NEWS RELEASE RECOGNIZED NICE GUY JOINS ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BOARD

A bank chairman and active member of the community will take his seat as a Zoological Society of San Diego Board of Trustee for the first time during the Board's monthly meeting on Tuesday. Robert B. Horsman, named "Nice Guy" of 2002 by Nice Guys of San Diego, is now one of 12 business leaders who set the strategic direction of the nonprofit organization that operates the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.

     "The Zoological Society of San Diego Board of Trustees has a long history of attracting talented business people," said Douglas Myers, Zoological Society of San Diego chief executive officer. "Mr. Horsman is an exemplary addition who brings the expertise of operating a multi-million dollar company as well as an eye for examining a company's financial health."
     Horsman became regional chairman of U.S. Bank in 2009 after the acquisition of San Diego National Bank. He was an instrumental force at San Diego National Bank since its inception in 1981. Horsman was raised in Texas and received a bachelor's degree in finance/banking from Texas Tech University, but he was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He moved to San Diego in 1970 while in the Naval Reserve.  

     In San Diego, Horsman has been a prudent business man and served the community as a board member of many local organizations including chairman of the Kyoto Prize Symposium in 2009-2010, president of the San Diego Opera Board, director and chair of Scripps Mercy Hospital Foundation Board and co-chair of its $50 Million Campaign, chairman of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and trustee of the University of California San Diego Foundation. Horsman served as vice-chair of the Zoological Society of San Diego Foundation Board from 2008-2010, he was co-chair of the San Diego Zoo's Rendezvous In the Zoo black-tie event in 2007 and, along with his wife, has been a member of the Zoological Society since 1981. Horsman also serves as director of the Texas Tech Foundation Board, his alma mater.

     Horsman takes over the board position recently vacated by George L. Gildred, a past president of the Board, who remains as trustee emeritus. The 2011 Zoological Society board officers include Frederick Frye, M.D., president; Richard Gulley, vice president; Sandra Brue, secretary; and William H. May, treasurer. Besides Horsman and the officers, the board of trustees includes Javade Chaudhri, Berit N. Durler, Weldon Donaldson, Nan Katona, Patricia Roscoe, Judith Wheatley and David S. Woodruff, Ph.D, D.Sc.

     The not-for-profit Zoological Society of San Diego, dedicated to the conservation of endangered species and their habitats, engages in conservation and research work around the globe.  The Zoological Society manages the 100-acre San Diego Zoo, the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo Safari Park (historically referred to as Wild Animal Park ), the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, and receives support from the Foundation of the Zoological Society of San Diego