Senior operating counsel for CEOs, owners, boards, and investors — and the senior leaders they trust to carry the vision — in consumer, media, entertainment, hospitality, sports, and venue businesses. One former chief executive brings the counsel directly: no team, no hand-offs.
Book a working sessionIf one of these is your situation, we should talk.
Businesses don’t slow or stall because the brand weakens. They stall because growth outpaces the operating discipline that built the brand in the first place — pricing, guest experience, and leadership stop moving together. The fix is rarely one initiative. It’s sequencing: knowing which decision to make first, which to leave alone, and which the organization can actually execute right now.
Every engagement is done personally. No junior analysts, no leverage model, no long process — senior judgment applied directly to the decision in front of you.
Defined deliverables, explicit boundaries, and written recommendations. Work beyond an agreed scope is always proposed separately — never absorbed into an invoice.
No consulting team in your hallways. No one knows I'm there unless you say so.
The enterprise: two destination parks, a 400,000-household membership program — one of the largest in the world — and food & beverage, retail, hospitality, media, licensing, and global operations — the same anatomy as any venue, attraction, or hospitality platform. Drive visitation, deepen per-guest revenue, convert loyalty, extend the brand.
Emerging from a five-month closure with fractured, previously separate and disconnected operations, an integrated brand relaunch, restructuring, and go-to-market reset grew revenue 30%, grew EBITDA 250%, reduced liabilities by $100M, and raised more than $400M.
That enterprise was San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — a complex, live guest operation running 365 days a year under constant public, employee, donor, government, and community scrutiny. The transformation drew on more than two decades at The Walt Disney Company in brand, franchise, experience, and commercial leadership.
You leave knowing which decision to make first, what it will take, and what happens if you wait. Built from a focused assessment, three to five management conversations, a written CEO/board decision memo, and two working sessions — inside thirty days. The standard first engagement.
A second, senior opinion on the decisions that don’t have an obvious right answer — before they’re made, not after. Monthly working sessions, priority review of consequential calls, and direct access in between. Three-month minimum.
The organization is provided the tools to operate differently by the end and helps get leadership pulling in the same direction. One quarter, from diagnosis through a piloted, sequenced execution plan across brand, customer, and commercial levers, for businesses where growth has stalled or challenged.
Someone in the seat, accountable for the result. Fractional executive or interim chief executive roles for owners, boards, and sponsors at defined inflection points.
For sponsors: the Diagnostic works equally well as the first hundred days on a new portfolio company or as a pre-close read on a consumer or experience asset.
Every engagement is bespoke.
Paul led one of the world's most demanding location-based experience enterprises — $425M in annual revenue, 6 million guests a year, 400,000+ member households, 3,000 employees, and $1B in assets — as Chief Executive Officer of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. Before that, more than twenty years at The Walt Disney Company leading brand, franchise, and commercial strategy across films, consumer products, and global audiences.
Founder & Principal, Baribault Advisors. Based in Coronado, California — working globally.
The first conversation is a 30-minute working session on your actual situation — not a pitch. Come with the decision you're facing; leave with a sharper view of it. If an engagement makes sense, the proposal is one page. If it doesn't, you'll know that too, and the 30 minutes will have been worth it.
Email two lines on the decision you're facing. You'll get a direct, personal reply and a working session on your actual situation.
Email Paul@BaribaultAdvisors.com