Ardent Poaches New Dreamworld COO

[Tin Foil Hat]

ARDENT Leisure has poached long-time Village Roadshow Theme Parks executive Greg Yong to lead Dreamworld as it continues to recover from the 2016 ride tragedy.

Mr Yong, who was chief operating officer for Asia and executive general manager of theme parks for Village, has been appointed chief operating officer for Dreamworld & WhiteWater World.

His predecessor Paul Callander has stepped into the newly-created role of chief strategy officer for Ardent Leisure Theme Park and Attractions.

Mr Callander had also previously spent five years with Village Roadshow, beginning his career hauling popcorn and drinks to the nosebleed section of the Movie World Police Academy stunt show.

 

Edited May 28, 2019 by Slick
COO not CEO. Fixed in topic thread.

[Slick]

Greg Yong was recently appointed as Chief Operating Officer. I've now edited your post to reflect this. This was already reported in the Dreamworld Winterfest thread, but i'm happy for this topic to have its own thread.

[diesal11]

Not sure why this thread doesn't have more attention? This is very exciting news imo.

This shows that Ardent are truly committed to fixing Dreamworld and they want to do it right. You would think that someone like Greg wouldn't join unless he was promised the funds and control required to turn the place around. Why leave Village otherwise?

But perhaps i'm being naive in my optimism....

[Brad2912]

Because it was well discussed in another thread (DW Winterfest) about a week prior to this post being made (and as mentioned by Slick above) 

[MickeyD]

Hopefully Greg will help reverse certain stupid decisions like putting Cages on the logs and Nooses on the Disc'O. 

[diesal11]

6 minutes ago, MickeyD said:

Hopefully Greg will help reverse certain stupid decisions like putting Cages on the logs and Nooses on the Disc'O. 

Yeah those over the shoulder seatbelts on the Shockwave are atrocious. I can't imagine how slow load/unload must be during busy times. Very little value added in terms of safety too really. 

[auspicious]

1 hour ago, diesal11 said:

Why leave Village otherwise?

Because he was "promoted" to oversea their Asian operations much like Bob White, Tim Fisher and many other executives have been, as Village tends to do when they want to get rid of someone.

[New display name]

55 minutes ago, auspicious said:

Because he was "promoted" to oversea their Asian operations much like Bob White, Tim Fisher and many other executives have been, as Village tends to do when they want to get rid of someone.

About time somebody said it.   

[joz]

On 31/05/2019 at 7:32 PM, Skeeta said:

About time somebody said it.   

You're following the wrong theme park pages

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Yeah, but if it wasn't said on parkz, does it even count?

[auspicious]

This is what searching the world for the best thrill rides looks like.

[StingRay]

 

 

 

21 minutes ago, auspicious said:

This is what searching the world for the best thrill rides looks like.

i 

I wouldn't read too far into this. He could simply be talking to make connections for the future. I mean long term future also.

[Jdude95]

Isn't he on the AALARA board? Wouldn't he regularly communicate with amusement device manufacturers as part of that role?

[Naazon]

10 hours ago, auspicious said:

This is what searching the world for the best thrill rides looks like.

Well Australia is part of the world

[Slick]

Definitely the back of Ben Hogan's head to the left of Greg Yong. He wouldn't be there if they weren't talking about Dreamworld.

[New display name]

They might be ordering your "Backflash Ride" @Slick .

 

What would be better?

Backflash ride at DW.

TopSpin ride at SW.

 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

first thing that came to mind was blackfish. lol.

[New display name]

I'm trying to think what other ride could DW want from Zamperla that they don't already own or have a different version of?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

27 minutes ago, Skeeta said:

I'm trying to think what other ride could DW want from Zamperla that they don't already own or have a different version of?

https://www.zamperla.com/products/taga-j/

[New display name]

If DW purchased that ride, I would personal tell PCL to burn DW down.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

It's hard to burn something down standing outside it in a carpark.

Edited June 7, 2019 by AlexB

[Jobe]

On a more serious note, if Dreamworld were to look to purchase one of these, it wouldnt be the worst decision in the world.

https://www.zamperla.com/products/thunderbolt/

They look visually appealing and by all accounts, the Thunderbolt at Luna Park New York is popular and has garnered positive reviews.

[New display name]

The Thunderbolt trains look ugly. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

31 minutes ago, Jobe said:

On a more serious note, if Dreamworld were to look to purchase one of these, it wouldnt be the worst decision in the world.

https://www.zamperla.com/products/thunderbolt/

They look visually appealing and by all accounts, the Thunderbolt at Luna Park New York is popular and has garnered positive reviews.

Not a bad suggestion, and the out and back model could potentially fit into the ToT space if it were to be removed. However the 35 metre height means it's smaller than even superman, and while it ticks a lot of boxes, it isn't "different" enough for it to be something big - it could only be another filler, which dreamworld already have too many of.

Given it starts at a 130cm height requirement, it's quite limiting too.

[Brad2912]

So proud you couldn’t even spell check the first line....