Merlin Entertainments Plc
MERL:LN
Overview
Company Profile
The owner of Legoland and Madame Tussauds, the theme park operator runs 117 attractions spread across 24 countries and four continents. Its stated aim is to become the worldwide leader in branded, location-based, family entertainment. It also runs the Alton Towers Resort in the UK and Heide Park, Germany's third-largest theme park.
Classification
Financials
Corporate
Board of Directors
Nick Varney
Chief Executive Officer
Nick has over 24 years’ experience in the visitor attractions industry and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Merlin Entertainments in 1999. He was appointed a Director of the Company on 20 October 2013. Nick started his career in fmcg marketing, first with Rowntree and then with Reckitt Colman. He went on to hold senior positions within The Tussauds Group (Pearson PLC), including Marketing Director of Alton Towers and Head of Group Marketing, before becoming Managing Director of Vardon Attractions and a main board director of Vardon plc. In 1999 Nick led the management buyout of Vardon Attractions to form Merlin Entertainments and, in 2005, initiated the process which led to its acquisition by Blackstone.
Andrew Carr
Chief Financial Officer
Andrew is a qualified chartered accountant and was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Merlin Entertainments in 1999. He was appointed a Director of the Company on 20 October 2013. Prior to that, Andrew was Financial Director of Vardon Attractions and played a key role in the management buyout of Vardon Attractions to form Merlin Entertainments in 1999 and in the subsequent business, including two follow-on buyouts and the acquisitions of LEGOLAND, Gardaland and The Tussauds Group. Before joining Vardon Attractions, Andrew trained, and was subsequently head of a regional Corporate Finance Department, at KPMG.
Colin Armstrong
Secretary
Colin began his career as a private practice solicitor specialising in corporate and commercial law. Dual qualified in both Scotland and England, he trained with Dundas & Wilson in Scotland before spending eight years in the City, first with Slaughter and May and then Ashurst. In 1997 Colin joined National Express Group plc to create and head a new in-house Legal and Company Secretarial Department. He was invited to join Northern Leisure plc two years later where he was part of and advised its senior management team negotiating and completing the recommended public takeover of Northern Leisure by Luminar plc. Colin then spent six years at AutoLogic Holdings plc, Europe’s largest listed automotive logistics company, before joining Merlin in 2007, shortly after the company’s acquisition of The Tussauds Group. Colin now heads Merlin\'s Legal and Company Secretarial Department providing operational and strategic advice and managing the internal and external legal and company secretarial support for the Group worldwide. Colin is married with three sons and a daughter and lives in Winchester. He is a keen runner at 10k and half marathon distances.
David Bridgford
Strategy Director
David’s primary role is to look at market and economic trends in both the existing and developing markets; to identify opportunities for the company’s future growth and development, particularly with regard to acquisitions; and to communicate the Group Strategy within the business. He works closely with CEO Nick Varney and the senior management team across all Operating Groups. A graduate in Economic History, David started his career with City firm Deloitte (Touche Ross) where he trained as a chartered accountant. He moved into Corporate Finance Advisory in 1990, becoming an Advisory Partner in 2000. In 2002 he joined The Tussauds Group as Corporate Finance Director, working on the integration with Merlin in 2007 before taking on his current Strategy role in 2010.
Tea Colaianni
Group Human Resources Director
Tea has steered the international HR teams through the challenge of Merlin’s rapid growth, creating a motivational and modern global HR strategy which reflects Merlin’s culture and the issues associated with its fast global growth. She has introduced an industry-leading graduate scheme, initiated development programmes and incentive schemes, and achieved levels of employee engagement which rival those of larger and more established global companies. Tea began her career in Brussels as a lawyer advising multinational companies on EU related affairs, moving in 1997 to her first corporate role as Director of Employee Relations & Labour Law for Global One. She relocated to London in 1999 to work for GTS/Ebone as Vice President Human Resources, and then moved into the leisure industry as Vice President Human Resources, Europe, UK and Ireland for Hilton Hotels Corporation. Tea joined Merlin Entertainments as Group Human Resources Director in February 2010. She is a strong supporter of gender diversity in business and sits on both the Leadership Council for Women 1st, and the Prince’s Trust Women Leadership Group.
Mark Fisher
Chief Development Officer
Mark manages the company’s creative and development organisation: Merlin Magic Making (MMM). MMM works alongside Merlin’s three Operating Groups – LEGOLAND Parks, Resort Theme Parks and Midway Attractions – and brings together site search and property development, creative development and production, and project management. A graduate in Recreation Management, Mark joined The Tussauds Group in 1991 and Merlin in 1995. He has been a senior member of the management team throughout its impressive growth period, playing a key role as part of the original management buyout team from Vardon, and in the ongoing organic development which has been at the heart of the company’s success.
