Terry Prather of Winter Park, Florida, recently served as senior vice president of operations at SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment with oversight of safety, environmental compliance, ride operations and standardization functions across the company’s 11 parks.

Prather is an industry veteran with more than 29 years of experience in the hospitality and tourism industry. His SeaWorld career started in maintenance and water quality for SeaWorld San Antonio, where he worked from the park's inauguration in 1988 to 1997. During his tenure, the park's security, safety and environmental compliance functions were added to his responsibilities. Prather left SeaWorld San Antonio in 1997 to serve as managing director of San Antonio's Witte Museum. He held that position until being named vice president and general manager of the park that would become Six Flags New Orleans in 2000.

He was promoted to president of Six Flags America in Bowie, Md, in 2006. Prather returned to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment in May 2008 and led Water Country USA in Williamsburg, Va., before moving to Orlando in May 2010 to become vice president of operations at SeaWorld Orlando. In October of that same year, Prather was named president of SeaWorld Orlando. Prather led the long-range planning, daily operations and conservation initiatives of the world’s most popular marine life park, SeaWorld Orlando, and its two sister properties, Discovery Cove and Aquatica.

Prather serves on several community boards and has served on many others, including Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, Bethune-Cookman University, Visit Florida, LIFT Orlando, Maryland Tourism Development Board, New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation, New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau, and United Way of Greater New Orleans.