Michael Colglazier joined Walt Disney Co. fresh out of Stanford University.
His degree in industrial engineering got him ready for work on devising “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 take on the field.
Colglazier saw the same opportunity, but put it in different words.
“There was excitement at Disney,” he said of that period. “I wanted to work for a growth company I was proud of.”
He’s got 26 years with the company and is now president of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, where he oversees “efficient systems that integrate workers, machines, materials, information, and energy to make a product or provide a service” to some 16 million visitors last year. Colglazier is our Business Person of the Year in the hospitality category (see related stories, pages 1, 4, 8, 10 and 12).
He got an MBA from Harvard in the early 1990s and went on to broaden his experience at Disney, working in project management, strategy, and technology along with stints in global development and executive roles at two of Disney’s amusements parks in Florida.
This month marks his third-year anniversary as president of Disneyland Resort, which spans 500 acres and includes Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, three hotels, and about 29,000 workers—making it the largest employer in Orange County.
A study by Florida-based Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics LLC and released by Disneyland Resort in June said its operations generated about $5.7 billion in economic impact in 2014.
Colglazier’s 2015 work included celebrating the resort’s 60th anniversary to announcing its new Star Wars Land, to securing an extension of an agreement with the city of Anaheim that forestalls any entertainment tax on Disney’s parks in exchange for $1 billion worth of expansion at the resort.
Colglazier was born in Lafayette, Ind., midway between Indianapolis and Chicago, and raised in Elkhart, 120 miles northeast of Lafayette and six miles from the Michigan state line.
“My first trip to Disneyland was when I was 5,” he said. “We went maybe every three or four years.”
Elkhart’s 52,000 residents amount to a bit more than an average day’s attendance at the parks.
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The average will likely rise with Star Wars Land.
Colglazier notes that the 14-acre project—the largest-ever expansion of Disneyland Park—breaks ground this year.
The park had already made some attractions Star Wars-themed draws—its Space Mountain became Hyperspace Mountain and added music from the Star Wars movie series—and new elements at Star Tours are scheduled for this year.
“We’re able to respond more quickly and nimbly by updating and overlaying” new concepts, Colglazier said. “Stars Wars fans can use Disneyland as a base right now.”
The resort also plans in early summer to swap in an “around-the-world” trip to replace the current California-themed film at the Soarin’ ride at Disney California Adventure, as well as a late-year start on a parking structure.
A stage show based on Walt Disney Co.’s “Frozen” film replaces an “Aladdin” production at California Adventure this month.
“We think at least a decade out,” Colglazier said, “and the elements we build have to last even longer than that.”
Options
He said one of the toughest parts of his job is the long-term planning.
Colglazier oversees thousands of moving parts, and the company has “so many creative options” for what to pursue at the parks—just as visitors to the parks and hotels often come with a plan for their day on which rides to hit first, food choices, and the best routes to try to avoid crowds.
So “Frozen” gets a show—in part perhaps to test its staying power—and “Star Wars” gets bits of Tomorrowland and a home of its own. The new movie in the series opened to large crowds the week before Christmas and grossed more than $1 billion in ticket sales by year-end.
“We have to decide which stories to tell first and what scale to tell [them] in,” he said. “Deciding where that story goes in a park is where it gets complicated.”
“Star Wars,” for instance, required “a large space for a big story.”
Future expansion could come from Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel Comics unit, the “Avatar” film series or a yet-unreleased offering.
Said Colglazier: “We do give ourselves options.”
