Surprise reshuffle of Vice Presidents at the Walt Disney World parks on the horizon?

Jul 21, 2015 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Posted: Tuesday July 21, 2015 5:10pm EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

A surprise reshuffle of leadership at the Walt Disney World parks looks to be on the horizon ahead of some significant expansion announcements for Disney's Hollywood Studios and beyond.

According to our source, speculation is that the current Magic Kingdom Vice President Phil Holmes will be moving to Disney's Hollywood Studios, with current Studios VP Dan Cockerell moving in the opposite direction to become Vice President at the Magic Kingdom.

Phil Holmes (center), vice president of Magic Kingdom Park seen at the opening of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Holmes was widely expected to retire in the near future, which would be at the end of a 40+ year career at Walt Disney World where he has served as Magic Kingdom Vice President since the early 2000's.

His roles at the parks have included everything from an attractions Cast Member at the Haunted Mansion to Vice President at both Disney's Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom. He mostly recently oversaw the New Fantasyland expansion at the park.

Dan Cockerell speaking at Epcot as VP

Dan Cockerell is widely thought to be one of the rising stars of the Walt Disney World leadership team, having already served as Vice President of Epcot, and Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Cockerell has been VP at Disney's Hollywood Studios since July 2011, where according to some sources he was brought in to fix a number of operational issues at that park.

The timing of any such move is interesting as both Disney's Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom are expected to soon begin a phase of considerable construction.

Disney has not yet made any announcement of changes to the leadership at Walt Disney World.

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Tony the TiggerAug 20, 2015

OMG - Somebody used the "g" word and this thread isn't locked yet! (That's getting very old very fast. Cute forum overall, but that is just obnoxious.)

ToTBellHopJul 28, 2015

What's this? This record...it's...it's broken!

ford91exploderJul 28, 2015

Not long now - but the parks financials will be AWESOME!

Sage of TimeJul 28, 2015

Are we talking about TomKMorris on Twitter? I think he was involved in JII.

AbsimilliardJul 28, 2015

To finish on the odd WDI lack of mentions, there was a recent event that make me wonder if some ex imagineers are not to be mentioned? On July 23rd, DLP held a special event for shareholders and the press for the reopening of Space Mountain. They had a french imagineer called Laurent Cayuela, a scenarist, do a 40 minutes presentation on the history of Space Mountain worldwide and concluding with Mission 2. The interesting parts were that he did touch that "computers" helped create Space Mountain at WDW, he did not mention William Watkins, the father of modern roller coasters. He was the head of mechanical engineering at WDW when Space Mountain was being created and he created those heartline curves that are now a staple of every roller coaster around the world. Second, Tim Delaney was not mentioned at all!

lazyboy97oJul 28, 2015

That got me thinking. Tom Morris' official THEA designated role on Cars Land an Radiator Springs Racers (they are combined) is "Creative Director." Magnum is "Executive Producer."

lazyboy97oJul 28, 2015

Tom Morris was creatively involved with Cars Land, and lead creative on Hong Kong Disneyland and Fantasyland at Disneyland Paris.

AbsimilliardJul 28, 2015

For some reasons, WDI or someone there refuse to publicly acknowledge Tom Morris involvement. When the THEA Award (think of the Oscars equivalent for themed attactions) for Carsland was handed out, Kathy Mangum received the award and gave out the presentation at the workshop day. No where in all that did she mention Tom Morris name sadly.

TP2000Jul 28, 2015

Never heard of the guy until now. But I Googled him and found an interview he did in Cars Land in June, 2012. His LinkedIn page is typically vague and has no title listed, but apparently he's still on the WDI payroll. Kathy is a VP and may just be a overgrown project manager. But she was the figurehead for Cars Land and got it done.

WondersOfLifeJul 28, 2015

Not TECHNICALLY a villain... But I mean.. I'm just saying..

lazyboy97oJul 27, 2015

Where she wasn't the big creative and people continue to remain rather unaware of Tom Morris.

TP2000Jul 27, 2015

Because the next step up is the Parks Chairman spot, and it just got filled by Bob Chapek. They used to have a President of American/European parks position, most recently held by Meg Crofton. But she retired two months ago and they never filled that position, they just let it disappear and create a flatter reporting structure where the various site Presidents in Anaheim, Orlando and Paris now report directly to Bob Chapek. That's not a bad structural change in my opinion, as I don't think any of us could figure out what Meg Crofton actually did besides be a senior executive that wasn't a white man. That said, being President of WDW isn't a bad gig for George. And certainly not a bad way to end your career that started as a dishwasher at the Contemporary 45 years ago.