George Kalogridis is known for opening and expanding Disney theme parks.
The president of Walt Disney Co.’s Anaheim operations, a 39-year Disney veteran, has overseen park openings and expansions in Anaheim, Florida and France.
In October, Kalogridis was lured from France—where he had overseen a major expansion of Disneyland Paris—to come back to Anaheim to tackle a project he had a hand in 10 years earlier.
In 2000, Kalogridis was one of several executives brought from Florida for the opening of Disney’s second Anaheim park, Disney’s California Adventure.
“When I left, the new resort had just opened and the palm trees had just been planted,” he said.
In the past decade, Kalogridis has honed his skills around the world at Disney parks undergoing major construction.
“I happen to have a lot of experience with that,” Kalogridis said. “We are fortunate we have teams of talented people who can keep everything going even as others move on.”
Kalogridis replaced Ed Grier, who led the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim for the past three years and left late last year.
Kalogridis reports to Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
He has his work cut out with the expansion of California Adventure.
Disney is spending $1.1 billion on a five-year makeover of California Adventure, the biggest overhaul the company has made to one of its theme parks.
The spending is designed to boost visitors to California Adventure, which has struggled to meet expectations in the shadow of ever popular Disneyland Park.
About 5 million people visit California Adventure a year, versus the 7 million originally projected. Disneyland draws about 15 million people a year.
Disney is remaking the park with tried and true themes—the early days of founder Walt Disney and characters from its Pixar Animation Studios unit—in a bid to get people to identify with California Adventure like they do with Disneyland.
“We’re acting on lessons learned, which is no different than how it works in our other parks,” Kalogridis said.
The challenge for Kalogridis is managing the massive project with as little disruption to the Disney experience as possible for visitors.
Construction
Kalogridis joked the construction may end up being an attraction in itself.
“We have been so concerned that the guest would be distraught about all the construction, but it’s looking to be just the opposite,” he said.
He pointed to a drained lake in the heart of California Adventure where construction is under way on Disney’s World of Color, a nighttime water show named after Walt Disney’s first TV series.
“Guests stand there for hours on the bridge looking out and watching,” Kalogridis said.
World of Color is set to debut by summer.
Kalogridis is hoping to harness fascination with construction when California Adventure’s main entrance and center plaza go under the knife.
Plans are to guide guests through the turnstiles and then through the park’s backstages.
“In our old world, we would have said, ‘Oh gosh that’s a nightmare,’” Kalogridis said. “But guests will love it because they want to see what is back there in the first place.”
In the next year, plans call for redoing the entrance to California Adventure to echo Disneyland’s Main Street. The park’s Buena Vista Street is set to be changed from its current CityWalk motif to a 1920s Los Angeles theme with storefronts.
The largest expansion is Cars Land, with rides based on the Pixar animated movie “Cars.” It’s expected to open in 2012.
Kalogridis could have timing on his side.
The theme park business is expected to bounce back from the downturn this year, according to study by Santa Monica-based IBISWorld Inc., a marketing research firm.
Revenue at theme parks could rise nearly 2% this year from 2009, after dropping nearly 4% from 2008 to 2009, according to IBISWorld.
Attendance at Disney’s Anaheim parks was up 15% from a year earlier for three months through Jan. 2.
Kalogridis’ history with Anaheim begins with California Adventure.
A decade ago, he served as senior vice president of resort operations for Disneyland Resort. He was responsible for opening California Adventure, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Downtown Disney District, a shopping center between the two theme parks.
Started as Busboy
Kalogridis’ role as Disneyland Resort president is a long way from his start as a busboy in the early days of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
He worked his way up to general manager for the Grand Floridian Beach Resort & Spa at Disney World and later became vice president for Disney World’s human resources department.
He cut his teeth on expansion projects as vice president of Disney World’s Epcot Park, where in addition to overseeing park operations he led the team that created the Millennium Celebration for Disney.
During the 15-month marketing effort, Kalogridis forged ties with community and business leaders from around the world.
He said the experience fed his desire to travel. In addition to Paris and Hong Kong, Kalogridis has traveled to other parts of Europe and Asia, as well as to the Middle East and last summer to the North Pole.
In May, he’s going to Shanghai, China, for the World Expo 2010.
Kalogridis now lives in Newport Beach with longtime partner Andrew Hardy. He said he tries not to compare Orange County with Paris, which “was pretty darn good.”
Kalogridis has made it a point to be more of a public figure for Disneyland.
“This role has the responsibility of representing the company in the community,” Kalogridis said.
He inherited an ongoing contract dispute with union hotel workers that saw some members stage hunger strikes outside the Grand Californian and Disney’s Burbank headquarters in February. The two sides recently met with a federal mediator.
In the past six months, Kalogridis has been actively involved with Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and other officials.
Disney recently opened the Toy Story Lot remote parking lot with shuttles from the downsized Orange County Transportation Authority.
“We used to contract external bus companies outside Orange County,” he said. “When I read about the impending cuts at OCTA, I talked to our parking teams about a possible win-win for us both.”
So far, 20 idle buses have been leased and 15 drivers hired.
Kalogridis also sought to hire laid off workers when Anaheim was looking to cut a number of landscaping and janitorial jobs.
“We committed to the mayor that we would send people from our casting department to the city and interview all the impacted people,” he said.
