Michael Crowther

Michael I. Crowther (born 1952) is a retired American zoological conservationist. He was appointed president and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis Zoo in 2002 and retired in January, 2020. He was previously president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey State Aquarium. Crowther is known as creator of the Indianapolis Prize, an award for animal conservation. The Indianapolis Prize is widely regarded as the world's leading award in the field of animal conservation. The Michael I. Crowther Conservation Forum is a part of the biennial Indianapolis Prize programming and features a moderated discussion with both the most recent Indianapolis Prize winner and the winner of the Indianapolis Prize Emerging Conservationist Award.https://www.indianapoliszoo.com/prize/events/

In 2017, Crowther began working with officials of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) to develop a new resource for adding efficiency and accountability to the SSC's Assess-Plan-Act model of conservation. Crowther's plan for a Global Center for Species Survival, bringing key full-time specialist group coordinators together to manage the SSC's projects, was signed into agreement at the SSC's Annual Leaders Meeting in Abu Dhabi on October 7, 2019, and the Center opened on the Indianapolis Zoo campus in 2021 with startup funding from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. Provided by Wikipedia