Disney Experiences Team: Assemble! - A Closer Look at the Current Leadership

When Thomas Mazloum succeeded Josh D’Amaro as Chairman of Disney Experiences, one of his first major responsibilities was assembling the leadership team that will oversee the largest expansion in the segment’s history. Looking at how everything has landed, it appears he has built something of a super team — bringing together a group of executives whose collective experience, institutional knowledge, and appreciation for Disney may represent one of the strongest leadership lineups the segment has had in decades. So let’s take a look at Thomas Mazloum’s own version of the Avengers.

Before diving in, it is worth acknowledging two executives who are already preparing for their next chapters. Ken Potrock has announced his upcoming retirement, while Lisa Baldzicki and Disney Consumer Products will be transitioning to the Studios organization. Both have made significant contributions to Disney Experiences, but for the purposes of looking at the team that will carry the segment forward, I am going to focus on the leaders who will remain under Mazloum as this next era begins.

To know Natacha Rafalski is to love her. Disney fans can sometimes bristle when an executive rises through the finance ranks, fearing that spreadsheets may win out over storytelling, but Rafalski has proven time and again that she understands what it means to be a Disney fan. During her tenure leading Disneyland Paris, she helped strengthen the resort’s connection with its audience even while the business faced significant economic challenges. She understood that fandom itself has value and found ways to cultivate it throughout Europe rather than treating passionate guests as merely another customer segment. She also remains one of the few Disney executives I regularly see actually wearing Disney merchandise, which may sound like a small thing but says something about how naturally she connects with the magic.

Rafalski is now President of Disney Signature Experiences, a portfolio that includes some of the most fan-driven businesses within Disney Experiences. Disney Cruise Line is undergoing unprecedented expansion and already commands an intensely loyal following. Disney Vacation Club and Storyliving by Disney go even further, asking guests not simply to vacation with Disney but to literally buy into the Disney lifestyle through ownership.

Then there are Adventures by Disney and National Geographic Expeditions. While both remain premium offerings with passionate audiences, there has been a perception among some longtime guests that the quality and distinctiveness of those experiences have diminished. Based on what Rafalski accomplished in Paris, I believe she has both the operational discipline and the understanding of Disney fandom necessary to strengthen those businesses while continuing to manage the enormous growth happening across Signature Experiences.

Speaking of Disney’s international destinations, Tasia Filippatos is the new President and Managing Director of Disney Parks International. In that role, she oversees the leaders of Disney’s non-domestic resorts while also managing some of the company’s most important and complicated partnerships, including its relationship with the Oriental Land Company at Tokyo Disney Resort and the development of Disney’s upcoming destination in Abu Dhabi.

Filippatos spent much of her Disney career within Consumer Products, so she may not be as familiar to theme park fans as executives who have spent years walking Main Street or appearing on stage at fan events. But I have been impressed by her for decades. When she led communications for Disney Consumer Products, she consistently demonstrated an understanding of what makes Disney special and why the company needs to be intentional and authentic in the way it communicates, both internally and externally.

That kind of authenticity is difficult to manufacture. You either understand why people have an emotional relationship with Disney or you don’t. Filippatos has always struck me as someone who does, which makes her a particularly interesting choice to lead Disney in international markets where the company is constantly introducing its stories and experiences to new generations of fans.

At Walt Disney World, former Jungle Cruise skipper and 40-year Disney veteran Joe Schott is stepping into one of the biggest operational jobs in the company. Schott may not be as outwardly gregarious as some Disney leaders, but once you get him talking about Disney, his enthusiasm quickly becomes infectious. Having worked at Disney destinations around the world, he understands both the enormous operational machinery required to run a resort and the tiny details that make Disney feel different from its competitors. Talking with him can feel less like speaking with a corporate executive and more like talking with another longtime Disney fan who happens to have spent his career making the place work.

That perspective will be particularly valuable at Walt Disney World over the next several years. Imagineering can create remarkable attractions, lands, hotels, and experiences, but eventually all of those projects have to transition from construction sites into living, breathing operations. Schott has spent his career taking the experiences Imagineering creates and operating them in a way that remains faithful to the original vision while serving millions of guests. I hope we get to hear more from him in the years ahead because, beyond his impressive résumé, he is simply a blast to engage with when he gets talking about Disney.

Meanwhile, 35-year Disney veteran Jill Estorino is the new President of the Disneyland Resort. She may not yet be particularly well known among Disneyland fans, but she brings decades of experience across marketing and sales to what may be one of the most deceptively difficult leadership positions within Disney Experiences. Disneyland occupies a unique place within both the company and its surrounding community. Disneyland has an enormous base of regular visitors who notice every operational adjustment, entertainment change, menu update, refurbishment, and construction wall. 

Recently, some Disneyland fans have expressed frustration over smaller changes at the resort, including criticism of what many viewed as lackluster Halloween offerings announced for this year. Jill is arriving during something of a transitional period, and it would be unfair to attribute those decisions to a leader who is only now getting settled into the role and hopefully she will be able to turn that perception around. Her recent appearance at CHOC Walk made a positive impression, and hopefully fans in town for D23 will begin seeing more of her around the resort and get a better sense of the leadership style she will bring to Disneyland.

Of course, the Disney Experiences leadership team extends well beyond the presidents running individual destinations. Human resources, marketing, technology, safety, finance, communications, and numerous other functions play essential roles in making the segment work. Bruce Vaughn’s leadership of Walt Disney Imagineering is particularly important because virtually every destination will rely on Imagineering to design and deliver the unprecedented number of projects now in development.

But there is another member of Mazloum’s leadership team who deserves special recognition: Alannah Hall-Smith, Executive Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs. Under Alannah’s leadership, the relationship between Disney Experiences and its fans has changed considerably. Fan passion increasingly feels less like something the company needs to manage and more like an asset it can embrace. Fair criticism is not automatically treated as hostility, but rather as feedback that can sometimes help Disney better understand what its most engaged guests value.

Perhaps most importantly, there has been a noticeable effort to communicate in a more authentic and human way while still, naturally, presenting Disney in the best possible light. That balance matters. Disney employees are people, and Disney fans are people, yet in the past the humanity of both groups could sometimes get lost. Fans could be treated as one enormous, monolithic audience, while corporate messaging could become so polished that it was difficult to see the people behind the work.

There is actually something very traditional about this newer approach. Walt Disney himself understood the importance of speaking directly to his audience. He entered American homes every week, explained what his teams were working on, introduced Imagineers and artists, and invited viewers into the creative process. Alannah and her team have taken some of that lost ethos and adapted it to an era of social media, fan sites, influencers, constant news cycles, and instantaneous communication. The result has been a meaningful improvement in the relationship between Disney Experiences and its most passionate fans. Hopefully, that philosophy becomes infectious across the rest of The Walt Disney Company because authentic communication builds trust.

So as we transition the major investment Disney is making from the design and construction phases to the operations phases, it would seem that Thomas has a great group of leaders to bring these experiences to life over the next few years. I wish them all the best as their success means success for fans as we keep moving forward with the future of Disney Experiences.