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Josh D'Amaro Named Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, Products Division

Well once they ran Catherine off, it was always in the cards...

He's a smart guy and probably the best of the potential next ups, but he's also ridden a fair amount of luck to pass a lot of people along the way.
 
He deserves the promotion based on what I’ve seen of him, but I really liked what he was bringing to WDW. I hope the new person doesn’t come in and rock the boat too much. It seemed like cast morale was up during Josh’s tenure.
 
Other moves have been posted... Jeff Vahle is now WDW President.

Rebecca Campbell is taking Kevin's DTC/International
DLR President Ken Potrock
Consumer Products head is Kareem Daniel
Thomas Mazloum is President of Disney Signature Services
 
Does D'Amaro's rise to power seem weirdly sudden to anyone else? I have to wonder if George K. is mad that his career path (which was very similar to D'Amaro's) didn't result in something similar.
 
For the short-term suddenness, he surely is the beneficiary of Catherine jumping/getting pushed. Absent that, you have to think he would still be in a line of sorts.

George had a reputation for being .... how should I say this .... not the most adept on the business/detail side of things. He was never going to be a Burbank guy... Josh on the other hand has always seemed like he was destined to end up there in some capacity.

The further back suddenness of his rise (like... VP of AK back when Pandora was half as expensive as it turned out to be, VP of AbD when its total revenue was a less than a rounding error on a WDW project) is what I would think other execs would look at with a disdainful eye. Not to either open a can of worms or suggest anything untoward (100% not where I'm going with this), but he had someone who didn't have top-of-the-peak aspirations pulling him along and mentoring him. That person is not George.
 
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Another angle of looking at this.... Parks people basically went undefeated in the taking over open position roulette game compared to DTC/International. If you were one of Kevin Mayer's direct reports, you're probably either eyeing the exit door or downloading Tik Tok to figure out how you can best fit in there.
 
With the caveat that the position only has as much power as the CEO will allow the person in the role to have, I think -- based on everything I've seen and heard about D'Amaro -- it's a clear and significant improvement over Chapek (which wouldn't have been hard, but still).

Hopefully, with Chapek's focus being on the larger company, D'Amaro can do some good under his nose.
 
I think D’Amaro came in strong to WDW and won over a lot of favor with cast members by being vocal about improving the CM experience and just being highly visible. Between his Instagram stories, CastTV videos, and the emails we’ve gotten since March, he’s been engaging and likeable in a way that Chapek never was. So if he can keep it up and follow through, I think we have a lot to look forward to.
 
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