Matthew Anthony Ouimet (born 1958) is a retired tourism industry executive. Over his 40-plus-year career, Ouimet held leadership positions at both

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

and

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, or simply Cedar Fair, was an American company headquartered at its flagship Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. The company was a publicly traded master limited partnership that origina ...

Early life

Ouimet was born in 1958 in

Cooperstown, New York Cooperstown is a village in and the county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in ...

and raised in Unadilla, New York. His first job was working at a grave yard in Unadilla. He graduated from Unatego High School in 1976 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university in Binghamton metropolitan area, Greater Binghamton, New York, United States. It is one of the four uni ...

Career highlights

Ouimet started his professional career in 1980 as a

certified public accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

PriceWaterhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along ...

. Ouimet joined The Walt Disney Company in 1989, starting in finance roles. He served many different parts of the company's theme park business at

Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc.—commonly referred to as Walt Disney Imagineering, Imagineering, or WDI—is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construc ...

, Disney's Wide World of Sports, and

Disney Vacation Club The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a vacation timeshare program owned and operated by Disney Vacation Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney Signature Experiences, a division of Disney Experiences, a segment of The Walt Disney Company. It allow ...

, and as chief financial officer of

Disney Development Company The Disney Development Company (DDC) was a fully owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, incorporated in Florida. Beginning in 1984, its primary role was in the master planning, design and construction of resort, commercial and business areas ...

(DDC). He was senior vice president of finance and business development for the

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort is an destination resort, entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Wa ...

Resort until August 1998, when he was transferred to

Disney Cruise Line Disney Cruise Line is a cruise line operation that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The company was incorporated in 1996 as Magical Cruise Company Limited, through its first vessel ''Disney Magic,'' and is domiciled in London, Englan ...

as its senior operating officer. With the resignation of cruise line president Arthur Rodney on August 31, 1999, Ouimet was named as his replacement. In 2003, Ouimet was appointed president of

Disneyland Resort The Disneyland Resort is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Disney Experiences, Experiences division and is home to two theme parks (Disneyland and Dis ...

. There he prepared for the resort's 50th anniversary celebration and managed the park's restoration after years of maintenance neglect. In 2006, Ouimet left Disney and was succeeded as president of the Disneyland Resort by Ed Grier in an announcement made July 25. After leaving Disney, Ouimet joined Starwood as president of the company's hotel group in 2006. He oversaw global operations for more than 850 hotels in 95 countries. In September 2008, he was replaced by Matthew Avril and departed the company.Starwood Hotels names Avril head of hotel unit
, Associated Press, September 2, 2008 In December 2008, Ouimet became the president and chief operating officer of Corinthian Colleges, Inc. He announced on October 11, 2010, that he would be leaving Corinthian for personal reasons. Matt Ouimet was a director of Collective Brands, Inc., where he served on the audit and finance committee. In June 2011, Ouimet was named president of

. He assumed the CEO position on January 3, 2012. On October 4, 2017, it was announced by Cedar Fair that Ouimet would be stepping down, having Richard A. Zimmerman succeed him. However, it was also announced that Ouimet would take the newly created role of Executive Chairman. Ouimet retired in September of 2023.

Personal life

As of 2023, Ouimet lives in Cananaigua, New York. He is married, has two grown children, and at least one grandchild.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ouimet, Matt Living people 1958 births American chairpersons of corporations American chief executives American chief financial officers American chief operating officers Binghamton University alumni Cedar Fair Corinthian Colleges Disney Cruise Line Disney executives Disneyland Resort People from Avon Lake, Ohio Walt Disney Parks and Resorts people