Thursday, September 19, 2019

Latest SeaWorld Entertainment CEO Exits Role After Brief Stay


© SeaWorld Entertainment
SeaWorld Entertainment's CEO Gustavo Antorch has resigned from his position after only being with the company for around 7 months, it has been announced.  Mr. Antorch seems to have had some disagreements with the company's board of directors which directly led to him resigning.  Marc Swanson, the current CFO, will step in as interim CEO.

Mr. Antorch just joined SeaWorld Entertainment back in February, and at the time his background in the cruise and leisure industry was cited as a potential good sign for the company.  Things have been very quiet since then though, with the head of the company not having much of a public presence since.

Potentially even worse is that over the course of the year we've seen several SeaWorld Entertainment park general managers quit suddenly, which could be a sign of a much larger issue.

The Orlando Sentinel dug up some more information on the story, and it seems the board of directors, led by Scott Ross (who's Hill Path Capital is now a majority owner of the company's shares) is very hands on... too much for other executives it seems.

The article also mentions what many others have said for a long time, that SeaWorld Entertainment is potentially being groomed to be sold.  Efforts to relentlessly cut costs and raise revenues lead many to think the goal isn't to cherish the parks, but to make them more profitable to get a bigger buck when a sale takes place.  All the executives leaving certainly make that plan more plausible.

For now, it seems like ride fans may win out of all of this drama in the short term, as SeaWorld's board is currently a big fan of building coasters and rides at each park instead of focusing on any sort of larger themed expansions or projects.  Long term... well we will have to wait and see.


1 comments:

cola boy said...

I just left SW employment in August. The dysfunction in the technical area I worked was a huge factor. Management not ensuring the day-to-day work was being done properly, and not holding employees accountable for the work they did allowing some to do what they wanted. Why should they? There was no one to reprimand them for it. Add to that the stopping of trash and cleaning services BACKSTAGE for employee offices (bathrooms were excluded) I could see things were not headed in a good direction. The corporate office building that is being built on-site is not finished (September was the move-in date) and I've heard they will be charged big fees for not vacating their off-site offices on time. I like their parks but it is being badly run.