SeaWorld Replaces CEO Jim Atchison

In December SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment announced that CEO and President Jim Atchison will be replaced by Chairman David F. D’Alessandro as the company’s interim CEO effective January 15, 2015. Atchison will become Vice Chairman of the Board and serve as a consultant to the company with respect to international expansion and the company’s conservation initiatives. Furthermore, the company will nominate Jim Atchison to serve as the chairman of the board of the not-for-profit, independent SeaWorld & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund. Moreover, SeaWorld announced that a restructuring program will be carried out across its eleven theme parks in the U.S. to “centralize some operations, reduce duplication of functions and increase efficiencies and accelerate execution. This implies the loss of some positions, whereby the company promised to offer severance benefits to those employees impacted. (eap)