Disneyland Resort presidents move up or out.
Michael Colglazier is moving up.
Walt Disney Co.’s parks and resorts unit last week named him president and managing director of it properties in Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong, effective March 5.
Joshua D’Amaro, a senior executive at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, will be president of Disneyland, where he began as a Disney executive in 1998 and worked for eight years.
They “bring a wealth of knowledge and experience [and] are the right leaders to bring our ambitious expansion plans to life,” Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek said in a statement.
Colglazier has worked for Disney Co. for 28 years; D’Amaro for 20.
Shanghai Disney Resort opened 19 months ago; Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, opened in 2005, is in the early stages of a five-year, $1.4 billion expansion to include immersive lands based on Walt Disney’s Marvel and “Frozen” assets; Tokyo Disney Resort said in November it would increase the size of the park by 30% in a five-year, $2.7 billion expansion.
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim is building Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge; planning a 2019 opening; plans for a fourth hotel off Disneyland Drive; and has been upgrading and changing the tenant mix at Downtown Disney, a 17-year-old retail, restaurant and recreation offering due for a refresh and a possible name change to match the company redo of its Walt Disney World Resort equivalent—known as Downtown Disney from 1997 to 2015, and now called Disney Springs.
The slot for Colglazier opened up when Asia Pacific’s Bill Ernest—who led the division for 10 years and has worked for Disney a quarter-century—said he’d retire.
Disneyland declined additional comment.
28-Year Man
Colglazier, 51, is a Disney lifer and rising star.
He was born in Elkhart, Indiana—six miles from the Michigan state line—and first saw Disneyland at age 5.
He’s never worked anywhere else since graduating from Stanford University with a bachelor’s in industrial engineering in 1989, though he took two years in the early 1990s to get a Harvard MBA.
When the Business Journal named him Person of the Year for Hospitality in 2016, he said his decision to join the entertainment behemoth, then a good bit smaller, was born of emotion—“There was excitement at Disney; I wanted to work for a growth company I was proud of.”—and a mechanic’s mind.
Industrial engineers devise “efficient systems that integrate workers, machines, materials, information, and energy to make a product or provide a service,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics definition.
He went to Disneyland after stints at corporate, Epcot and Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida.
Rising Son
The rising star part comes from running Orange County’s largest employer—30,000 workers—in a division—parks and resorts—that is consistently one of Disney Co.’s bright spots come quarterly report time. The global giant is involved in consumer goods, digital and interactive, and media, but Chapek’s parks and resorts consistently perform at the top of the company’s range.
Disneyland Resort celebrated a successful 60th anniversary in 2015—it went so well the parks stretched the annual event to 18 months; negotiated a favorable tax deal with the city of Anaheim the same year with the pledge of $1 billion in new construction in trade for the benefit, and in 2016 broke ground on the 14-acre Star Wars-themed land—Disneyland Park’s largest-single expansion—and said it would build the 700-room hotel, a “four-diamond quality” property also in line for tax benefits, valued at $625 million, including land.
Resort attendance is estimated at well north of 20 million a year—the company doesn’t break out figures for individual properties—and local economic impact above $6 billion.
5-Year Plan
Under Colglazier’s extended reign—he’s been president since Feb. 1, 2013—Disneyland growth, operations and pricing have moved in tandem with the properties’ financial performance.
In Asia he’ll find three distinct cultures hosting three properties, none of which Disney owns outright.
It holds 43% of Shanghai’s resort in partnership with Shanghai Shendi Group, a joint venture of three firms owned by the government. It has 47% of the Hong Kong property, also in partnership with local government affiliates; but Disney will pay for half of the resort’s expansion, and increase its stake to 48%.
It owns none of Tokyo Disney, held by the Oriental Land Co. Ltd., which pays royalties to Disney.
His ability to maneuver, honed from a position of relative strength, given Disney’s local size and heft, will be tested in the new arena.
Executive Sweet
The extended reign part comes from Colglazier’s five years in the local lead role.
Each of the previous six presidents served three to five years; one retired, two were promoted, and three left Disney.
Colglazier’s predecessor, George Kalogridis, moved to Walt Disney World Resort as president. He’d begun at Disney bussing tables at a restaurant there in 1971—about the time Colglazier first visited Disneyland.
As the park’s performance impressed, industry watchers began to wonder where Colglazier would go next.
Asia often, but he’ll be based in Burbank and plans to continue as chairman of the UCI Chief Executive Roundtable through next year.
Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Iger has pushed back his retirement several times.
Chapek replaced Tom Staggs as head of the parks division in 2015.
Staggs moved to chief operating officer and was seen as Iger’s heir until his 2016 resignation; the COO role is unfilled, and Chapek—a 25-year Disney vet who’s worked across its business lines—has emerged as a possible chief executive.
New Boss
D’Amaro is the same age, 46, as Colglazier was on his first day as Disneyland president in 2013.
He’s been with the company 20 years; Colglazier had put in about 24 years when he got the post.
D’Amaro’s LinkedIn profile lists his duties as chief commercial officer, a role he’s held about a year.
He was previously a senior vice president of operations and transportation at Walt Disney World, the amusement park at the overall resort of the same name.
At Walt Disney World Resort theme park Disney’s Animal Kingdom, he replaced Colglazier in 2013 when the latter was named to lead Disneyland.
D’Amaro has also worked in Disney’s global tour operations; in travel trade marketing at Hong Kong Disneyland; as chief financial officer over global licensing for consumer products; and in corporate business planning and development.
He worked eight years at Disneyland, the company press release said.
Prior to joining Walt Disney Co. in 1998, he worked five years for Boston-based Gillette Co., which is owned by Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati.
His Georgetown bachelor’s degree is in marketing.
