uShaka Sea World chief executive Mark Penning will be working in an executive role at Disney resorts in the US.
|||uShaka Sea World aquarium in Durban is looking for a new boss after chief executive Mark Penning landed a plum job with Walt Disney in the US, overseeing land and sea animals at Disney resorts around the world.
Penning, who has been based at uShaka for the past nine years, will leave Durban at the end of June to take up his new post in Orlando, Florida, as part of the executive team of Walt Disney World Resorts.
As director of animal operations, he will be responsible for all marine and land animals at Disney resorts in the US, Bahamas, Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo.
This includes the Disney Animal Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the Living Seas aquarium and all Disney’s horse operations.
Apart from the more familiar dolphins, sharks and fish in the Living Seas aquarium, he will also be responsible for a wide variety of land mammals, such as gorillas, elephants, rhinos, okapi and a team of jet-black Percheron draught horses which pull Cinderella’s carriage in Florida.
The former Gauteng wildlife vet was in charge of Tsogo Sun’s Montecasino bird park in Joburg and the Umgeni River Bird Park in Durban before taking over as chief executive of the SA Association for Marine and Biological Research.
The association incorporates uShaka Sea World, the Oceanographic Research Institute and the NPC Sea World Education Centre.
Speaking from Florida last week, Penning said he was sad to be leaving the Durban association.
“I have nothing but the highest praise for the highly skilled, passionate and dedicated team of exceptional people who put heart and soul into marine conservation, research, education and animal welfare,” Penning said.
“The association is a huge credit to uShaka, Durban and South Africa, and I am very proud to have been part of it – but the opportunity I have been offered is just too good to resist.
“I think it is also a feather in our cap that Disney thinks so highly of our Durban team.”