Matt Ouimet | |
---|---|
Born | Matthew Anthony Ouimet 1958 (age 65–66) |
Nationality | American |
Education | BA |
Alma mater | Binghamton University |
Employer | Cedar Fair Entertainment Company |
Title | Executive Chairman |
Matthew Anthony Ouimet (born 1958) is a retired tourism industry executive. Over his 40-plus-year career, Ouimet held leadership positions at both The Walt Disney Company and Cedar Fair Entertainment Company.
Ouimet was born in 1958 in Cooperstown, New York and raised in Unadilla, New York. His first job was working at a grave yard in Unadilla. [1] He graduated from Unatego High School in 1976 [2] and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Binghamton University. [3]
Ouimet started his professional career in 1980 as a certified public accountant at PriceWaterhouse.
Ouimet joined The Walt Disney Company in 1989, [3] starting in finance roles. He served many different parts of the company's theme park business at Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney's Wide World of Sports, and Disney Vacation Club, and as chief financial officer of Disney Development Company (DDC). [4] [3] He was senior vice president of finance and business development for the Walt Disney World Resort until August 1998, when he was transferred to Disney Cruise Line as its senior operating officer. With the resignation of cruise line president Arthur Rodney on August 31, 1999, Ouimet was named as his replacement. [5]
In 2003, Ouimet was appointed president of Disneyland Resort. There he prepared for the resort's 50th anniversary celebration and managed the park's restoration after years of maintenance neglect. [4] In 2006, Ouimet left Disney and was succeeded as president of the Disneyland Resort by Ed Grier in an announcement made July 25. [6]
After leaving Disney, Ouimet joined Starwood as president of the company's hotel group in 2006. He oversaw global operations for more than 850 hotels in 95 countries. [3] In September 2008, he was replaced by Matthew Avril and departed the company. [7]
In December 2008, Ouimet became the president and chief operating officer of Corinthian Colleges, Inc. He announced on October 11, 2010, that he would be leaving Corinthian for personal reasons. [8]
Matt Ouimet was a director of Collective Brands, Inc., where he served on the audit and finance committee. [9]
In June 2011, Ouimet was named president of Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. [3] He assumed the CEO position on January 3, 2012. [10] On October 4, 2017, it was announced by Cedar Fair that Ouimet would be stepping down, having Richard A. Zimmerman succeed him. However, it was also announced that Ouimet would take the newly created role of Executive Chairman. [11]
Ouimet retired in September of 2023. [12]
As of 2023, Ouimet lives in Cananaigua, New York. He is married, has two grown children, and at least one grandchild. [12]
The Tokyo Disney Resort (東京ディズニーリゾート) is a theme park and vacation resort located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, just east of Tokyo. The resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company under a licence from The Walt Disney Company, which constructed and designed the resort and its various attractions through its Imagineering research & development arm.
The Disneyland Resort is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California, United States. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels, and the Downtown Disney shopping, dining, and entertainment district.
Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, or simply Cedar Fair, was an American company headquartered at its flagship Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The company was a publicly traded master limited partnership that originally formed in 1983 following Cedar Point's acquisition of Valleyfair, in which the name of both parks were combined to form the name Cedar Fair. By 2006, the company's portfolio had grown to eleven amusement parks, eleven outdoor water parks, and one indoor water park in the US and Canada. The acquisition of Schlitterbahn added two more outdoor water parks in 2019.
Magic Kingdom Park is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It opened on October 1, 1971, and is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. The official park name has changed slightly over the years, from Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017). The park was initialized by Walt Disney and designed by WED Enterprises. The park layout and attractions were based on Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and are dedicated to fairy tales and Disney characters.
Disney Parks have utilized virtual queue systems since the introduction of the FastPass System in 1999. These systems allow theme park visitors to wait in a virtual queue for an attraction, reducing the time spent in line. Depending on the system, access to virtual queues may come with park admission or may be an additional charge. Currently available virtual queue systems are Disney Genie at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World, and Disney Premier Access at Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, and Shanghai Disney Resort. Previous systems include FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass.
The Walt Disney Travel Company is the company name for the services The Walt Disney Company employ to help guests book tickets and reservations for the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts around the world. Travel agencies currently book their vacation packages through the Walt Disney Travel Company.