John Jakobsen
Chief New Openings Officer
John heads up Merlin’s newest Operating Group – New Openings - responsible for all new attraction openings and the integration of acquisitions. The creation of this dedicated Group ensures maximum focus on delivering Merlin’s dynamic growth plans which includes the accelerating roll out of Merlin’s Midway attractions, as well as the development of new LEGOLAND Parks. John and his New Openings team are responsible for these developments from Board approval through to their integration into the wider business after at least one year’s trading from opening or acquisition. To achieve this New Openings works closely with both the unique Merlin Magic Making creative and development team, and their colleagues in the three other operating groups to ensure that new sites reflect the values and design of Merlin’s core global brands from Day 1. After completing a Business Degree John joined the LEGO® Group, taking on the challenge to expand the LEGOLAND franchise outside of its homeland in Denmark. Having first worked on projects in the UK (LEGOLAND Windsor opened in 1996) he project managed the first US LEGOLAND Park, based in California; before moving into general Park management first in Germany and then back in California. John joined Merlin’s senior management team as part of the company’s acquisition of LEGOLAND Parks in 2005, and as Managing Director LEGOLAND Parks oversaw both the continued development of the company’s existing LEGOLAND Parks into successful short break resorts for families with young children; and the identification and planning for new LEGOLAND Parks around the world, including the opening of LEGOLAND Resorts in Florida and Malaysia. In New Openings he is now using the skills learnt on these projects not just to the benefit of other LEGOLAND projects, but also to spearhead Merlin’s fast moving Midway rollout.
Nick Mackenzie
Managing Director Midway Attractions
Nick is responsible for the continued development of Merlin’s iconic global Midway brands – SEA LIFE, Madame Tussauds, LEGOLAND Discovery Centres, Dungeons, the Eye and the new DreamWorks Tours SHREK’s Adventure! It is the Midway portfolio which is one of the key factors which makes Merlin’s business truly unique – complementing the company’s large LEGOLAND and other Resort Theme Parks, and providing targeted 1/2 hour entertainment for a wide variety of visitors around the globe. The Operating Group manages almost 100 attractions across 21 countries providing unique memorable experiences to over 35m visitors every year. A qualified chartered surveyor, working first with the Brewer Bass PLC and then with Allied Domecq as their Acquisitions Director. This was followed by three years at Diageo as the Development Director for Burger King. From 2007, Nick was the Managing Director of Merlin’s Property & Development Group before taking on his first senior operating role as Managing Director Resort Theme Parks in 2011; and moving across to Midway in 2015.
Mark Allsop
Chief Information Officer
Mark is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Merlin Entertainments. Working with the Executive Team, Mark provides technology leadership, vision, and experience. He is responsible for all software development, data management, infrastructure and information systems within the organisation. Mark started his career as a Graduate Manager with Volkswagen Group. Following a move into e-Commerce consultancy in South Africa, Mark has since spent the last 15 years in the media industry, working for NBC Universal and Sony Pictures. As Vice President & CIO – EMEA at Sony, Mark was responsible for setting the strategic direction of the IT function whilst ensuring that IT enabled and delivered the strategic and commercial goals in a fast growing and highly acquisitive Film and TV business integrating some 30+ companies. At NBC Universal Mark led the implementation of a large systems-based change programme across Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific – with foreign secondments in Paris, Hamburg, Tokyo and Sydney.
Justin Platt
Managing Director Resort Theme Parks
A graduate in Economics, Justin joined Merlin in 2011 as Marketing Director at the Alton Towers Resort moving in 2013 to take over the wider global marketing role across all Merlin’s Resort Theme Parks. Here he worked closely with the Managing Director of the Operating Group and with the Divisional Directors of Merlin’s six Resort Theme Parks to develop their short break strategies and to ensure that each Resort continues to deliver exciting new rides and attractions every year to appeal to their ever broadening visitor base, including families of all ages and makeup, young adults, schools and other groups. Justin then took over the role of Managing Director Resort Theme Parks in 2015. Justin has a very strong global marketing pedigree both in FMCG with Kellogg’s, and pharmaceuticals with GSK and AstraZeneca where he was Global Marketing Director, something which is invaluable in his current role where the ability to develop strong brand identities and effective marketing strategies across traditional and new media channels both play key roles in the continued success of today’s top attractions.
Hans Aksel Pedersen
Managing Director LEGOLAND Parks
Hans Aksel started his career as an officer in the Army but decided that business was more to his liking, leaving to take a Masters degree in Marketing. Now, an energetic International Marketer, he has more than 25 years of extensive experience in both FMCG and the entertainment industry across general management, global brand building, consumer & trade marketing, new product development and people management. Hans Aksel has been with LEGOLAND for 15 years, starting with the original LEGOLAND Park in Billund in Denmark in 2000, and moving from there to become Marketing Director in LEGOLAND Windsor, where he was in 2005 when Merlin acquired the then four LEGOLAND Parks. In 2008, now a senior manager within Merlin, he moved into an operational role as Divisional Director managing LEGOLAND Deutschland; and in 2014 took a new role as Divisional Director LEGOLAND Parks USA, overseeing the continued resort development of both Parks and Hotels in LEGOLAND California and LEGOLAND Florida; expanding this role across all six of the current parks as Managing Director of the Operating Group in 2015.