Dr. David Jones - Host Biography

Dr. David Jones is director of the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. He is a veterinarian and zoologist by training and worked with the Zoological Society of London for 25 years before becoming its chief executive officer. Dr. Jones came to North Carolina in 1994.

Dr. Jones is former chairman of one of the world’s oldest conservation organizations, Fauna and Flora International, served as chairman of the conservation committee of the World Wildlife Fund in the United Kingdom and is on the council of both the World Wildlife Fund U.K. and U.S. He has consulted in over 50 countries, has been involved with the design, development and management of some 30 zoos, and has written more than 100 reviewed scientific papers and numerous popular articles.

Dr. Jones has a particular interest in the links between conservation, natural resource management and rural economic development worldwide, and is chairman of two rural development groups in North Carolina. He believes that stewardship of natural resources will only succeed if people come to understand the links between their well being, the economy and the environment. Many of the programs that the North Carolina Zoo undertakes are directed toward making these linkages.