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Busch Gardens' Man In Dubai

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By TED JACKOVICS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 6, 2008

TAMPA - Donnie Mills, who rose from a seasonal job as a teenager at Busch Gardens 34 years ago to run the theme park today, will become the top executive for four Busch parks to be built in Dubai, Busch Entertainment Corp. announced Friday

Mills, 50, will continue as executive vice president and general manager of Busch Gardens Africa and Adventure Island in Tampa into 2009. He will transition into his job as executive vice president and managing director for Worlds of Discovery Dubai during 2010.

No announcement was made about plans for Mills' successor in Tampa.

Mills will be responsible for a SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove and Aquatica to be built on 300 acres on a killer whale-shaped artificial island in Dubai. Busch will open the parks from 2012 through 2015 in a partnership with worldwide real-estate giant Nakheel PJSC.

"Donnie was the obvious choice for the Dubai job from the beginning," said Jim Atchison, Orlando-based Busch Entertainment's president and chief operating officer.

"When Donnie learned of our plan, he began to take lessons in Arabic and read the Quran. He shows his passion and character for what we will need in Dubai."

Mills, a graduate of Tampa's King High School and the University of South Florida, where he majored in marketing, has worked for five Busch theme parks. He returned to Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa in December 2007 after taking over Busch Gardens Europe and Water Country USA in Williamsburg, Va., in 2003.

"Returning to the park where I started my career to lead the Tampa team during this exciting time of growth and change has been a great honor," Mills said.

"Then to have the opportunity to take my experience and apply it to the leadership of the next generation of parks in Dubai is a tremendous privilege."

The long-term prospects for Busch Entertainment remain unclear but promising with the impending takeover by Belgium brewer InBev SA of Busch Entertainment's St. Louis-based parent Anheuser-Busch Cos.

The parks are expected to be lucrative properties in the wealthy city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which is on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula between Saudi Arabia and Oman.

And Anheuser-Busch's theme parks division is profitable, earning more than $260 million on $1.3 billion in annual revenue.
InBev has indicated it would need to sell the theme parks to help finance its purchase of Anheuser-Busch, and the likely buyer would be an entertainment company knowledgeable about running theme parks, analysts said.

Tribune reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817 or tjackovics @tampatrib.com.

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