A former high-flying diplomat who is a close friend of George Osborne has quit as the head of London zoo after the launch of an investigation into his “unacceptable workplace behaviour”.
Matthew Gould, who previously worked in Downing Street and as ambassador to Israel, resigned as chief executive of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) last week.
In a letter to staff, ZSL’s chair of trustees, Jim Smith, wrote that an “investigation into claims of unacceptable workplace behaviour found that Matthew Gould’s conduct fell below the standard we expect. He resigned before this investigation had concluded.
“We are committed to living up to our values at every level of the organisation and ensuring a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace for everyone.”
Smith said the executive director of ZSL, which runs London zoo and Whipsnade zoo in Bedfordshire, had stepped in as interim chief executive and was “focused on leading an organisation with honesty, integrity and accountability at its heart”.
No further details were provided. At the top of Gould’s LinkedIn account, he has written: “Plotting my next move”.
A spokesperson for ZSL confirmed the contents of the letter to staff. She said: “This investigation was not related to ZSL’s financial operations. This matter was addressed promptly and appropriately, and there are no wider implications for our staff or operations. We are not sharing any further details on an internal matter.”
The spokesperson added: “ZSL’s work continues unchanged and we are committed to maintaining a culture that lives up to our values and ensuring the organisation continues to be a supportive and respectful place to work.”
The resignation comes at a difficult time for ZSL, before its bicentennial in 2026 and at a point when cuts to aid funding by the Trump administration and the UK government has forced it to look for savings.
In October, it launched a voluntary redundancy scheme in an effort to reduce costs by £2m a year. Gould said at the time he could not rule out compulsory redundancies but he was “doing everything possible” to avoid them.
The 54-year-old has known Osborne since they were both members of the same chess club at St Paul’s, a public school in west London, and spoke at the former chancellor’s wedding to Thea Rogers in 2023.
Before joining ZSL, Gould was a career civil servant with a glittering array of top government positions. After eight years in junior roles in the Foreign Office, including as speech writer to the then Labour foreign secretary, Robin Cook, he moved to Downing Street in 2007 to be private secretary for foreign affairs at the end of Tony Blair’s premiership.
Postings followed in Islamabad, Tehran and Washington DC and five years as the British ambassador to Israel.
During the Covid pandemic, he had a central role as the first chief executive of NHSX, the health service’s digital innovations wing, a position to which he was appointed by the then health secretary, Matt Hancock, who was also a former chief of staff to Osborne.
Gould joined ZSL in September 2022 and told the Daily Telegraph in an interview in 2023 that he stayed in London during the week before rejoining his wife, Celia, a photographer and textile designer, and two daughters at their home in Somerset at the weekend.
Speaking of his time at the centre of government during the pandemic, he said: “I found [that] trying to do really difficult things under immense pressure with a massive spotlight of public, internet, media and parliamentary scrutiny was really difficult.
“I think it’s harder to be a public figure now. The respect has gone down. The suspicion and the scrutiny has [increased]. Back then, you needed a thick skin, but now you have to be a pretty strong character to survive the presumption of ill intent and constant searching for evidence of wrongdoing. And the constant knowledge that at any point somebody might pour a bucket of ordure over your head.”
Of his job at ZSL, Gould said: “I don’t want to say for ever, but I can’t see anything I’d rather be doing.”
