Matthew Ouimet Added as Executive Cedar Fair

[SeaCastle]

Matt never worked at WDW. He was the President of the Disney Cruise Line in the late 1990's until 2003. In October, 2003 he was announced as the President of the Disneyland Resort on the very same day that Cynthia Harriss suddenly "resigned" to "spend more time with my family" as an unmarried woman with no children.

Matt Ouimet was President of the Disneyland Resort from '03 until '06, when he left the Disney Company entirely to be the President of Starwood Hotels (Westin, W Hotel, Sheraton, etc.). The closest he ever got to working at WDW was when he was with the Cruise Line out of Port Canaveral, and as I understand it they have their own separate management offices there.

From what I understand, Matt could have stayed on longer with Disney, but backroom politics and his clashing with Jay Rasulo ensured that his contract would not be renewed after his three year term was up.

 

[Monster]

Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Knott's, and Carowinds all started as theme parks. I hope Matt can return some of the old themes.

 

[mickey2008.1]

 

[mickey2008.1]

It appears he did quite a bit more than the cruise line and a 3 year stint at DL. Great news for cedar fair, great parks in ohio are about to get better.

 

[Brian Noble]

What excites me about this is that Cedar Point, especially when I worked there, was so behind the times in usage of technology and in leadership styles. Hopefully Matt can bring some more 21st century tech to the park (from what I understand this will be the first year guests staying at Cedar Point hotels will be able to make charges to their room keys) along with a more employee-friendly approach to leadership.

This, exactly. Heck, I think they still do resort charges on paper-forms-in-triplicate. And, while it's good to have a hands-on and involved leadership, you also have to empower your people to make decisions---and that's not at all what Cedar Fair is known for.

"They were known in the industry for being superb operators but also superb financial performers," Matthew Oiumet said in an interview Monday. "We were envious."

Prior to taking on all the debt of the Paramount acquisition, Cedar Fair had a better margin than Disney P&R. And, in terms of EBITDA, they might still, but I haven't checked in a while.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

And, while it's good to have a hands-on and involved leadership, you also have to empower your people to make decisions---and that's not at all what Cedar Fair is known for.

What I meant more was a leadership style that was employee-focused. For example, in the rides LOB at Cedar Point, there are about 60-something rides in the park divided in 4 zones and 2 areas (2 zones per area).

For the entire park there are 4 rides managers. 1 for each area and then two others that oversee the entire park. That doesn't lend itself well to good management/front line relations. If you're front line there and you get asked to talk to a manager, it's never anything good. And then you'll be lucky if they even know your name.

What I'm hoping Matt does is divvy up the workload significantly, maybe hire on more managers so that individual workloads aren't as overwhelming. It would inevitably lead to a better guest experience because the employees would be happier due to their better relationship with management instead of constantly living in fear of seeing them in the area (again, never a good sign if you work there).