Matt Ouimet, a onetime head of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim and a former executive at Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc., has been tapped to lead the parent company of Knott’s Berry Farm.
Ouimet joins Ohio’s Cedar Fair LP as president and is set to become chief executive when the company’s current chief Dick Kinzel retires early next year.
Cedar Fair runs Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park and 17 other amusement and water parks, as well as five hotels.
The move is a return to amusement parks for Ouimet, who gained famed as president of the Disneyland Resort, overseeing a marketing push for Disneyland Park’s 50th anniversary in 2005.
Quimet left Disney in 2006 to become president of the hotels group at White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.
He returned to Orange County in 2009, becoming chief operating officer of Corinthian Colleges, a vocational school operator.
Ouimet left Corinthian in 2010 as the company faced the prospect of renewed federal regulation and investor skepticism about its future.
