Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced several appointments for members of his executive team including a newly created role to oversee major events integration, and new heads for Disneyland Resort, Disney Signature Experiences, and Shanghai Disney Resort. Here are details about Disney’s latest game of musical chairs, plus our commentary about the changes.
The announcement comes as Disney Experiences has embarked on ambitious expansion plans for its cruise line business and at theme parks around the world, with Disneyland in particular on the precipice of a massive development cycle that includes the doubling in size of Avengers Campus, an all-new Pandora World of Avatar, and Coco boat ride in Disney California Adventure.
“We have a deep bench of globally minded business leaders who bring the versatility needed to step into key roles across our diverse portfolio,” said Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Experiences. “These tenured leaders have extensive technical and operational expertise with strong insight and understanding of the guest experience, and possess qualities that promote innovation, creativity, and results.” With that, Josh D’Amaro announced the following strategic senior executive changes:
Ken Potrock, a 30-year Disney veteran will take on the newly created role of President, The Walt Disney Company Major Events Integration. In this new role, Potrock will be responsible for developing comprehensive, cross-company plans to maximize the value of large-scale sports, entertainment and tourism events ranging from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to the 250th Anniversary of the nation.
Potrock joined Disneyland Resort in 2020 and led the successful post-pandemic reopening. Last year, he secured the approval of DisneylandForward, which paves the way for future expansion and investment in Anaheim for the next 40 years. During his tenure, he also oversaw the opening of Avengers Campus, the reimagining of Pixar Place Hotel, expansion of Downtown Disney, and began laying the groundwork for expansion of Disney California Adventure in the next few years.
Prior to leading Disneyland, Potrock was previously President of Consumer Products. Before that, he had two decades of experience with Disney Parks, previously serving as the SVP and GM of Disney Vacation Club and Adventures by Disney. Before that, he led the expansion and reimagining of Disney Springs and served as SVP of Disney Sports Enterprises, where he led the transformation of the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Potrock will continue to report to D’Amaro, with accountability to Jimmy Pitaro, Chairman ESPN.
With Potrock vacating the role, Thomas Mazloum has been appointed the new President of Disneyland Resort. Mazloum will lead more than 36,000 Cast Members and oversee the operation of two theme parks, three resort hotels, and Downtown Disney. He will also guide Disneyland Resort through a new era of growth with projects already announced–and hopefully, more on the horizon as part of DisneylandForward.
Under Mazloum’s recent leadership of Disney Signature Experiences, Disney Cruise Line secured investments and development plans to double its fleet size by 2031. Prior to his time at Disney Cruise Line, Mazloum held various leadership positions at Walt Disney World, overseeing Operations, Resorts, Transportation, ESPN Wide World of Sports, Club 33, Disney Springs and more.
Mazloum will continue to report to D’Amaro.
Joe Schott has been appointed President of Disney Signature Experiences (DSE), a division of Disney Experiences that offers family travel and leisure experiences beyond theme parks, including Disney Cruise Line (DCL), Disney Vacation Club, Aulani – a Disney Resort & Spa, Adventures by Disney, Storyliving by Disney and more.
Schott’s Disney career spans 40 years, and since 2019 he has led Shanghai Disney Resort as President and General Manager. Under his leadership, Shanghai Disneyland expanded to include the successful Zootopia-themed land, new attractions and entertainment. Also in development is a third hotel and a new Spider-Man themed attraction. Prior to his role in Shanghai, Schott led operations at Disneyland Paris and was Executive Managing Director of Walt Disney Attractions Japan at Tokyo Disney Resort. Schott’s vast experience in global markets and his extensive knowledge of international operations will be pivotal as Disney Cruise Line expands its fleet to new destinations worldwide, including Japan. Schott will now report directly to D’Amaro.
Following this move, Andrew Bolstein has been promoted to President & General Manager of Shanghai Disney Resort. Bolstein was part of the opening leadership team at Shanghai Disney Resort, working hand-in-hand with Imagineers as the park took shape. His 30-year career started at Walt Disney World and included leadership roles in Hong Kong and Tokyo, and nearly 13 years in Shanghai. Bolstein brings deep operational knowledge, passion for the Cast and surrounding community, and strong relationships with key government, business and industry partners. Andrew will report to Jill Estorino, President and Managing Director of Disney Parks International.
Transition to the new roles will begin immediately.
I’ve said before that I don’t like to offer commentary about executive leadership at the Walt Disney Company because it’s tough to do so from the outside looking in since fans see what we want to see. We view things in reductionist terms, and can be manipulated by agendas both internal and external to the company.
Consequently, it’s easy to paint leadership in the familiar terms of Disney fairytales. There’s always a villain who gets the brunt of the blame, and an underdog hero who “gets” Disney and could save the company if only they had more power.
