Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of <a href="http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID10035810.asp" target="_blank"><b>Latest: Disney Executive George Kalogridis Named President of the Disneyland Resort </b></a> <p><font size="2" face="Arial">George Kalogridis, a 38-year Disney veteran and former Disneyland executive, has been named president of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Kalogridis most recently served as chief operating officer for Disneyland Resort Paris, where he was responsible for leading the operations team and overseeing the highly successful 15th anniversary celebration of the resort.</font></p>
Originally Posted By retlawfan Didn't Ed Grier work for Disney for 38 years too? Is George ready to retire too? Just an observation. Here's wishing George has a good run at the resort, is welcomed by the CMs and the guests, and that the resort continues to shine (and is profitable).
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt He sounds like a good choice to me. Running DLP has to be a really tough job.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo God help Disneyland. George K has really run DLP into a hole. So much so we are only going next year for the sake of the kids. If you want synergistic toon crap, and additions that belong in a Six Flags park, coupled with terrible entertainment that only include rubber heads, and staggered opening and closing times that mean the non e-tickets are only all open for 3 hours of the day, let alone no fireworks at the upcharge party, as well as all the restaurants turning into buffets, and the shops have very few DLP specific offerings (only 6 resort specific pins for sale anyone) he's your man! On the flip side, maybe DLP will get back on track and we will have a better future to look forward to now he is leaving us (thank goodness). But as DL is my fav park, I hope he does not ruin it more too.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA From the press information... <From 2000 to 2002, Kalogridis served as senior vice president of Resort Operations for the Disneyland Resort, where he played a significant role in the first expansion of the resort - the opening of Disney's California Adventure park and Downtown Disney. In addition, he was responsible for the daily operations of both theme parks and three hotels, as well as Downtown Disney.> So, he's from Disneyland!
Originally Posted By Ursula I don't know what to think. I'm glad he is from the company for so long, though.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt I'm guessing, but I imagine that a lot of the operational problems with DLP have to do with the constraints that resort has in terms of revenue. Is it even turning a regular profit? DLR, on the other hand, seems to be somewhat of a cash cow and the legacy of Pressler and his notorious cut back on maintenance is still fresh in some people's minds. If DLP is being run on the cheap because of economics I hope that Weiss understands that Disney cannot afford to run Anaheim the same way just to save money. Note that Kalgridis was the senior vice president of Resort Operations at the DLR before heading off to France. I know nothing about this guy, but I think it's a major plus that he has in depth experience with Disney's Anaheim property. Weren't Pressler and Harriss both from The Disney Store? As far as synergistic toon crap, that's junk is already in Anaheim with more under construction or on the drawing boards. Obviously the choice of whether to build this stuff or not is beyond the control of whomever is running the place.
Originally Posted By leemac George is regarded as a decent Ops guy - the problem is that DLR already has a great Ops guy in Michael O'Grattan. I'm surprised to see him passed over for the promotion but equally not surprised to see Special K being elevated again as he is a Jay henchman. Arguably that completes the set as Jay has now replaced every single key executive in his tensure with one of his buddies. I almost spat out my coffee when I read the snippet in Post 7 - the notion that Special K had anything to do with the DLR expansion is laughable. He was in place for literally months prior to the opening of the Grand CA - no time at all to have any influence except over the message of the Opening Day (Special K can happily claim title to Scaremonger when he reinforced DLR's view that DCA would be more popular than DL). In light of the fact that all of the key expansion decisions have already been determined for DLR I'm just hoping Special K needs to maintain the status quo before his next promotion. If he is involved in the third park negotiations then God help DLR.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy It's pretty standard to reward executives that take difficult overseas assignments with the "prized" U.S. positions after they've completed their international tour of duty. That's essentially how the last DL president landed the job and has been a trend for quite a while at the Walt Disney Company. Really no surprise here.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "I almost spat out my coffee when I read the snippet in Post 7 - the notion that Special K had anything to do with the DLR expansion is laughable." Um, I never said that he had anything to do with the DLR expansion.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "...the problem is that DLR already has a great Ops guy in Michael O'Grattan. I'm surprised to see him passed over for the promotion but equally not surprised to see Special K being elevated again as he is a Jay henchman." How do we know it wasn't offered to him and he turned it down? "Arguably that completes the set as Jay has now replaced every single key executive in his tensure with one of his buddies." Wasn't Ed Grier picked for the DLR position under Al Weiss? Also, who makes the decision of who is offered the top resort management position, Al Weiss or Jay Rasulo?
Originally Posted By Spyderman To quite one of the comments in the O.C. Register: "Okay… Disneyland Paris is renowned for its struggle and DCA was viewed as a colossal misfire when it opened. So now, they are going to bring in the guy overseeing these failures? You can tell just by the stuffed suit that he is wearing in this photo that he probably subscribes to the M. Eisner school of thought where we: Build it on the cheap then sell it to the fans using an outrageous and misleading marketing campaign. DLR is now doomed" George K. already sounds like a troublemaker but i'll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt But according to Lee he had nothing to do with DCA and the resort expansion.
Originally Posted By Spyderman He was one of DCA's biggest chearleaders though and was very much in line with Paul Pressler's business strategy.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Wasn't Ed Grier picked for the DLR position under Al Weiss? Also, who makes the decision of who is offered the top resort management position, Al Weiss or Jay Rasulo?>> Al is one of Jay's cohorts too. Al heads up Worldwide Ops. President roles are determined by Jay. <<He was one of DCA's biggest chearleaders though and was very much in line with Paul Pressler's business strategy. >> Absolute nonsense. Paul was not a fan of Special K.
Originally Posted By Spyderman After looking at the damage done to DLP I would say that Special K is just as bad as Pressler
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt He was one of DCA's biggest chearleaders though and was very much in line with Paul Pressler's business strategy." Of course he was. Those were his bosses at the time. What other choice did he have but to tow the company line? "Al is one of Jay's cohorts too. Al heads up Worldwide Ops. President roles are determined by Jay." Gotcha. So then, by that token was Grier not one the "cohorts" as well?
Originally Posted By Westsider leemac, Michael O'Grattan is not the SVP of Ops any more. That role for him lasted less than a year, and during the big reorg last winter Michael was moved over to the SVP of Entertainment, with responsibility for major entertainment at all the parks globally. He is no longer focused just on Anaheim. There is currently a Disneyland President, and then a Vice President of Disneyland (Big Jon Storbeck - The Coolest Operator In The World), DCA (Mary Niven), and the Hotels and DTD (Tony Bruno). Those three VP's report directly to the DLR President, with no SVP in between them.
