The new CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger, has launched an extensive reorganization of many of the Mouse House’s business units. Coming so soon after his official ascension in October, it’s apparent he’s been thinking about making these moves for awhile.
Today we’re hearing about a merger of Walt Disney Television Animation into the Disney Channel and a reordering of the departments there. Yesterday we learned of a reorganization in the theme parks division. I wonder what’s next to be announced.
This new Parks and Resorts structure elevates the current Walt Disney World president Al Weiss to lead a new board tasked with overseeing worldwide operations of the Disney Themeparks and related divisions. There’s been quite a bit of hypothesizing how this will affect the other park presidents which have operated with a certain degree of autonomy up til now. It also appears to firm up the recent move to cut Walt Disney Imagineering’s independence down to near zilch.
I’m a little worried about the WDI move and the apparent desire to homogenize the Disney themepark experience. But at the same time these moves could lead to a renewal in the Parks and Resorts division that will ensure the Walt Disney Company remains as leaders of the theme park industry for the next 50 years as well. Let’s hope it’s the latter.
[ Tags: disney, themeparks, theme+park, bob+iger, jay+rasulo, wdw, disneyland, disneyworld, disney+world, wdi, imagineer, imagineering, al+weiss ]
I was very impressed in reading about Lee Cockrell in a reprint of some articles he posted about his life on the WDW Employee newsletter. I always thought he seemed to be a great fit for park leadership, as high up the chain as he can go. I hope this moves him up the ladder some more, though I can’t quite pin down what position he holds right now.
Is there a current org chart for WDW and other park management?
I do remember he was involved in the flak about cast members being “off the clock” and not required to assist guests some time ago. I hope that was just an aberration…
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