Matt Ouimet departs Cedar Fair board

It's no secret that I greatly admire this guy, and felt smarter for every minute of his time I had the privilege of sharing. He fundamentally changed Cedar Fair when it desperately needed changing.

Effective immediately seems awful sudden. Why wouldn't he have said 6 months ago - hey everyone I am going to retire from the board, maybe you should think about bringing someone else up to speed to fill my shoes? Did something happen to make this an immediate decision?

He took Kinzel’s rides and then filled in every other area the park was missing. Shame he is leaving. He understood the overall experience and not just another record breaker.

I don't think he's been driving decisions for a long time, as non-chair. But stuff comes up, people do other things. I imagine that outside of any boards he was on, he's been mostly retired.

This does seem very sudden. He was just re-elected to a 3 year term at the end of May. If he had been contemplating stepping down, I'm surprised he ran for re-election 3 months ago.

At 65, I can't imagine he'd be starting in a full-time executive role with a new company which might necessitate freeing up his schedule. Outside of any personal issues, I just hope this isn't a disagreement with current strategy/board/management. The press release seemed.... short.... for a transformational CEO who was part of the company for 12 years.

Just seems to be a very, very odd ending for what was an outstanding leader at a pivotal period of time for the company.

Gotta be disagreements over ride capacity chain wide or the price of gold pass at Cedar Point, no?

Is it that hard to take the reason given at face value? It's entirely possible that something suddenly came up that's none of anyone's damn business.

Very sad. Of the 3 different “leadership eras” I’ve seen and invested in (Kinzel/Falfas, Ouimet, Zimmerman) Ouimet was clearly the leader who I feel totally “got it” and everything Cedar Fair has the potential to be and I truly wish he would have stayed longer as CEO. Kinzel/Falfas of course were old school operations guys who ran parks efficiently but missed out on so many opportunities outside of park ops. The Zimmerman era has been a disappointment for me, as a former Paramount Parks exec I can see that influence on his decision making and focus, it’s all revenue-revenue-revenue, centralized management in Charlotte, and heavy data focus at the expense of other things, especially park ops and staffing which has never been more challenging. I hold out hope that someday he will reflect on the past-present-future of Cedar Fair and what it all means from a heritage perspective, but it’s hard to do when you are in Charlotte and not at the crown jewel. Matter of fact, I can’t even recall a time I’ve seen him walk the midways which is telling when Kinzel/Ouimet were often seen in the parks.

He's a fairly private guy. He definitely leaked some "stuff" to me when he was CEO (I assume with trust to keep it to myself), but beyond that he doesn't share a lot. He's also one who has always deflected praise to the people that work for him. I've been weirdly in close proximity to a lot of execs at different jobs, including public companies. None have shown humility the way that Ouimet has. Again, I'm a fan.

It's interesting though to compare the three regimes. Zimmerman has, for the most part, had positive financial results, but he's not scoring "the whole package." Unit holders are not the only stakeholder, customers matter too. Ouimet had both. I would argue that if you get the customers, you get the financial results. I don't understand why execs don't understand that. I've seen it a hundred times. Wall Street has encouraged shortcuts.

When I speak to “the heritage” of Cedar Fair, one thing I think about is the culture of top corporate executives pounding the pavement daily; maybe the corporate team does that at Carowinds but I honestly don’t hear “sighting reports” like the old days when employees/investors/enthusiasts would gleefully say “today I met Kinzel/Ouimet on the midway!” and talk about their interaction. For many that was as exciting as a new coaster. That is one example of the Cedar Fair heritage and culture that can’t be lost, is part of their successful history, and sets them apart from SEAS and SIX. People have a deep emotional connection and sense of pride about this company (especially in Ohio) that I see slipping away under current leadership in exchange for pleasing groups of investors trying to make a quick profit.

Great points. If I recall correctly, Ouimet always stayed Southern California/Knott’s based (tried a year or 2 in western suburbs of Cleveland) but had a much larger presence in Ohio than Zimmerman ever has. He totally got it and I wish he would have stayed longer in the CEO role (crazy to think the incredible impact he had on the company only being in the CEO role for 6 years … 1 year as president at end of Kinzel term, 2 as Executive Chair and last several on the board). But I think his stepping down as CEO in 2017 is a sign of his stewardship of both the company and the people below him.

