Michael Hartman is going from marketing for Pepsi bottlers to marketing for bottle-nosed porpoises — and other sea critters, bottle-nosed or otherwise.
Hartman, most recently VP of Marketing for Pepsi Beverage Co. — and a key member of the team that hel
ped PBC build partnerships with many of the entrepreneurial brands now in the Pepsi orbit –– has been named Senior Marketing Officer, Busch Gardens and Sesame Place. In his new role, Hartman will oversee marketing programs for Busch Gardens parks in Tampa, Fla. and Williamsburg, Va.; water parks Adventure Island in Tampa and Water Country USA in Williamsburg; and Sesame Place, a Sesame-Street-themed park in Langhorne, Pa. near Philadelphia. Hartman also will manage corporate marketing functions that support the Busch Gardens brands and Sesame Place. He will work out of the company’s Orlando headquarters and report to Donnie Mills, Chief Operating Officer, Busch Gardens and Sesame Place.
Hartman will be keeping a hand in the beverage business, however. After leaving PepsiCo, he went to work with Silverwood Partners, an investment bank, as an adviser for its beverage industry strategy, and took board seats at a pair of beverage companies, GT Beverage and Zevia.
“They’re great brands,” Hartman told BevNET. “I want to keep an interest in the beverage arena.”
“We are delighted that Michael will be joining our team. He brings a tremendous amount of creative energy and experience, and a long record of success in marketing consumer goods and managing some of the world’s best known brands,” said Donnie Mills, the COO of Busch Gardens. “He is a great addition to our marketing team.”