Pierre-Yves Gerbeau

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Pierre-Yves Gerbeau (born 1965/66, name almost always shortened to PY^[1]) is a French management consultant. He is married to Kate Gerbeau (née Sanderson), a British television presenter, and has a daughter from another relationship.^[1]

Gerbeau was born into an affluent Parisian family, where his parents ran an office supply company. In addition to their house in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, they also had a weekend residence in the Forest of Fontainebleau.^[1]

Gerbeau started out in 1984 as a professional ice hockey player, playing in several championships and becoming a member of the French national team,^[2] before a severe ankle injury curtailed his sports career in 1989.^[3]^[1]

He then turned to business, first with TPS Conseil, then in 1991 joined Disneyland Paris, rising rapidly to become Vice-President of Park Operations and Attractions in 1997. His responsibilities included ticketing, the safety and maintenance of attractions, and sorting out the queues.^[3] He was credited with turning the attraction around after a difficult start.^[4] He later left Disney to complete a Master of Business Administration degree at Sciences Po.^[5]^[6]

On 5 February 2000 Gerbeau was appointed Chief Executive of the New Millennium Experience Company, the operator of the Millennium Dome in London. He was brought in to turn around the fortunes of an attraction struggling in the face of major financial problems^[7] and negative publicity.^[8] Whilst in charge, he became well-known for his enthusiastic and confident personality,^[9] and was affectionately nicknamed "the Gerbil" by the British press.^[1]

Following the closure of the millennium exhibition at the end of 2000, Gerbeau became Chief Executive of X-Leisure, operator of the Xscape centres and other leisure facilities.^[6]^[10]