SeaWorld Shake Up: Growing List Of Executives Depart Company

Following a series of layoffs, Mark Pauls, president of SeaWorld Orlando and Aquatica, has resigned. Pauls was president for seven months, and it reportedly was his decision to leave the company.

Pauls worked with SeaWorld (SEAS) for 20 years and was promoted to president of the two theme parks in September, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Pauls joins a growing list of executives that have left the company in recent months, including Joel Manby, SeaWorld Orlando CEO, who left in February and Jim Dean, Orlando parks chief, who was replaced by Pauls after his departure. With the arrival of leader Gus Antorcha, former CEO John Reilly also left the company.

SeaWorld has also laid off an unknown number of employees approximately two weeks ago in what it said was an “efficiency” effort. SeaWorld had approximately 4,700 full-time and 12,000 part-time employees, according to its most recent stock filing. The company has 11 parks located throughout the U.S.

With Pauls departure from SeaWorld Orlando, Kyle Miller, president of Discovery World, will head all three parks for the interim.

“Kyle has held a number of operations and leadership positions at SeaWorld parks and at the corporate level, delivering results over the course of his more than two decades with the company,” Suzanne Pelisson Beasley said in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel.

“We have a strong leadership team and strategy in place and remain focused on implementing and accelerating that strategy to realize the exciting opportunities in front of us, she added.

It is unclear why Pauls resigned, and if he has a new job, the news outlet reported.

Shares of SeaWorld stock were up 1.13 percent as of market close on Monday.