Disneyland Resort has recast its executive ranks, creating a senior vice president position as the lone report to President Michael Colglazier and bringing in two new faces from other parts of parent Walt Disney Co.
Changes include new roles for two veteran executives of the Anaheim operation and the retirement of a third.
A resort spokesperson said the changes were effective immediately. They appear to give Colglazier a deeper bench as the resort embarks on major construction at the resort: Building starts on a new Star Wars Land next year. A Marvel-themed project is said to be in the works and could follow a few years later; there are also rumors of a renovation of Downtown Disney.
Niven
Mary Niven, previously vice president at Disneyland Park, has been named senior vice president of Disneyland Operations, the new position. She will report directly to Colglazier.
Kris Theiler has moved into Niven’s former slot as head of the resort’s namesake park. Theiler had been vice president overseeing its second park, Disney California Adventure.
Jon Storbeck—a 32-year veteran of Disneyland who most recently was vice president over the resort’s three Orange County hotels and its Downtown Disney retail operations—will leave the company next month.
Executives coming from other parts of the Burbank-based entertainment company are Christie Fleischer, now vice president with responsibility for Disney California Adventure and retail operations at Downtown Disney; and Elliot Mills, vice president over the three hotels Disney owns and operates at the resort.
Fleischer had been a senior vice president for retail development in the company’s consumer products division; Mills was most recently general manager of Aulani, a Disney-owned resort in Hawaii.
Fleischer and Mills will report to Niven.
Day-to-Day
The Disneyland spokesperson declined comment on reasons for the moves.
Colglazier in January begins his fourth year at Disneyland Resort.
Each of the last six presidents of Disneyland Resort have stayed in that position for three to five years and were then either promoted or left the company.
Colglazier’s predecessor in Anaheim was George Kalogridis, currently president of Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. He got that slot in 2013 and handed over Disneyland Resort reins to Colglazier.
The new help for Colglazier comes after a year when he successfully shepherded through city channels an extension on an exemption from future entertainment tax levies by the city, through 2045, in exchange for Disneyland Resort spending at least $1 billion by 2024 on expanding its operations.
Creation of the senior vice president role that gives Niven day-to-day duties over the full operation could prep her to step into Colglazier’s slot in the future.
Theiler’s shift to Disneyland Park and Fleischer’s arrival to oversee Disney California Adventure and the retail component at Downtown Disney give Niven two executives focused on areas set for or said to be getting development work over the next several years.
Retail
Fleischer was previously a senior vice president but in a lower-profile role: retail development, compared with Disneyland Resort.
Downtown Disney is the 10-acre, 300,000-square-foot shopping area near the resort’s hotels. It has 25 stores and 18 carts and kiosks, the resort spokesperson said.
Some observers expect the 15-year-old retail center to get a refresh similar to Walt Disney World’s renovation of its own Downtown Disney shopping district.
That development reopened as Disney Springs in September.
The Anaheim resort’s Downtown Disney has room for more stores, and its House of Blues venue decamps for the nearby GardenWalk—at Katella Avenue and Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and not part of Disney’s operations—in summer 2016.
Fleischer’s former duties in retail development and consumer products seem to dovetail in her new role in running Downtown Disney.
Mills likewise has hotels and resort experience in the company as he steps into that more sharply focused role at the Anaheim resort.
