Disney World President Meg Crofton promoted

[Ed]

Disney World President Meg Crofton promoted

By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel
10:40 PM EDT, July 5, 2011

The head of the Walt Disney Co.'s global theme-park division promoted a pair of Central Florida executives Tuesday in a management shakeup triggered by the departure of another senior official.

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs appointed Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton to the new post of president of operations in the U.S. and France. Crofton will maintain her current responsibilities as president of Disney's Orlando resort — a position she has held since 2006 — but she will also assume oversight of Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and Disneyland Paris.

"Meg's strong leadership abilities and broad experience make her the perfect person to lead resort operations in our established markets in the United States and Europe," Staggs wrote in a memo to employees.

The move is an extension of the company's "One Disney" initiative, in which it has been merging functions and responsibilities between its various resorts. Staggs also added Crofton to his executive committee, the inner circle of executives reporting directly to Staggs — in a move he said is designed "to continue the great work of sharing best practices and leveraging our operational expertise across our properties."

At the same time, Staggs tapped Karl Holz, president of Disney Cruise Line and the Adventures By Disney tour business, to take on oversight of Disney Vacation Club, the company's time-share business. Holz will also join Staggs' executive committee.

"Karl will be responsible for creating consistent and engaging guest experiences as they expand to new markets and destinations outside the berms of our theme parks," Staggs wrote in his memo. "These operations are an important driver of growth in our segment and a critical part of our efforts to build upon and broaden Disney's reputation for delivering magical experiences to our guests, both inside and outside the berm."

Both Crofton and Holz had previously reported to Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney announced last month that Weiss, 57, was retiring after 39 years with the company. Weiss gave up his leadership position immediately, though he will remain in an informal role until the fall.

Staggs eliminated Weiss' position.

A number of other top Disney parks executives who had reported to Weiss will now report elsewhere. Both Disneyland President George Kalogridis and Disneyland Paris President Philippe Gas will report to Crofton, while Disney Vacation Club President Jim Lewis will report to Holz.

Jeff Vahle, executive vice president for facilities operations services, and Erin Wallace, executive vice president for operations integration, will report jointly to Crofton and to Bill Ernest, president of operations in Asia, which includes Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disney and the soon-to-be-built Shanghai Disneyland. Kevin Lansberry, senior vice president of revenue management and analytics, will now report to Wallace.

Staggs also merged sales and marketing divisions, with Leslie Ferraro, previously senior vice president of global marketing, becoming executive vice president of global marketing and sales. Randy Garfield, executive president of worldwide sales and travel operations, will report to Ferraro.

[DizneyFreak2002]

Tom Staggs has promoted Meg Crofton to oversee not only the operations of WDW, but now she gets to ruin, er, lead the operations of Disneyland AND Disneyland Paris...

May I ask, what is in the water they drink in the Disney company???? Too many liquid lunches perhaps??? Maybe Tom Staggs DOESN'T know what he is doing after all.. Just when things looked up, they come crashing back down... Why I had faith good things were ahead is beyond me... Now Disneyland gets to be Walmarted like Walt Disney World.. I feel bad for the Californians...

Time to give up on Disney.... Promote the person who oversaw the walmarting of your flagship resort, decrease in attendance levels, and who is content to get Universal's scrap visitors... No one running the Disney company apparently has a clue...

[Aurora]

Good grief. Too much corporate inside baseball for me, although it does sound like a bit of a shakeup.

I wonder about the DVC aspect and what it might mean for expansion.

[Ian]

Ugh. Every time I read one of these things it reminds me what a messy, bureaucratic behemoth The Walt Disney Company has become. Too many darn Vice Presidents of Pencil Pushing and not enough people out in the parks meeting the needs of the guests.

[mommad]

The thing I wish they would learn from having control of different parks is to learn to take what works and apply it in some way to the others. Granted I don't want every park to have the same thing, but it would be nice to have nice updates all around rather than just partial fixes here and there. One thing they really need to do is get out there with the research teams, ask what the people want to see and take the results seriously.

[Ian]

Actually, you bring up a good point and one that I keep harping on myself.

They seem to find ways to leverage all the cost-saving measures across one park to the other, but the really good stuff that goes on at say Disneyland will never find its way to Walt Disney World.

Having been to both parks, I have to say I was really amazed at just how different the experiences were ... even down to the most granular level.

[2Epcot]

On one of the other boards they are about to storm Burbank over this, fearing the demise of WDW will spread to Disneyland.

[Ian]

On one of the other boards they are about to storm Burbank over this, fearing the demise of WDW will spread to Disneyland.

I wouldn't worry about that too much. I think internally at Disney they have a solid understanding of the major differences between DL and WDW.

DL is the purist experience where little variance from the Disney standard is tolerated by the guest population largely made up of locals who grew up going there.

WDW is the cash cow that they'll milk for every nickel it's worth, knowing that 80% of Americans view at least one trip there as a "bucket list" item.

[mommad]

Yeah, well I wish they'd do something a bit more innovative with that 'cash cow' and put some of the purist stuff back into it. Don't get me wrong I still love going to WDW but I just hope there are better things in store for WDW.

[DizneyRox]

I know a lot of people who have been promoted to the level of their incompetence. I know my boss is one of them, big digress.

This is typical... I've stopped caring so much about my job, I see more people get places for messing up, I'm going to give it a shot myself.

[Tekneek]

I know a lot of people who have been promoted to the level of their incompetence. I know my boss is one of them, big digress.

Peter Principle.

[Imagineer1981]

Interesting news, and unfortunately we will have to just wait and see I guess if this is good or bad. My gut says bad

[Dixie Springs]

Meg's achille's-heel is her resistance to capital infusion within fiscal years ending in odd numbers. Also, her approach to attendance-delta initiatives is antiquated, compared to that of Darren Coldfield of NBCUniversal.

Just kidding. I have no clue what any of this means. I just know I wasn't able to go to WDW this year. Darn.

[Aurora]

Meg's achille's-heel is her resistance to capital infusion within fiscal years ending in odd numbers. Also, her approach to attendance-delta initiatives is antiquated, compared to that of Darren Coldfield of NBCUniversal.

Just kidding. I have no clue what any of this means. I just know I wasn't able to go to WDW this year. Darn.

[Bucs300]

To me Meg Crofton couldn't handle running WDW, which has shown since she took over back in 2006 and the decline in visitors, no maintenance, nothing new being built when Universal is building new rides yearly down the street, which is why their attendance is way up from years past. Now they dump California and Paris in her lap on top of Florida? This should be interesting.