Sea World’s Gault Garners a Promotion

Sea World of California President Robert K. Gault Jr. has been named vice president of operations for St. Louis-based Busch Entertainment Corp., which owns Sea World parks in Florida, Texas, California and Ohio, as well as several other amusement parks in Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Gault, 47, will move to St. Louis as soon as a replacement is named at the Sea World aquatic park on Mission Bay in San Diego.

The appointment was announced along with a handful of other management changes at Busch Entertainment that were “designed to take advantage of the strong theme park management experience existing within our company,” said August A. Busch III, chairman and president of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.

Gault joined Sea World 25 years ago as a park host in San Diego. He also served as manager of Sea World of Florida in Orlando and Sea World of Ohio, near Cleveland.

In his new position, Gault will oversee the Sea World zoological group, as well as most of the company’s other parks.

Gault said his appointment “came after we’d gone through an acquisition/transition period . . . during which we learned a lot about Busch Entertainment. We’re hopefully bringing together the best resources from (both companies) to help the overall corporation grow.”

Gault said a new park president will be named in San Diego before the start of the upcoming summer season.