SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Name New Busch Gardens Tampa Park President

Jim Dean replaces Donnie Mills, who is promoted to Chief Operating Officer - Busch Gardens and Sesame Place

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Feb 15, 2010, 02:30 ET

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment has named Jim Dean president of its Tampa, Fla. parks, Busch Gardens and Adventure Island. Dean replaces Donnie Mills, who last week was promoted to Chief Operating Officer – Busch Gardens and Sesame Place for the Orlando-based company.

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Dean is currently Executive Vice President, Retail Operations, a department that oversees culinary operations and merchandise for the company's 10 parks. Prior to that Dean headed the company's finance department.

"Jim has made significant contributions in a variety of roles in this company. His breadth of experience, which spans finance, administration and our in-park revenue departments, will be a tremendous asset for Busch Gardens and Adventure Island," said Jim Atchison, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment President and CEO.

Dean, 52, started his career as a financial analyst in the corporate headquarters of Anheuser-Busch (A-B) in St. Louis, Mo. He transferred to Busch Gardens Tampa as finance manager in 1990 and Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pa. in 1993 as finance vice president. He was promoted in 1998 to executive assistant to John B. Roberts, then-president of Busch Entertainment Corporation (Busch Entertainment became SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment after the December 1, 2009 acquisition by The Blackstone Group). Two years later Dean accepted the head of finance position with A-B's European trade office in London. He returned to the U.S. five years later as vice president of accounting for the U.S. brewing division of A-B. He moved back to the company's theme parks in 2008 as head of finance.

Dean will report to Donnie Mills, whose new responsibilities as COO – Busch Gardens and Sesame Place include oversight of both Busch Gardens parks, Sesame Place, Adventure Island, Water Country USA, the company's Customer Contact Center, Culinary Operations, Safety and Risk Management and Information Technology.

Dean holds an engineering degree from Memphis State University and an MBA from St. Louis University.

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment operates 10 U.S. theme parks: SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld San Diego and SeaWorld San Antonio; Busch Gardens in Tampa and Williamsburg, Va.; Discovery Cove and Aquatica in Orlando; Sesame Place; Water Country USA in Williamsburg and Adventure Island in Tampa. SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment employs 25,000 people nationwide.

SOURCE SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment