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Rilous Carter leaving Epcot; Erin Young to replace him

KevinYee

KevinYee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The VP of Epcot, Rilous Carter, hasn't been in the job very long (recently he switched roles with Dan Cockerell, who went to Rilous's old position at DHS). But he's now moving to be VP of Catering/Convention Services (and Park Event Operations).

The new VP of Epcot will be Erin Young.

Edit: this is word of mouth, so far - no official source.
Edit Edit: confirmed!
 
devoy1701

devoy1701

Well-Known Member
KevinYee said:
The VP of Epcot, Rilous Carter, hasn't been in the job very long (recently he switched roles with Dan Cockerell, who went to Rilous's old position at DHS). But he's now moving to be VP of Catering/Convention Services (and Park Event Operations).

The new VP of Epcot will be Erin Young.

Edit: this is word of mouth, so far - no official source.
Click to expand...

Is this Park Event Operations just at WDW or broader?
 
SeaCastle

SeaCastle

Well-Known Member
I understand that Carter's job title was also VP of special events, but this seems more like a demotion than anything else, which is odd since Carter was often cited as one of the best VP's in recent times. :shrug:
 
devoy1701

devoy1701

Well-Known Member
SeaCastle said:
I understand that Carter's job title was also VP of special events, but this seems more like a demotion than anything else, which is odd since Carter was often cited as one of the best VP's in recent times. :shrug:
Click to expand...

It depends on how broad this title is. But even if it's just for WDW, it would give him a lot more reach than being VP of just one park as it falls more into the catagory or resort wide operations. Also not knowing his backgroumd other than Theme Park VP, this plays as a chance to groom him in an area that he hasn't yet had much experience in. Afterall a good manager will do well in any area. Sounds like this is a chance to test him.
 
njDizFan

njDizFan

Well-Known Member
devoy1701 said:
It depends on how broad this title is. But even if it's just for WDW, it would give him a lot more reach than being VP of just one park as it falls more into the catagory or resort wide operations. Also not knowing his backgroumd other than Theme Park VP, this plays as a chance to groom him in an area that he hasn't yet had much experience in. Afterall a good manager will do well in any area. Sounds like this is a chance to test him.
Click to expand...
From what I understand he is a very well liked executive and this is a very curious decision. I'm not sure if this really is a "grooming" situation since he is already 60 years old. Not saying that's ancient but if they don't know his skill sets by now this may be a demotion(self imposed or otherwise).

Maybe he saw just how screwed up EPCOT has become and decided his hands were tied to actually do anything positive.
 
devoy1701

devoy1701

Well-Known Member
njDizFan said:
From what I understand he is a very well liked executive and this is a very curious decision. I'm not sure if this really is a "grooming" situation since he is already 60 years old. Not saying that's ancient but if they don't know his skill sets by now this may be a demotion(self imposed or otherwise).

Maybe he saw just how screwed up EPCOT has become and decided his hands were tied to actually do anything positive.
Click to expand...

hey! I've spoken many times that I lack intimate knowledge of the VPs at WDW...I thought both he and Dan were "up and comers"....I guess that just falls to Dan now!

But as I said before, I don't see this as a demotion either as it is actually a more broadly stretched role.
 
KevinYee

KevinYee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
For all we know, maybe Catering/Convention has a mess that needs cleaning up. I wish I could find secondary confirmation on this story, too.
 
njDizFan

njDizFan

Well-Known Member
devoy1701 said:
hey! I've spoken many times that I lack intimate knowledge of the VPs at WDW...I thought both he and Dan were "up and comers"....I guess that just falls to Dan now!

But as I said before, I don't see this as a demotion either as it is actually a more broadly stretched role.
Click to expand...
Yeah definately moving from worldwide to resort specific might be a move up, or like Kevin said they just need to put out a fire over in that division. Either way they have been screwing around with corporate stucture quite a bit lately.
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
KevinYee said:
For all we know, maybe Catering/Convention has a mess that needs cleaning up. I wish I could find secondary confirmation on this story, too.
Click to expand...
That's the only reason I could imagine bumping Carter down like that. He needs to be running a park. Seems to be a good guy.:shrug:
I'll ask around for some confirmation.
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
B

BigThunderMatt

Well-Known Member
So we've got a VP of finance at Epcot, a guy whose father is famous for homogenizing most food & beverage/merchandise operations on property at Studios, I'm fairly certain the VP of DAK has limited ops background, a career HR individual as head of DLR, WDW, and DLP, and the former CFO of the company is now in charge of Parks and Resorts worldwide.

Is anybody seeing a trend here? Phil Holmes opened the Haunted Mansion and is now, as far as I'm aware, the only person at WDW in an executive position that not only started from the ground up but also has an entire ops background under his belt. Cockerell may have been GM of Ops at MK before he got the VP slot but anyone here that thinks the position he's in wasn't even slightly influenced by nepotism is deluding themselves.

The point is, they're putting a lot of people in top positions who have no business being in them because they have no idea what it's like to be at the bottom. This is why the parks are floundering. And the thing is, the people with the know-how and the leadership capability to do things right (like Jim MacPhee for example) are off doing side projects or are so disenchanted by the way the company has gone that they no longer aspire to anything greater.
 
KevinYee

KevinYee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
BigThunderMatt said:
Cockerell may have been GM of Ops at MK before he got the VP slot but anyone here that thinks the position he's in wasn't even slightly influenced by nepotism is deluding themselves.
Click to expand...

At a "meet Dan Cockerell" event with the Cast, Dan answered the question of nepotism with a moment of silence, then a straight up "yep... I do think my famous dad had something to do with it. How could you not?"

Rather than arrogant (as it might sound here), it apparently came across as refreshingly honest, and made him likable for not denying what was probably true. I've known a similar manager-son deal at Disneyland, and the tough reality is, if you're that son, you're not really in control of the white kid gloves that surround you in your job. The best you can do is acknowledge it, get it in the open, and try to get everyone to move beyond it and judge him on the merits.
 
KevinYee

KevinYee

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
njDizFan said:
Yeah definately moving from worldwide to resort specific might be a move up, or like Kevin said they just need to put out a fire over in that division. Either way they have been screwing around with corporate stucture quite a bit lately.
Click to expand...

Rilous has experience in F&B and at a convention hotel, so there's good alignment there. But the move was so quick! Either Rilous screwed up, or he's moving to cover someone else's screw up. Or, I suppose, this could be Meg (or Jim?) counteracting the placing of Rilous at Epcot, which I assume was done by Al.
 
danv3

danv3

Well-Known Member
Moving someone from finance to an operational role seems odd. Perhaps they have bigger things in mind for Young down the road, and want her to expand her skill set.
 

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