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| Zoo man turns in his keys | ||||||
| Only Ah Meng the orang utan can claim to be better known than Bernard Harrison, who is leaving after 29 years at the zoo | ||||||
OTHER than Ah Meng the orang utan, Mr Bernard Harrison is the
best-known face of the Singapore Zoo .
His resignation announcement yesterday, just six months before the zoo's 30th birthday bash, shocked both his employees and tourism-industry players. Mr Harrison, the chief executive officer of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, parent company of the three animal parks here, will end 29 years of service in September to start his own consultancy firm. His second-in-charge, Dr Ho Yew Kee, will step into the position until a new CEO is appointed. Malaysian-born Mr Harrison joined the zoo as an assistant administrative officer in 1973, when he was a fresh-faced graduate from the University of Manchester. The zoology major with a black, Tarzan-like mop of hair started out cleaning enclosures and filing documents. Within two years, he had worked his way up to curator and assistant director. He was promoted to chief executive six years later. In 2000, when the zoo, Night Safari and BirdPark were merged, he was named as CEO of the wildlife group. In almost three decades with the animal park, he has seen Ah Meng suffer a miscarriage, handled a hippo-escape crisis and come face to face with an agitated panther. The panther drama happened in 1975, in the narrow tunnel of a ship that was still under construction. The wild cat had been dumped by an animal trader who could not find a buyer, and Mr Harrison was called in to handle the emergency when shipyard workers came across the beast. He ended the scare by using a tranquilliser gun to subdue the animal. Besides pioneering the open-zoo concept that the Singapore Zoo is famous for today, Mr Harrison helped conceive the Night Safari in 1994 - the world's first night zoo. Seated at his CEO's desk yesterday, in front of a photograph of himself in an embrace with Ah Meng, he told The Straits Times that he had wrestled for six months with the 'very, very difficult' decision of quitting. The idea of leaving struck him on New Year's Eve last year, when he was celebrating his birthday at his bungalow in Brighthill Crescent, near Thomson Road. 'I thought about it on my 50th birthday. I used to think that I would live until 120, 130,' said Mr Harrison, the father of a 13-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl. But as he blew out the candles that night, he realised he was unlikely to have that luxury. 'I thought that if I wanted to do something, I'd better get on with it.' That 'something' will be a one-man zoology consultancy company called Bernard Harrison and Friends, which will specialise in zoo design, planning and operations. Mr Harrison denied he is leaving because of a strained relationship with Wildlife Reserves Singapore chairman Kwa Soon Bee. The tension is rumoured to be over the less-than-impressive profits the three parks have made in recent years. He dismissed the speculation, saying: 'I don't think that is correct. Boards and CEOs always have their differences, but that is not a major problem. I could go on for many, many years, like most CEOs do.' Mr Harrison, whose Tarzan-mop is now streaked with grey, said he would probably be best remembered as a boss who trusts his staff to do their work, and for letting visitors get close to the animals. He said he would miss the morning walks in the park and his colleagues. 'I really do like the staff. A lot of us grew up together. We were like a kampung. 'And Ah Meng. Obviously I'll miss her, because she is such a great lady.'
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Copyright © 2002 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved. |