Gunkey, what you talked about above with Zimmerman’s Paramount “upbringing” being evident, I think it’s exacerbated by him bringing on Tim Fisher as COO. Plus their 2 EVP of Ops being Paramount people. There’s been a clear shift in strategy the past 5 years. One thing I always found so impressive with what Ouimet did is that he did it largely with legacy Cedar Fair people he inherited (he brought a few over with Disney backgrounds like their CMO) but it was mostly legacy Kinzel/CF leaders. He saw the potential and talent, and empowered and guided it. Very few legacy CF people remain in senior roles, almost all legacy Paramount or external hires

What will be interesting to me is the succession planning for Cedar Fair. Both Zimmerman and Fisher are 63. Typically would look at the COO to succeed but both at 63 I’m not sure that’s an option. They could go the CFO route but he’s a legacy CF guy and in Sandusky. Will be an interesting next year or two. For reference, Ouimet stepped down as CEO at 59 and gave signals to the succession plan a year prior naming Zimmerman president.

He lived in Crocker Park for a number of years, because it was between headquarters and the airport. He wasn't shy about visiting the properties.

There is no clear successor, which concerns me

Why he is leaving is his business. Whatever explanation he gives is fine. Accepting his explanation is the respectful thing to do. He was an asset to the company and will be missed nevertheless.

Before he came along, Cedar Fair was infamous for installing big, barely themed attractions like Diamondback, Behemoth etc.

Now Cedar Fair is capable of some of the best regional park theming there is.

All this talk about great park leadership has me thinking way back to the 80’s and 90’s. Jim Wintrode at SF Great America is another example of a guy who just “got it” much like Ouimet. Under his leadership I dare say SFGAm was the crown jewel of the company and it ran as well as CP from my experience. Then the Burke/Story era started with Premier Parks buying SIX from Time-Warner and the golden era of Six Flags ended.

Jeff, to your point earlier about getting the customers…a known quote from Wintrode:

“If you get good team members and treat them right, you're going to have a good business and the guests will be taken care of.” -JW

Sound familiar? So Ouimet.

I can honestly say that my time with Paramount I never felt or sensed the Kinzel/Ouimet/Wintrode culture/heritage of passion, purpose, and appreciation for the emotional connection guests had to those parks. Of course there were good people at PP but it really was just a sub-business that reported to a corporate conglomerate. The PP execs were “managing just another business” in the pyramid of businesses. They could talk financials and data points which was required of them, but the heart/passion/heritage components were minimized or completely missing.

I’m afraid that’s where we are at today with CF. I’d love to hear Zimmerman or even Fisher say I’m wrong, I’d certainly love to see them engaged with the rest of us who aren’t Wall St.

One thing I'll say is I think there is too much emphasis placed on Kinzel being out on the midways greeting guests as a benchmark to find again. Just because a CEO is out doing park walks doesn't mean they are making right choices in the office. Plus - did he really want to greet the guests? Or was it his way of micromanaging the front line folks?

I think we’ve all said over the years that Kinzel was good at two things, coasters and park ops…maybe three if you want to throw in micromanagement. Regardless of his management style, he still was a decent human being and enjoyed interacting with park guests, investors, and employees…especially if he was having a good day.

Eisner and Iger spottings are also examples of what many of us speak of in regards to culture and heritage. Each CEO has his accomplishments and misses, but they knew their business by being “with the people” however you want to define that.

The current GM of Cedar Point doesn't work out of Charlotte and I can count on one hand the # of times I have seen her on the midways; even if I cut my fingers off, because it's zero. Not once. I suppose this could be complete coincidence, but with the number of visits I find that unlikely. I used to run into and have nice brief convo with McClure on nearly every visit. Like Hildebrandt he as just out there roaming around, getting a feel for guests' experience, picking up trash, etc.

Like I said, maybe it's just a coincidence. Or maybe she really did move to Charlotte and stares at the webcams.

As long as the park is doing well I suppose it doesn't matter; it just seems odd not to see that dynamic at the park after it being there for as long as I can remember.

I doubt this is the case, but with Disney struggling to find a successor to Iger I wonder if there is any role back at the Mouse House for Ouimet? It is more likely they seek someone from the entertainment side of the business.