INTHEBLACK October 2026 - Magazine - Page 15
Christine Tipton CPA left
consulting and for-profit work
to build a leadership career
focused on long-term public
value and conservation impact.
Zoos Victoria’s finance team
balances immediate financial
pressures with conservation
commitments that can stretch
30 to 40 years into the future.
As generative AI transforms
finance functions, Tipton
says leaders must ensure
employees are supported
and not left behind.
MEET THE CFO
Paws, claws
and cashflow
Zoos Victoria CFO Christine Tipton CPA
balances daily financial pressures with
conservation commitments that span
decades. Along the way, she must
help guide a commercially driven
organisation through inflation,
changing visitor behaviours and the
rise of AI.
As told to Chris Sheedy
Photography Jarrod Barnes
MY ROLE
Long-term strategy
My role is to support Zoos Victoria
to continue its incredible conservation
work saving brink-of-extinction species,
provide the highest degree of welfare for
our zoo animals and deliver amazing visitor
experiences for families in our zoos.
There are different styles of finance
leadership. I think of us as enablers, as
partners. We help our zoos do amazing things.
We are a vehicle that can help make incredible
things happen, which means we have to work
very collaboratively.
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