Former Ocean Park CEO Tom Mehrmann will play a lead role in the development of the CN¥50bn (US$7.4bn, €6.65bn, £6bn) Universal Beijing, after being named president and general manager for the upcoming theme park and resort.

Mehrmann, who has held senior roles across the attractions industry, led Ocean Park’s HK$5.5bn (US$709m, €672m, £568m) master redevelopment plan during his 13-year stint also increasing attendance from less than three million visitors to more than 7.8 million by 2014/2015.

Prior to joining Ocean Parl, Mehrmann was vice president and general manager of both Warner Bros Movie World Madrid and Six Flags, and spent 21 years competing against Disney as vice president of park operations and entertainment for Knott’s Berry Farm. In 2016, he founded Themed Advisors – a company providing professional advisory services for themed attraction development and operation.

“Tom will bring tremendous industry knowledge, business acumen and international experience to our project,” said Page Thompson, president and COO International, for Universal Parks and Resorts. “He has exactly what we and our partners need to help create a world-class theme park entertainment destination.”

Being developed in partnership with the Beijing Shouhuan Cultural Tourism Investment Company – a consortium of five Beijing state-owned enterprises – Universal Beijing was initially given the green light by the National Development and Reform Commission in September 2014, with the official signing taking place on 13 September 2015.

Due to open in 2020, the development will include in its first phase the theme park, the world’s first Universal-themed resort hotel and a retail entertainment complex – all to be completed within five years. A second stage of development in 2021 will include a second theme park, a waterpark and five more resort hotels.

The park will be the company’s fourth Universal theme park in Asia, following the well-established sites in Japan and Singapore and the forthcoming Universal Studios park in South Korea.