MIKE BARCLAY

CEO, MANDAI WILDLIFE GROUP

ADVOCATE FOR CONSERVATION AND HELMSMAN OF AWARD-WINNING PARKS

Mike Barclay is the chief executive of Mandai Wildlife Group, which manages Singapore’s five wildlife parks: the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Wonders, and the upcoming Bird Paradise and Rainforest Wild, which are scheduled to open in 2022 and 2024 respectively.

The five parks, collectively called the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, are key to the transformation of the Mandai area into an integrated wildlife and nature precinct, with all the attractions located close to one another. Mandai Wildlife Group, which was previously known as Wildlife Reserves Singapore, changed its corporate identity in October 2021.

Barclay was CEO of Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) before joining the then Wildlife Reserves Singapore in 2015. He restructured SDC and grew visitorship to Sentosa, Singapore’s resort island, from 5.6 million in 2007 to almost 20 million in 2013. He also worked with Singapore Airlines for 16 years, holding various portfolios around the world that culminated in his 2004 appointment as CEO of Silkair.

Barclay intends to continue the group’s conservation efforts with Mandai Nature, a non-profit set up in association with Temasek in December 2020. Mandai Wildlife Group supports various conservation projects involving species such as freshwater crabs and orangutans.

DID YOU KNOW?

About a quarter of the 1,000 species housed across the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Wonders and Bird Paradise are classified as threatened with extinction.