Cassandra Ray

Cassandra Brown Ray, CPA, MBA, joined the Saint Louis Zoo in 1992 as a staff accountant and has served as the Controller/Director of Finance since 1999. In 2019, Ray was named Chief Financial Officer and is responsible for Finance & Accounting, Procurement, Revenue Operations and Record Retention. In addition to these duties she serves as Diversity, Equity, Accessibility & Inclusion team champion. She also works closely with the governance of the Saint Louis Zoo, including the Audit, Investment and Finance committees. Ray serves on the boards of Lindenwood University, DUO DOGS and is a member of the AZA Diversity Committee.

Cassandra was recently selected as a member of the 2021 St. Louis Business Journal’s Most Influential Business Women. She is a graduate of FOCUS Leadership St. Louis (2014) and a member of the inaugural class of the FOCUS Impact Fellows, a team charged with developing and implementing an action plan using the 2015 Ferguson Commission Report as a guideline. She earned her MBA from Lindenwood University and her undergraduate accounting degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Before joining the Zoo, she worked for General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas. Cassandra has been married to her high school sweetheart, Quentin, for 30 years and they have two adult children.