Quentin “Skip” Lockwood III will lead the Friends organization during a national search
The Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo has appointed Quentin “Skip” Lockwood III as its interim executive director while it embarks on a national search for a new President and CEO.
The non-profit partner of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo is seeking a new leader after former Friends President and CEO Janet Agostini retired after 13 years at its helm early this year.
Friends of the Zoo Board Chair Heidi Holtz said Lockwood was the board’s first choice for an interim because he has many years of experience with non-profits and is skilled at leading organizations through transition periods.
“Skip has a reputation for uniting and motivating the staff and board members of non-profits to accomplish ambitious goals,” Holtz said. “We know he will go beyond the task of launching a national search for a new leader and will also do some serious leading in the interim.”
Friends of the Zoo is the non-profit partner of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo that manages business operations and financially supports the zoo by raising funds and awareness of the zoo as a civic gem and top tier zoo in the nation. It was founded as a small group of zoo supporters in 1970, and is marking its 50th year this year.
Lockwood, a native of North Syracuse, is a graduate of William Jewell College in Liberty, MO, where he was an Oxbridge Honors student who spent his junior year at Cambridge University in England undertaking honors studies in history, geography and political science.
He then earned his master’s degree in American Government from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He ran his own consulting firm in Washington, D.C. providing government relations services relative to the evolving legal framework around the then-new Internet to corporations, nonprofits, academic organizations, trade associations, and consumer groups.
In 2001, he was tapped to lead a nearly bankrupt cancer nonprofit, ZERO – The End of Prostate Cancer – and transformed it into an award-winning, multimillion dollar, best-in-class organization while serving as President and CEO five years, COO four years, Board member four years, and Chairman of the Board two years.
He now owns and operates a boutique consulting firm – QL3 Strategies — that provides nonprofits with the technical, ethical, strategic, and operational expertise necessary for fulfilling their missions.
Lockwood said he jumped at the chance to help Friends of the Zoo transition to new leadership, and that his three sons – a 7-year-old and 5-year-old twins – are jealous of his zoo gig.
While he has no prior zoo experience, Lockwood said he and his wife, Julie, care for many pets including a pencil urchin, two clownfish, a guinea pig named Snickers, a parakeet, three chickens, one guinea hen, a turkey named Tom and a Golden retriever named Piper.
Lockwood and his family reside in Skaneateles.