Six Flags Entertainment Corporation (Charlotte, NC) has appointed Mark Pauls as Chief Operating Officer, effective July 15, 2026, bringing in an operator who has worked alongside CEO John Reilly at two previous companies. Pauls succeeds Tim Fisher, the legacy Cedar Fair COO who retained the role through the 2024 merger and will remain with the company as a Special Advisor through December 15, 2026.
The appointment continues the executive rebuild Reilly has led since becoming President and CEO in December 2025. Six Flags has named a new CFO (Ash Walia, effective June 2026), a new CMO (Amy Martin Ziegenfuss, June 2026), and a new Chief Legal and Compliance Officer (Christopher Bennett) within the past three months, and in April reinstated park president positions at 10 parks less than a year after eliminating the role.
A Third Company Together
Pauls and Reilly have overlapping histories at both Palace Entertainment and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. Pauls served as Vice President of Operations at Palace Entertainment while Reilly was CEO of Palace Entertainment U.S. and Group COO of parent company Parques Reunidos. Both men also held senior roles at SeaWorld earlier in their careers, where Reilly served as interim CEO and COO and Pauls held corporate and park-level operations posts.
“We are excited to welcome Mark to Six Flags as we continue to build a team of leaders with the skills and experience to enhance operational excellence and improve performance,” Reilly said in the announcement. “Mark is a results-driven executive with deep experience in the theme park industry and a proven track record of instilling operational rigor, driving profitability and delivering exceptional guest experiences.”
“Six Flags is an incredible business with a strong foundation and world-class portfolio of parks,” Pauls said. “I am thrilled to be joining John and the amazing team he has assembled as they continue to advance their new strategy to unlock the Company’s full potential.”
Career Background
Six Flags describes Pauls as “a disciplined operator with nearly five decades of experience in the entertainment industry.” He was most recently Senior Vice President of Operations at Herschend Family Entertainment (Atlanta, GA), where his responsibilities covered operations, engineering and maintenance, workforce management, and entertainment events for the regional parks, and where he worked on the integration of Palace Entertainment following Herschend’s acquisition of that portfolio.
At Palace Entertainment, Pauls oversaw operations for the company’s nationwide portfolio and led efficiency and cost reduction initiatives that the company credits with improving profitability and EBITDA performance. Earlier in his career, he served as president of SeaWorld Orlando and Aquatica Orlando from 2018 to 2019, a role Six Flags says covered approximately 4 million annual guests and a workforce of 6,000 employees. He previously served as Vice President of Operations for Busch Gardens’ Tampa and Williamsburg parks. Pauls holds a B.B.A. in Business Administration and Management from the University of Phoenix.
A Seasonal Events Operator
Pauls’ most visible tenure for seasonal programming professionals was his four years as General Manager of Kennywood (West Mifflin, PA), which he led from June 2020 until his promotion to Palace Entertainment’s corporate operations role in 2024. At Kennywood, Pauls oversaw the park’s 2021 retirement of the nighttime-only Phantom Fright Nights in favor of Phantom Fall Fest, a hybrid model pairing daytime family programming with nighttime scares that added roughly 15 operating days to the fall calendar. He also expanded the park’s Holiday Lights event to 24 nights, adding the first January operating days in the park’s history and the park’s first winter coaster operation.
That track record intersects directly with Six Flags’ current priorities. The company attributed part of its 2025 attendance softness to the removal of four winter holiday events, and it is rebuilding Holiday in the Park at Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Over Georgia for 2026 alongside expanded live entertainment lineups and restored fall programming, including the return of Dead Man’s Party to Fright Fest at Great Adventure.
The Transition
Fisher joined Cedar Fair as COO in December 2017 after serving as CEO of three regions of Village Roadshow Theme Parks, and his career in the industry spans nearly 50 years, beginning at Carowinds in Charlotte. “I also want to thank Tim for his service to Six Flags over the years, including supporting the integration with Cedar Fair,” Reilly said. “We appreciate Tim remaining with the Company as a Special Advisor through December, and we are confident that his deep expertise and institutional knowledge will help facilitate a seamless transition.”
Pauls takes the operations seat as Six Flags heads into its peak season with 34 parks across 23 North American sites, following the sale of seven parks to EPR Properties for $331 million earlier this year.
