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Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Disneyland Resort leadership changes as Michael Colglazier promoted

For the last five years Michael Colglazier has been the President of the Disneyland Resort working to make the park and it’s 30,000 cast members they most successful it could be. Among his big roles were overseeing the park’s 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration and the… Read More »Disneyland Resort leadership changes as Michael Colglazier promoted

Walt Disney World Cast Member honored by PCMA for Convention Industry Achievements

This week, the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) recognized George Aguel, senior vice president for The Walt Disney Company, for his lifetime of service to the meeting and convention industry. The national organization awarded Aguel with its 2012 Professional Achievement Award during a gala dinner… Read More »Walt Disney World Cast Member honored by PCMA for Convention Industry Achievements

Disney’s Animal Care Chief elected VP at AZA

Dr. Jackie Ogden is the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Vice President of Animals, Science and Environment. That means she’s in charge of all animation programs across the Disney parks and resorts. As such she plays an important role in the conservation, education, and awareness… Read More »Disney’s Animal Care Chief elected VP at AZA

Disney Vacation Club Shakeup

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that former Disney Vacation Club President Jim Lewis was let go by the Walt Disney Company on Friday. Lewis had led Disney’s time-share arm since 2006. While Lewis presided over a controversial expansion of DVC locations across WDW and a… Read More »Disney Vacation Club Shakeup

Promotions Shake Up Disney Parks & Resorts under Tom Staggs

In a long internal memo today, Tom Staggs made official the organizational shakeup everyone knew was coming after Staggs took over the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division. It’s nothing earth shattering, but it does flatten some of the levels of hierarchy that were said to have frustrated Staggs since he took over.

In short, current WDW president Meg Crofton expands to oversee all the domestic parks and the two parks in France. Karl Holtz, who a few years ago was rumored to be leaving Disney, is instead adding DVC to his DCL and Adventures by Disney responsibilities. Leslie Ferraro becomes executive vice president, Global Marketing and Sales combining those two closely related departments and Erin Wallace, executive vice president, Operations Integration also adds revenue management to her desk. The move also creates a new executive council under Staggs.

While Staggs’ reorganization did not cut any of the deadwood certain segments of Disney fans wanted to see go, I believe the general movement here is a good one. It will allow for efficiencies where they need to exist and independence, with oversight, as required for the parks. Combining marketing and sales is a no-duh in my book, they are both measured by the same final metrics (butts in beds and asses through the gates), so unifying them is good. The only move that looks questionable to me is giving the extra power of revenue management to operations. However, they are the yin and the yang of theme park operations. Having one person keep a close eye via her myriad of spreadsheets and minions (and I mean that in the nicest possible way), could be very positive.

Let’s keep a watch on this for the next 3-year planning cycle and see if there really is any improvement. Meanwhile, the pressure is kicked up a notch for these people to get things done or they too could be reorganized right out of a job.

The full text of Tom Staggs’ announcement is below the jump:

Read More »Promotions Shake Up Disney Parks & Resorts under Tom Staggs

New “it’s a small world” photos with Disney Characters

It’s not the changes that are expected to come to Disneyland’s original version of the classic “it’s a small world” attraction, but the Hong Kong Disneyland version does feature little Small World dolls all dressed up like Disney characters. Hong Kong Disneyland Source website has… Read More »New “it’s a small world” photos with Disney Characters