Matthew A Ouimet, a former executive at the Walt Disney Company, has been named as the new president of US-based visitor attraction and theme park operator, Cedar Fair.

Ouimet's appointment as president is effective immediately, while he will also succeed chief executive officer Dick Kinzel from 3 January 2012. During his 20 years within the industry, Ouimet has served as senior vice president, finance and business development, and chief financial officer at the Disney Development Company.

Kinzel said: "Matt is an impressive business and operational executive whose character and values will be a great complement to the strong Cedar Fair culture." Meanwhile, Cedar Fair has confirmed that Q Investments has filed its eighth lawsuit against the theme park operator in the past 12 months.

Kinzel said: "Although Q Investments has seen an attractive total return of more than 60 percent over the past 18 months on its investment in Cedar Fair, it continues to harass the board, clog the courts and frustrate our unitholders with its endless attacks and groundless assertions. "Q Investments is proving that it will stop at nothing in its effort toward creating an exit strategy for itself and its hedge fund investors, regardless of what might best serve the long-term value creation interests of all our unitholders."