Dr. Joel Parrott - President & CEO
Dr. Joel Parrott, President & CEO of Oakland Zoo received his BS and DVM degrees from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. Born in the Adirondack region of New York State, Dr. Parrott spent his high school years in Miami, Florida before moving to Colorado to attend college. Upon graduation from veterinary school, he completed an internship at the Denver Zoo and later went into private practice in Castro Valley, California. His specialty is exotic animals and he was a consulting veterinarian for Oakland Zoo until 1984, when he became the Staff Veterinarian and Assistant Director. A year later, he became the Executive Director at Oakland Zoo. Dr. Parrott has overseen many new developments at the Zoo in the past twenty five years.
An avid conservationist and naturalist, he views the role of zoos as instrumental to environmental education.
As Chief Financial Officer, Nik directs institution-wide financial functions with a focus on accounting, planning and information technology. Responsible for evaluating, directing, implementing and communicating approved plans, he also manages strategic and operating plans/budgets. In his previous position at Oakland Zoo, Nik served as Director of Strategic Initiatives where he led planning of the Zoo’s transformational California Trail, a three-stage, multi-million dollar project that includes a new Veterinary Hospital (opened in 2012), a Biodiversity Center (opening Summer 2013), and the California Trail scheduled to open in 2016.
Nik began his career in the non-profit sector, working in international public policy at the World Resources Institute, World Bank and corporate responsibility at Business for Social Responsibility. After developing and growing a program that helps social entrepreneurs access capital, Nik moved to the commercial world at Levi Strauss & Co. Nik holds an MBA from U.C. Berkeley and an undergraduate from Vassar College. A 15-year resident in the Bay Area and a father of two, Nik lives in Alameda.
Nancy Filippi joined Oakland Zoo in the summer of 2006 as the Director, Marketing / PR and in January 2010 became Managing Director, Operations and Marketing. Since 1980, Nancy has worked with Fortune 500 companies focusing on brand development, new product launch campaigns, promotional marketing and advertising. Her experience spans from national director of marketing / media / advertising with a major broadcast company to alliance relationship management, leveraged media promotions in television, radio and print for worldwide theme parks. She has developed consumer-based programs providing informed product awareness, charted the course of newly introduced national products, industry offerings, package design, shelf-space proclivity, sales campaigns, creative marketing and advertising campaign development. In her new post she manages food and beverage, retail, zoo rides and group services in addition to her continuing role in the Marketing/PR department. She also is heavily involved in strategizing to improve the visitor experience at the Zoo. She is a recipient of numerous awards in the consumer packaged goods industry, as well as the "Legacy Award" from the "Business Women's Network" in Washington, D.C., Nancy holds a B.A. in Business with an emphasis in Marketing.
