Alums from Theme Park Have Gone on to Consult, Promote

Disneyland’s opening 50 years ago spawned a cadre of executives who went on to shape other companies and industries throughout Southern California, the state and even the nation.

Some remain in the tourism business here in Orange County, using their backgrounds at Disney to work on other theme parks, promote tourism or stage big events.

“There are thousands of people who use Disney as a stepping stone,” said Mel Cecil, president of Newport Beach-based theme park consultant Ledo Inter-national and a Disney alum.

Among them are operations specialists, marketing and communications executives and former Disneyland president Jack Lindquist.

During his time at Disneyland, Lindquist led what was dubbed “Operation Water”,an effort to bring water from all the oceans for the debut of It’s a Small World.

Lindquist also started grad night for high schools and turned the 30th anniversary into a major production.

“It was a wonderful 38 years,” Lindquist said. “Being president was the best job anyone ever came up with.”

Lindquist formed his own consultancy after leaving Disneyland in 1993.

One of The Lindquist Group’s ventures was working on the opening of the Getty Center. But Lindquist’s efforts were scaled back after he suffered a stroke and retired for good not long after.

His son now operates the business, working on promotions for Crystal Cathedral, Strawberry Farms and other clients.

Ledo’s Cecil, along with partner Thor Degelman, worked on all of Walt Disney Co.’s theme parks, from Anaheim to Paris.

Today, their company does operations and development work on theme parks and other projects, including a planned entertainment hub in Garden Grove.

For the past year, Ledo has worked with Garden Grove officials on conceptual plans for International West, a business, entertainment and theme park development planned for 400 acres along Harbor Boulevard south of the Disneyland Resort.

“We apply what we learned (at Disney) to other market areas,” Cecil said.

Another former Disney operations manager, Jim Benedick, is a principal in the Tustin office of Florida’s ProFun Management Group, which advises on entertainment, amusement and other ventures.

Benedick, who managed Tomorrowland in the 1970s, counts four other Disneyland workers and two from Walt Disney World on his staff.

In 2003, ProFun purchased Space Center Bremen in Germany, an indoor amusement park that’s closed for now until development around it is complete.

ProFun also has a hand in a South African theme park, provided operational support to a Volkswagen AG project in Germany and consulted on redevelopment of the Daytona Beach, Fla., pier.

Benedick said his 10 years at Disneyland “prepared me to be a consultant in this field.”

“We constantly studied the park to understand what, how and why things were happening and what to do to change them,” he said.

Another former Disney marketing executive still active in OC is Mark Feary, a 31-year Disney veteran who was vice president of marketing for Euro Disney and vice president of marketing for the release of “Fantasia 2000.”

Hosting Olympians

Feary started at Disneyland working on the Disneyland Railroad and later was part of the team that brought Olympic athletes to Disneyland in the days leading up to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“I had the opportunity to spend entire weekends with Olympic stars I’d watched on TV,” he said.

Now Feary is executive director of the Orange County Tourism Council at California State University, Fullerton.

The tourism council works to promote the county to visitors and recently started a scholarship for students in hospitality or tourism. It also stages the annual Service Excellence Awards that recognize tourism workers here, an event that drew almost 600 to the Hyatt Regency Orange County in March.

Cal State Fullerton produced a number of graduates who went on to work for Disney. And Disneyland helped start CSUF’s Center for Entertainment and Tourism in 1999.

Bill Ross, former senior vice president of public affairs at Disneyland, “was instrumental in convincing the school of the need for a program that would give students an understanding of the industry,” said Cynthia King, director of the program.

Some 300 undergraduates are majoring in tourism and entertainment at CSUF.

Disneyland officials helped develop the center’s programs and internships and provide guest speakers and support for campus events, King said.

Bill Long, a marketing director at Disneyland in the 1970s, now runs his own consultancy, Long on Promotions. He still does work for Disney as well as Irvine’s JNR Corp., which produces shows for meetings and conventions.

Other clients include the Hilton Anaheim, the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau and Best Western International Inc. Stovall hotels in Anaheim.

Long said he remembers the days of lean marketing budgets at the happiest place on earth.

“The lack of funds forced our team to do some of the most creative work of our careers,” he said.

Creative Marketing

That work included a Winnie the Pooh for president campaign, the America on Parade promotion for the U.S. Bicentennial, the debut of the Main Street Electrical Parade and bringing the Mercury astronauts to Disneyland to open Space Mountain.

“Without that (Disneyland) experience, I couldn’t be doing what I’m doing now,” Long said.

Long, who also was vice president of marketing and sales for the Seattle Mariners under former owner George Argyros, recently worked on a tour for Julio Iglesias.

Milt Albright, one of Disneyland’s first employees, spent 45 years at the park,part of it working under Long.

Albright didn’t start a business when he retired. But his work at Disneyland still influences the OC tourism sector.

Nixed: HolidayLand

Albright, the first manager of the Magic Kingdom Club, also managed a group venue called HolidayLand, a separate picnic area at Disneyland that visitors had to pay to get into.

“That didn’t work out,” Albright said. “The concept worked in other parts of the country. But we were wrong about doing it here.”

When Walt Disney closed HolidayLand, Albright headed up an effort to sell picnics to unions and other groups after hours or offseason when Disneyland wasn’t open year-round during its first decade. Later, they added private parties.

“Roy (Disney) always said he wanted to maximize the utilization of existing facilities,” Albright said.

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Where Are They Now?

Some of Walt Disney Co.’s most prominent executives,those involved in the 2001 expansion that brought California Adventure,also have moved on.

Here is what some of them are doing today:

Paul Pressler, who followed Jack Lindquist as president of Disneyland, now is chief executive of San Fran-cisco-based Gap Inc.

Cynthia Harriss, who came after Pressler as president of Disneyland and was the point person during the expansion, now is president of Gap brands under Pressler.

Bill Ross, former senior vice president of public affairs, now is chief executive of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation in Walnut Creek.

Donna Sue Davis, former director of resort and park event sales and service, keeps trying to retire, with limited success. In the year before the Anaheim Angels were sold to Arte Moreno, she assisted Disney with marketing the baseball team. More recently, longtime Anaheim hotelier Bill O’Connell has brought Davis on to oversee marketing for the Doubletree Guest Suites slated to open later this year in Anaheim.

Rod Schinnerer, former general manager of Disneyland Hotel and later Downtown Disney, now is managing the Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach.

,Sandi Cain