department of Animal Care, it was our Department of Living Collections.
We, we just strayed away from that a little bit. Well,
Kelly Scanlon: and well, and some of the animals have such personalities. I know, especially the primates, you know, and my grandson goes to see 'em sometimes they get right up at the glass and really interact. With the people.
Sean Putney: Yeah. Honestly, that's that's very enriching to some of the animals too.
Like you said, chimpanzees will come up to the glass or otters, orangutans will interact gorillas. So you're right. A lot of times the primates being a little bit more learned, having a little bit more, of mind of a mind that needs to be enriched. They get some enrichment out of their interactions with the public too.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. Some, sometimes they can be in a bad mood. I've witnessed that too. It's pretty funny. So tell me about some of the other programs that you have. Obviously you can come to the zoo and you can witness the animals as closely as possible in their natural habitats, at least to the Kansas City Zoo.
What are some of the other programs that you offer through the zoo?
Sean Putney: Well, our education program has multiple branches that go off of the trunk of that tree and that is the reason one of our next big projects is expanding our education building because we're a victim of our success and that we're running out of room to house schools coming in.
For evening programs, all the above. They do an outstanding job, our staff does for doing everything that we can to make sure that our guests are having a great time for these separate types of events. We have sleepovers, campouts, we. Finishing up the last couple weeks of our camp season right now, but they're becoming more and more popular.
I think parents are not only looking for a, a fun place for their kids to hang out during the summer, but it's a way for them to continue to learn while they're also having a fun time at the zoo. So, again, I praise our education folks. They go out with our Zoom mobiles. To schools to talk about not only the animals that they're taking, but again, our, we have a conservation message for each one of those animals that goes out as well.
And we talk about our zoological district. That's part of our agreement that we had with Jackson and Clay County. Hey. You are helping us with these, these sales taxes that will help us to continue to grow and get better. But we have a give back to you too, that includes these opportunities with Zoom mobiles and, and free field trips to the zoo for certain age groups.
And, and, um, some of the curriculum that we make, they can incorporate that into their learning lessons. So again, I feel like it's, it's a great partnership that we've formed and we wouldn't be where we are now without them.
Kelly Scanlon: What kind of feedback do you get on what the most popular animal is there? Is there one?
Sean Putney: No, everybody's different. Some people will like the big cats, other people, elephants other people, primates. So it's really just a personal preference. Um, it usually revolves around the cute and cuddly more. Than than the fish. But every once in a while you'll get somebody who loves the snakes or somebody who loves the sharks.
So really it's, it's just a personal preference. I think that that's what makes it unique in that everybody has their own different ideology and what they like the best. Yeah.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. You've been there nearly 20 years now. Do you have, and and you were telling me before we started talking here today about an elephant that walked up a wall once, that it was really quite a sight to see since they don't climb.
But have you had any during those. Nearly 20 years. Have you had any experiences with the animals that are really memorable?
Sean Putney: Oh, all the time. Not nearly as much. Now, since I am not working day to day with the animals every single staff member that spends days with the animals, we all have stories that we go back to.
And we mentioned off the air about Rufuss, our older male orangutan who passed away a couple weeks ago. It was very sad for. Not only the staff, but me. I, I've had interactions with him too. Um, but you try to remember all the fun stories and things, interactions that you, you've had, and really they become part of your family, especially the ones that live for decades.
Yes. As opposed to maybe a few years.
Kelly Scanlon: You've been there for nearly two decades now, and you've progressed through several roles. You've alluded to some of those before you became CEO in 2022. So how have those various roles and your, the insights you've gained from them, shaped your perspective and influenced your leadership approach?
Sean Putney: I think. Everything that I've done and I've been in at the Kansas City Zoo for like you said, almost 20 years. But before that, I spent a decade at the Omaha Zoo. And so everything that I've done, I think has shaped where I'm at today. And I feel that, um, by being in charge of different areas, different.
Animal groups, but I've also at points in time in my career, been in charge of security teams and graphic teams and other non-animal teams and been able to have experiences like this where I talk about the zoo on air radio or now podcasts and tv and having those experiences has allowed me to see.
