SeaWorld chooses outsider to lead the theme park company

A year after its former chief executive resigned, SeaWorld on Tuesday named Gustavo (Gus) Antorcha, a top executive with Carnival Cruise Lines, as the Orlando-based company’s new CEO.

Interim CEO John Reilly, a former president of the San Diego park and who some believed was a strong contender for the job, was named chief operating officer for the theme park company. The announcement, the company said, followed a thorough search process led by a special committee of the board of directors.

“We are thrilled to welcome Gus to the SeaWorld team,” said Yoshikazu Maruyama, chairman of the board of directors. “Gus is a proven leader with broad experiences in the travel and leisure industries. His unique combination of strategy, operations and leadership skills make him the right person to lead SeaWorld through its next phase of growth.

“Gus helped deliver strong financial results and improved guest satisfaction at Carnival by leading efforts to optimize pricing, improve onboard marketing and communications, introduce new guest experiences and drive capital and cost efficiencies — all core to SeaWorld’s current strategy.”

Most recently chief operating officer with Carnival, Antorcha has been with the cruise line for more than eight years. Prior to joining Carnival, he was a partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group, a global strategy and management consulting firm, where he helped clients with their operational strategies in the travel and leisure industries. He graduated from Duke University and subsequently earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

His appointment is effective Feb. 18.

Said Antorcha in a statement, “I am excited to join the SeaWorld team ...The organization has an outstanding group of dedicated employees who, together, have a clear focus on improving execution, enhancing the guest experience and growing revenue, profitability and free cash flow. I look forward to working with this talented group to enhance and accelerate these efforts and to help realize the full potential of this business for all stakeholders.

Antorcha, who will become SeaWorld’s third CEO in four years, replaces Joel Manby, who stepped down last year after failing to deliver a rebound in sliding attendance and revenue that have dogged the company years after the release of the anti-animal captivity film “Blackfish.” Over the last year, though, the company and its 12 theme parks have seen a significant upsurge in revenue and visitation as it continues to invest more money in theme park attractions, including what will be the third new roller coaster at the San Diego park by next year.

Under his employment agreement, Antorcha will earn an annual base salary of $600,000, plus the opportunity for an annual bonus of up to 150 percent of his salary, half of which would be in cash and the other half SeaWorld stock. He also is eligible for long-term stock options, restricted stock and performance stock with an estimated value of $11.5 million, according to the agreement.

Wall Street analyst James Hardiman said he was not surprised by the choice, although many believed Reilly had been in the running for the chief executive post. The company’s stock price has nearly doubled during the time he has led the company. Before being named interim CEO, Reilly held the title of chief parks operations officer.

“I thought he was a contender but it’s not shocking that he didn’t get it,” Hardiman said.

He added that from a business perspective, the cruise and theme park industries are not all that dissimilar. He noted, for example, that Matt Ouimet, the former CEO of Cedar Park, which operates 11 theme parks, had at one time been a president of Disney Cruise Line.

“With the cruise business and amusement park business, you’re just trying to maximize what you can get for the capacity available to you in the business you’re in,” Hardiman said.

With the new CEO appointment, SeaWorld, reaps the benefit of both executives, each with different types of expertise, said theme park analyst Bob Boyd.

While Antorcha does not have experience in the amusement park business, he worked for a company that had to weather — and then recover from — some hard times, just as SeaWorld has had to do. In past years, some of Carnival’s ships suffered a number of widely publicized mishaps, including in 2013 when the Carnival Triumph lost power and was adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for four days. Elevators malfunctioned and raw sewage backed up in the ship’s bathrooms, leading many to refer to the incident as the “poop cruise.”

“SeaWorld ended up in an ideal scenario where they bring in an outsider with a lot of experience, especially brand-oriented experience,” said Boyd. “Carnival has had a lot of issues in the past and they have been able to turn around most of those issues. And SeaWorld also gets to keep the interim CEO, with him now taking over the chief operating officer role.”

Boyd added that just because SeaWorld experienced a notable rebound in the last year, there is still much to do to not only sustain its business but also grow it in the face of considerable competition for consumers’ discretionary dollars.

“Just like a cruise ship, it takes quite a while to move a theme park business,” Boyd added. “I think the new CEO will take incremental steps as opposed to broad sweeping changes. SeaWorld has had one solid year after several not so good years so it will take a while for it to get back to the performance levels of several years ago.”

lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-2251

Twitter: @loriweisberg