http://micechat.com/116178-miceage-disneyland-rumor-update-star-wars/
Downtown Disney Springs
Ever since Parks Chairman Bob Chapek arrived last February, the parks had been waiting for Bob to start installing his favorite executives from his old Consumer Products and Disney Store empire, and Christie is the first high profile move from Bob Chapek. The conventional wisdom within TDA is that Michael Colglazier will bide his time for another year or so until a suitable lateral move or promotion can be carved out for him in Burbank or Orlando, and then Mary Niven will slot into Michael’s role as President. That will leave Mary’s spot open, and Christie can then regain her old Senior Vice President title and begin to expand her power base as one of Bob’s own people from Consumer Products.
This empty spot between Tortilla Joe’s and House of Blues was originally supposed to be a DisneyQuest.
Moving Christie into the VP role for DCA and Downtown Disney will be important in 2016 as Downtown Disney embarks on a major plan to remodel and repurpose the 15 year old mall and remake it into a West Coast version of WDW’s newly opened Disney Springs complex. With the House of Blues closing in January, and that large expansion plot directly north of House of Blues that’s never been built on, the time is right to give the entire Downtown Disney complex a cosmetic reskin and a rethink on the mall’s tenant mix.
Christie has worked for Disney’s Consumer Products and Disney Store group for over eight years in a variety of executive jobs focused on branding and merchandising, and she became the Senior Vice President of Retail Development there almost two years ago. Before she joined Disney in 2007, Christie had merchandise manager jobs at several different apparel companies. She of course has an MBA, from USC’s Marshall School.
Fancy executive titles are plentiful at Disney’s Consumer Products division, with over a dozen lowly Vice Presidents reporting to a gaggle of Senior VP’s and Executive VP’s. The mere VP’s have literally dozens of Directors reporting to them, each with battalions of Managers and Senior Managers working with Chinese factories to bring the latest branded t-shirts and plastic toys to a Disney Store or big box emporium near you. The executive org chart is much slimmer and sleeker in Anaheim, so Christie may be getting a demotion in title but it’s a job that has real meaning and importance in the Parks & Resorts division.