A good example of this is already playing out with Ken Potrock, as Disneyland diehards are saying good riddance and hoping that this means the end of park reservations. As has been discussed countless times here, park reservations were already in motion for Disneyland pre-closure.
Park reservations were an initiative that began when Josh D’Amaro President of Disneyland with the Disneyland Flex AP back in 2019. It’s impossible to say how things would’ve played out in the absence of the closure, but I’m pretty confident more park reservations were on the table. It’s also very obvious that D’Amaro is a champion of the system, as he’s boasted about them in a number of interviews.
So to blame Potrock for that, or to baselessly assume his successor might do away with them, strikes me as unfair. It’s entirely possible that park reservations will go away at some point, for some admission types, but that’ll happen when it no longer makes sense for Disneyland to have them–when demand drops to the point that the hit to guest satisfaction and intent to revisit/renew outweighs the upsides in controlling the attendance mix, allocation of resources, etc.
Beyond that, I’ve had the chance to chat with Potrock on a number of occasions and never really got a good read on him. He struck me as more of a manager and less of a passionate or creative type, so perhaps his new role will be a good fit.
To that point, where I don’t think Potrock gets enough credit is with navigating the closure and reopening of Disneyland, repairing relationships with California and City of Anaheim, and getting DisneylandForward approved. He made all of this look easy, but there’s no way it was.
We know all of this wasn’t easy because Potrock succeeded where his predecessors failed. Prior to DisneylandForward, there was the Eastern Gateway proposal that faced staunch opposition from local businesses–and ultimately failed. In addition to abandoning the Eastern Gateway, Disneyland proposed and abandoned a luxury hotel project to replace part of Downtown Disney. A morass of other political disputes did significant damage to Anaheim’s and Disney’s 60+ year relationship.
Under Ken Potrock, the company’s relationship with the city flourished, and he was also able to repair strained relationships with the state. Governor Newsom even made a visit to Disneyland, championed the DisneylandForward proposal and encouraged Disney to invest more in California. That was quite the 180 from how things were in 2020 at the state level, or in 2016-2018 at the city level.
In fairness, Potrock benefitted tremendously from being in the right place at the right time. Due to the lost revenue during the closure, Anaheim realized just how much it needed Disneyland, and its residents also became more amenable to a proposal like DisneylandForward (a new city council also helped). Likewise, the political tides turned at the state level, and Potrock capitalized on that.
Nevertheless, it would be dismissive to attribute Potrock’s successes to the prevailing political winds. Even if it was partly a matter of striking while the iron was hot, he did do it–and that’s something that many Disneyland leaders failed to do, which is precisely why those 2017-2018 projects went nowhere.
Potrock came out swinging right out of the year-plus closure, and those were aggressive moves that are deserving of applause. It would seem that all of this makes him perfectly suited to be President of Disney Major Events Integration. I just hope that’s a real role, and not just something created as a face-saving measure for Potrock instead of showing him the door. It would be nice if the company and Disneyland, specifically, have big plans for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but I’m not holding my breath.
Impressed as I was by Potrock’s medium and long-term strategic planning decisions, I have been less than enthused by day-to-day management of Disneyland Resort over the last few years. There was once a distinct difference between the approaches of Disneyland and Walt Disney World, with the former always seeming to go above and beyond.
That seems to be less the case now. Events have gotten tired, less of an effort is put into entertainment, and there’s just generally more cost-cutting and less urgency in new offerings. For lack of a better term, it seems like Disneyland has been on autopilot and there’s not much on the horizon to suggest a break from that this year or in 2026. I’m not sure how much of that is or was attributable to Ken Potrock and how much is just the new (temporary?) normal during the period of pent-up demand. Either way, it doesn’t seem like some fresh leadership would be a bad thing from that perspective.
This might also be why Thomas Mazloum is being brought in as President of Disneyland Resort. He’s already overseen massive fleet experience of Disney Cruise Line with the successful debuts of the Wish and Treasure. It seems like Disney Cruise Line is the one aspect of Parks & Resorts that has been full steam ahead on expansion efforts, with projects moving in an expeditious manner instead of at a glacial pace.
Obviously, DCL is a different beast than the theme parks, but perhaps Iger and D’Amaro want to bring this same style of project management to Disneyland in order to actually have all of the aforementioned projects finished by the 2028 Olympics…or Disneyland’s 75th Anniversary. In the nearer term, there’s the reality that the CEO seat will be vacated in the next two years and, with that, a high likelihood that the same is true of the Parks Chairman role. So any leadership changes below that in the next couple of years could be positioning the pieces on the board to prepare for that. I guess we shall see what happens next!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and many other SoCal cities!
Your Thoughts
Thoughts on these leadership changes? Disappointed to see Kevin Mayer leaving Disney Plus? Happy to see Josh D’Amaro moving up, or concerned about him not focusing specifically on Walt Disney World? Thoughts about anyone else named to the new Parks & Resorts leadership team? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