All the different aspects that are involved. We're really like a small city. Uh, you are, yes. Zoo is. It's you know, not nearly as, as much responsibility as Mayor Lucas and the number of people that he has to deal with. But we have 250 full-time employees and over 500 employees in total, if you include part-time and seasonal and 10 different departments.
And each one of them have. Things that they're responsible for. And we all have to work together to make sure that we're moving forward in a positive manner. Because if, if we don't work together, it's like having a wagon with the missing wheel and it's, it's either either gonna tip over or it's gonna keep going in circles.
Kelly Scanlon: Exactly. Exactly. So, what cultural values have you tried to foster within the organization?
Sean Putney: A culture as is the case with everywhere else is becoming such an important part of being in leadership and making sure that your staff is, is being well cared for, but also the guests are being. Cared for too.
And we wanna be a place where people want to work, feel comfortable to work and same thing with our guests. We wanna make sure that this is a place that really isn't a political entity. It, it's, it's for everybody and, and everyone. And everyone should feel like they are treated just like everybody else.
So culture is at the top of our, our priority list when it comes to both our guests and, and our staff.
Kelly Scanlon: You talked a little bit about the expansion of your education programs. Do you have any other. Initiatives or expansion plans on your roadmap?
Sean Putney: Absolutely. We're always looking towards the future and it's really not a secret, although we always are talking about what's going on in the now and the near future as opposed to what's happening over the next 10 years.
But we, we have a pretty exciting I feel it's a very exciting roadmap for, well now it's seven next seven years. We've already gotten three years through our plan. Um, but I told you about the education building expansion. Right now we are building a giraffe exhibit down in Africa.
Africa's 30 years old now. Wow. Time flies. So yeah, we just did an entire facelift, an addition in our lion Coppi area that opened up this spring. Next spring, our new draft area will open up and it will really be a destination I feel and an opportunity for people to get closer and interact with the drafts.
Um, after that, that's when our education building expansion will happen. After that, flamingos we're gonna flamingo redo our, our flamingo exhibit, another one that was built back in the fifties that just needs a, a new. A new facelift where people can see them all year long. And after that we're hoping to add another bear species.
I don't know right now if it'll be a brown bear. Yeah. Or black bear. But that will be between our existing polar bear exhibit and orangutans. Tthen after that we'll be our next huge expansion or, or. Redo our Tiger Trail. Exhibits were built back in the 1960s as well. And again, they meet all the expectations for the animals to have a good life right now.
But having been built, what, 60 years ago it really needs a redo. So what I'd love to have there, and we haven't done any architectural studies on this yet, but have another building where people can retreat from the 95-degree heat of the summer or the 35-degree cold of the winter, and the animals will have inside-outside exhibits.
We'll have some of the same animals that we have now, but it'll give us the opportunity to add some more new fun animals in a modern day Zoological exhibit area as opposed to the 1960s look. So that'll be our next huge one. And then to finish out that 10 year plan we plan on adding some hyenas down in Africa and redoing our hippo and out crocodile exhibit as well.
So, lots of fun things to come.
Kelly Scanlon: Yes, there are. And then it'll be time to start all over again or something else. Right? So it is never-ending, um, but. Thank you for coming and sharing all of this fun stuff that you're doing there at the zoo, but also very important work, you know, with the conservation and species survival and the educational work that you're doing.
Thank you so much for all of those things and for coming and sharing with us today.
Sean Putney: It was my pleasure and I'd be happy to come back anytime.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Sean Putney for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. From Polar Bear Cams to Orangutan Canopies, and now a world-class aquarium, Sean shared how the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium is creating unforgettable experiences while making important strides in conservation, education, and animal care.
At Country Club Bank, we know that thriving communities like thriving zoos depend on the right mix of resources, care, and vision. As a bank, we're proud to help Kansas City's human habitat grow strong and healthy, and to keep our city a place where both people and possibilities can flourish. Thanks for tuning in.
This week we're Banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank - Member FDIC.