The Grill: San Diego Zoo CTO Robert Erhardt on the Hot Seat

The San Diego Zoo's CTO talks about saving species from extinction, developing a worldwide medical database for animals and tracking condors with RFID.

By Robert L. Mitchell

September 10, 2007 12:00 PM ET

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Computerworld - Robert Erhardt is chief technology officer for the Zoological Society of San Diego, which operates the San Diego Zoo, its Wild Animal Park, the Beckman Center for Conservation Research and the Foundation for the Zoological Society. Prior to joining the Zoological Society in 2001, he was CIO at Disney Regional Entertainment.

What brought you to the zoo? We spent a lot of time vacationing in San Diego and spent a lot of time at the zoo. When the call came, I said, Gee whiz, that's a tough one to pass up. The second thing was Disney was changing its strategy to shift to more of a Microsoft model, where they are selling intellectual property and not getting into brick-and-mortar businesses. It wasn't going to be the same business environment going forward, so I was up for another challenge. I like to tell people I left a Mickey Mouse organization to come to a place that's a real zoo.

What's the most fun thing about this job? Every day, we're having an impact on the future of species survival around the world. Because of habitat destruction and natural and man-made environmental issues, we have become the last opportunity for some species to survive. There aren't many jobs you can go to and have that kind of a mission in front of you.

Dossier

Name: Robert Erhardt

Title: Chief technology officer

Company: Zoological Society of San Diego

Technology he can’t do without: The Internet

Favorite nonwork pastime: "We like to camp a lot. Also, amateur astronomy. We'll go out to the desert in the fall when it's clear and see how far we can reach with our little telescope."

Role model: "Abraham Lincoln. When I look at the problems I have to solve in the ZIMS project, they pale in comparison to the problems he had to solve in getting through his presidency."

Favorite vice: " I never met a cheeseburger I didn't like"

Last book read: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

What does a CTO do for a zoo? It's several businesses rolled into one. We have front-of-house things like ticket sales and merchandise sales and food service sales, and point-of-sale and inventory systems to support all of those. Then you have catering opportunities with people using the zoo as a venue for events.

Then you get into the next layer, which is the animal care layer. That's where I've had the most challenge and the most interest from a technology perspective.

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