Cedar Fair Hires Ty Tastepe as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

New Chief Information Officer Ty Tastepe brings to Cedar Fair more than two decades of digital transformation program experience with global entertainment and hospitality brands Universal, Hilton and Disney. (Photo: Business Wire)

SANDUSKY, Ohio--()--Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN), a leader in regional amusement parks, water parks and immersive entertainment, today announced that Ty Tastepe has joined the company in the newly created role of senior vice president and chief information officer. He will be based at the company’s office in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will report to President and Chief Executive Officer Richard A. Zimmerman.

“Ty brings tremendous skills and experience to our team, having delivered large-scale digital transformation programs for global brands such as Universal Parks and Resorts, Hilton Hotels, and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts,” said Zimmerman. “That experience will be important as we continue to invest in consumer-facing technologies focused on optimizing the guest and associate experience and improving customer satisfaction. In addition, we’ve placed a high priority on continuing to strengthen our enterprise-wide systems, the control environment behind those systems and data security in general. I’m confident that Ty will help us achieve our goals in each of those areas.”

Prior to joining Cedar Fair, Tastepe served for over two years as senior vice president, chief information and digital officer for Altar’d State, a fast-growing fashion retailer based in Tennessee with more than 120 stores in over 30 states. While there he was responsible for all digital and technology investments, delivery and top-line growth. Prior to that, Tastepe spent nearly two decades delivering large-scale digital transformation programs at global entertainment and hospitality brands such as Universal Parks and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. During his six years at Universal, he helped transform the digital guest experience with the one of the largest technology investments in the company’s history. At Hilton, he led the development of a next-generation reservation system road map and led technology delivery for the launch of a new customer loyalty program and website. From 2001-2011, Tastepe held technology leadership roles at Disney Parks that included worldwide sales and travel operations, revenue management and marketing. He earned an MBA from Villanova University and received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Drexel University.

About Cedar Fair

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (NYSE: FUN), one of the largest regional amusement-resort operators in the world, is a publicly traded partnership headquartered in Sandusky, Ohio. Focused on its mission to make people happy by providing fun, immersive, and memorable experiences, the Company owns and operates 13 properties, consisting of 11 amusement parks, four separately gated outdoor water parks, and resort accommodations totaling more than 2,300 rooms and more than 600 luxury RV sites. Cedar Fair’s parks are located in Ohio, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Texas and Toronto, Ontario.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements contained in this news release that are not historical in nature constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements as to the Company's expectations, beliefs, goals, and strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements may involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, may be beyond our control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct, or that the Company's business optimization and growth strategies will achieve the target results. Important factors, including the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, general economic conditions, adverse weather conditions, competition for consumer leisure time and spending, unanticipated construction delays, changes in the Company’s capital investment plans and projects and other factors discussed from time to time by the Company in its reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) could affect attendance at the Company’s parks, as well as the Company's business optimization program, and cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations or otherwise to fluctuate or decrease. Additional information on risk factors that may affect the business and financial results of the Company can be found in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and in the filings of the Company made from time to time with the SEC. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, information, circumstances or otherwise that arise after the publication of this document.

This news release and prior releases are available under the News tab at http://ir.cedarfair.com

Contacts

Investor Contact: Michael Russell, 419.627.2233
Media Contact: Gary Rhodes, 704.249.6119
https://ir.cedarfair.com

Release Summary

CEDAR FAIR HIRES TY TASTEPE AS SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

Contacts

Investor Contact: Michael Russell, 419.627.2233
Media Contact: Gary Rhodes, 704.249.6119
https://ir.cedarfair.com