Six Flags Executive Resigning

In today's Tulsa World:

Six Flags executive resigning for health reasons:
Six Flags Inc., owner of 39 amusement parks in North America and Europe, said Wednesday that Chief Operating Officer and President Gary Story has Type 1 diabetes and is resigning to spend more time with his family.

Story, who has been with the company 20 years, will become a special adviser to Chairman and Chief Executive Kieran Burke at the end of this year, The Oklahoma City-based company said.

Six Flags operates amusement parks that include Six Flags Magic Mountain and Six Flags Great America. *** Edited 11/27/2003 2:22:21 PM UTC by Zingo***

Here is another link about the same thing.

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/031126/1752001109_2.html

Yes, its unfortunate the reasons that it happened, but perhaps this will bring some new blood into the mix and get some new ideas on "righting the ship" at SFI. The only thing that bugged me was the creation of another Veep position according to the Yahoo article. Just seems like more higher salaries to be paid with the money that could be going to pay off the debt. Perhaps some things never change (and some do).

They said they're adding a new vice-president position, not a new COO position. They will pay the new vice president much less than a new COO. So what are you talking about?

So who do you think will be appointed COO then? please say it's not gonna be Burke.

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. As I said, they're creating a new "veep" position - Vice President = veep - which will require more pay than the previous arrangement for those business decisions, i.e. - left up to the regional managers. I never said anything about a new COO.

A Veep's salary is not a "recoverable" salary - its just like overhead for a contractor (or IS overhead depending on your size). That's just one more layer of beauracracy (butchered I know) for the company, and one more high salary that could have been put towards a new coat of paint for SFGAdv, or some fountains to move the water and discourage algae at SFWoA. Seems like the poor business decisions keep on coming in ...

Story is going to he head of IAAPA...apparently his diabetes isn't so bad that he can't still work in some capacity.

Yes, and it seems as if they're not immediately filling Gary Story's position, but rather just distributing the responsibilities among five executive vice-presidents.

That means now they're essentially (albeit probably temporarily) eliminating the 2nd highest salary in the corporation and only replacing it with a new Vice President position, which will pay considerably less than the COO position.

These are not real figures, but let's assume the COO is paid 1,000,000 annually and a VP (veep!) position is paid 300,000k annually. If they replace the COO position and distribute the responsibilities among 4 existing VPs and one new VP then they're saving 700,000k annually. This is, of course, assuming the position remains vacant for a full year.

We'll see what happens when they decide to choose a new COO. And thanks, but I know what "veep" means. It's shorter to type VP, though.

And Batwingfan should realize Kieran Burke is the Chief Executive Officer. That means he's the highest-ranking official in the company. He holds a higher position than Gary Story, so obviously he won't be stepping down. *** Edited 12/1/2003 6:56:01 AM UTC by VolcanoTBC***

It's kinda funny actually, alot of the Cedar Fair folks are dissapointed he's leaving too: They were hoping he would keep working his magic at Six Flags for years to come, seeing as how he's done great things for Cedar Fair without meaning too.

What a sad way to have to resign... I feel bad for him and hope that he will get the treatment and TLC he needs to help him with his T1D.

That said... GOOD D*** RIDDENCE! Get someone in there who cares about Customer Service... oh wait, the company is way too far in the red... hmmm I guess they'll just have to hire someone who can solve all their financial problems by outsourcing their technical support... er RIDE MAINTANENCE to a foreign land... ala too many Tech Companies I could mention...

-Escher (who has nothing against foreign lands, but still didn't appreciate losing his job to one... TWICE).

If you read the news articles, it appears that the COO Position has been eliminated. It says that the VP's will now report to the CEO.

Carlo

I think most of you have no idea what you're talking about. Story was the only one of the three chief executives who was a career industry guy. The CEO and CFO are a lawyer and banker, and I wouldn't be surprised if they answer to more of the same on the board. Clearly their only goals in the last decade were to grow the business without thinking one bit about how to sustain the business.

The existing VP's, and presumably the new one, are all industry people. Having them all answer to Burke, without Story to fight their battles in the board room, doesn't exactly strike me as a winning move for the company. It's all pointless speculation on my part, but I've seen what happens in public companies with people not qualified to steer the ship at the top because I've worked at such companies.

I doubt any real good can come of this.

Gary Story seems like a rather respected industry veteran. Look at what the guy has accomplished from grunt to COO of SFI and now president of IAAPA. Not just anyone gets elected to that post. There are two people in senior management at SFI that have a financial background and neither one of them can keep the finances straight. Why is Gary Story to blame for the SFI financial woes?

.. as for Gary becoming the president of IAAPA. It's a yearly thing. The presidency is something that is changed every year. Clark was this year. Gary next year.

I wouldn't be too surprised to see someone from the PA. area in the next 2 years.

.. and someone from Ohio in the next 4..

Just my personal opinion....

Actually, the next few IAAPA chairpersons are already set. Each of the vice chairs eventually works their way up to chair. Check the IAAPA site to see who's up next.