ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES ON THE PERMANENT DIRECTORATE

Two changes only this year:


Adam Davies has been appointed to the post of Expeditions Co-ordinator. He has many years experience planning and carrying out cryptozoological investigations, and has de facto been doing this job for the CFZ since 2008. I am actually mildly embarrassed that it has taken so long to make this official.


Max Blake is now Deputy Zoological Director. This is particularly important as Richard Freeman will probably be taking a sabbatical relatively soon for family reasons. Both Richard and I have every faith in Max, who - though young - is shaping into a fine zoologist.


I think, however, that I should clear up a few misconceptions about what the role of Zoological Director actually means. For some years we have been planning a Visitor Centre with a significant collection of living exhibits. I appointed Richard Freeman as Zoological Director in 2004, (having pinched the concept, as I have pinched so much else, from Gerald Durrell), because Richard was (and is) in charge of the CFZ animals. He is perfectly qualified for the job as he has a City and Guilds in Animal Management (from the Education Centre at Twycross Zoo in 1988). He is also one of the most knowledgeable animal people I have ever met (being overtaken, in my experience, only by Graham Smith and the late Clinton Keeling).

Richard studied Zoology at Leeds University from 1996, but dropped out part way through his third year because he became disillusioned with the course. He doesn't have a Doctorate either. It amused me the other day to have to explain to a highly entertained Adam Davies that his one-time email Dr3uk@hotmail.co.uk (don't try using it, it doesn't work any more) was because of Richard's admiration for the third Dr Who, Jon Pertwee, and not for any more academic reason. The idea that I have falsified Richard's educational attainments in order to bolster up the academic stature of the CFZ is laughable. I don't care what qualifications people have; indeed some of the biggest idiots I know are the most qualified. It is what people know, and how they apply this knowledge that matters, and Richard is - as I have already said - one of the most highly knowlegeable animal people I know.