Marriott International, Inc. is an American multinational company that operates, franchises, and licenses lodging brands that include hotel, residential, and timeshare properties. Marriott International owns over 36 hotel and timeshare brands with 9,000 locations and 1,597,380 rooms across its network. Marriott International is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The company is the successor to the hospitality division of the Marriott Corporation, founded by J. Willard Marriott (1900–1985) and his wife Alice Marriott (1907–2000).
Disney Experiences, commonly known as Disney Parks, is one of the three major divisions of The Walt Disney Company. It was founded on April 1, 1971, exactly six months before the opening of Walt Disney World.
The Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is a resort built and owned by Hong Kong International Theme Parks Limited, a joint venture of the Government of Hong Kong and The Walt Disney Company in Hong Kong on reclaimed land beside Penny's Bay, at the northeastern tip of Lantau Island, approximately two kilometres (1.2 mi) from Discovery Bay. It is the second Disney Resort in Asia. Officially opened on 12 September 2005, the resort contains the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park, the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, Disney's Hollywood Hotel, Disney Explorers Lodge and several retail, dining and entertainment facilities covering 1.3 square kilometres of the island.
The Happiest Homecoming on Earth or the Happiest Celebration on Earth was the eighteen-month-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Disneyland theme park, which opened on July 17, 1955. It commemorated fifty years of Disney theme parks and celebrated Disneyland's milestone throughout Disney parks all over the globe. The "Homecoming" name was only used for Disneyland Resort; all the other Disney Parks resorts used the "Celebration" name.
Martin A. "Marty" Sklar was a scriptwriter and construction developer. He was The Walt Disney Company's international ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering, the subsidiary of the company which designs and constructs Disney theme parks and resorts across the world. He was formerly vice president of Concepts and Planning for the company, before being promoted to president, then vice chairman and principal creative executive before his final role. Disney honored him with a Disneyland window dedication ceremony on his date of retirement, July 17, 2009.
The Oriental Land Company, Limited, also known as Oriental Land is a Japanese leisure and tourism subsidiary of the Keisei Electric Railway Company, headquartered in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan where it also owns and operates the Tokyo Disney Resort. The company operates in three segments, divided as theme parks, hotels, and other business. It is a component of the TOPIX Large70 index.
Jack Lindquist was an American business executive who served as president of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California from 1990 until he retired in 1993. He was a Disney employee from 1955 until his retirement, and was a marketing executive in the theme parks division for almost thirty years, including a stint as the first advertising manager for Disneyland. His eventual reach would extend worldwide, having trained and/or greatly influenced others who would become amusement industry leaders, both inside and outside of the Disney attractions. Among the amusement industry, many have credited Lindquist with founding and greatly expanding the arts and sciences of attraction promotion.
Ronald Logan was an American businessman who served as executive vice president of Walt Disney Entertainment. After retiring from the company in 2001, he was formally a professor at the University of Central Florida Rosen College of Hospitality Management in Orlando, Florida, United States.
William Ernest is the former CEO of Saudi Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN) Company. He had previously had occupied the role of president and managing director, Asia, for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. He assumed this role in April 2008 and retired in early 2018 after a nearly 24-year career with Disney. Ernest was formerly the executive vice president and managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Ernest was named to the position in January 2006, replacing Disney veteran Don Robinson. Previously, Ernest served as managing director of operations at the Hong Kong resort.
Edward Arthur Grier is the dean of the Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business. Before coming to SCU, he was the dean at VCU, and before that he was an executive at The Walt Disney Company.
Meg Gilbert Crofton is an American businesswoman, who served as president of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts in the United States and France. She was named to the position on August 7, 2006, replacing Al Weiss, who had been promoted to president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in November 2005.
Walt Disney Attractions Japan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, one of four sectors of the American entertainment conglomerate The Walt Disney Company.
Disneyland is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, and opened on July 17, 1955.
Djuan Rivers was the Vice President of Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World from 2014 until May of 2021. He previously served as Vice President for Hotels and Business Solutions at Disneyland Paris after having been General Manager of the Disney Aulani Resort & Spa in Hawaii. He was one of the most senior African Americans in the Walt Disney Company during his tenure.
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