News Catherine Powell's position eliminated

[TP2000]

Pandering?? Or maybe getting real with life..It's better than running a place like the good ol' boys club.

Read the piece in the Times. It was pandering in tone and language.

And yet they just fired one of the top women executives they have, instead of shuffling her into a new role if her current role was organized out of existence. Apparently Ms. Powell wasn't the type of woman they wanted to keep around.

 

[brb1006]

Hawking his book? Word is he's trying to position himself for a post-Disney career in pre-fabricated "outreach" in order to run for President in '24.

I also seen him talking about Shanghai Disney Resort and discussed about opening day. He showed a picture of himself sitting in a lobby (I think it's inside the castle) reflecting about the current tragedies that happened days leading up to the grand opening. Including the infamous Alligator incident at WDW.


Speaking of which, I remember months before the Alligator incident. ABC was actually planning on airing a grand opening special similar to the TV Special for Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios (Then MGM Studios), and Tokyo Disneyland. But due to the incident, that made the only Disney Park related news to make the headlines instead of the planned Shanghai Disney TV Special. I still remember ABC and some news channels (Including Disney Channel) promoting the heck out of Shanghai Disney Resort. Then comes opening day and the park just stopped getting discussed for a while.

 

[Astrotrain]

It's all speculation as to whether or not she was fired. It seems scheisty but it's entirely possible that she really is leaving to do something else because stress is pervasive in positions like that.

 

[Lilofan]

It's all speculation as to whether or not she was fired. It seems scheisty but it's entirely possible that she really is leaving to do something else because stress is pervasive in positions like that.

Says position eliminated in article. Sounds like fired/laid off.

 

[NoChesterHester]

Could have already had differences with the way it was going down with the lead up to GE and was pushed out to clean up decent. Could have just saw a window and left. Perhaps saw the axe coming due to the poor attendance and got out while she could still save some face. Lots of explanations.

 

[Astrotrain]

There are a lot of reasons why they may remove a position after someone decides to leave. Even if it was a planned departure on her part they may have decided not to fill the role after she left. While there's a decent chance she was fired, it's still speculation until there's confirmation.

Speculation is annoying because it can cause unnecessary damage. Not in this situation per se, but it can alter what people think of certain people or groups due to assumptions. It's fascinating but assumptions run rampant when the article was vague.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Wow, shocked to see her out. I have heard nothing but good things about her from people on all tiers. I suspect there being more to this than her simply being “the fall guy.”

...probably why she’s out.

I don't think she will be out of the industry long.

#epicuniverse

 

[TP2000]

There are a lot of reasons why they may remove a position after someone decides to leave. Even if it was a planned departure on her part they may have decided not to fill the role after she left. While there's a decent chance she was fired, it's still speculation until there's confirmation.

Her position was eliminated and she was let go.

"Powell, who was in charge of Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks, spent 15 years with the company and her position is now being eliminated, the company said, without providing further detail." https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-parks-west-president-catherine-012252032.html

If she left on her own she would have "resigned" and given a brief statement why, if not announce the exciting new company she is going to work for immediately. That didn't happen. In short, she was fired. To put it more politely, her position was eliminated and she is leaving the company.

 

[Astrotrain]

Her position was eliminated and she was let go.

"Powell, who was in charge of Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney World and Disneyland theme parks, spent 15 years with the company and her position is now being eliminated, the company said, without providing further detail." https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-parks-west-president-catherine-012252032.html

If she left on her own she would have "resigned" and given a brief statement why, if not announce the exciting new company she is going to work for immediately. That didn't happen. In short, she was fired. To put it more politely, her position was eliminated and she is leaving the company.

Ah, thank you. I did a quick search but the yahoo article didn't pop up and the wording on other news sites wasn't as clear, but probably on purpose. It's frustrating when there isn't any real clarification but that's how it is, I guess. :/

 

[HMFan999]

Hawking his book? Word is he's trying to position himself for a post-Disney career in pre-fabricated "outreach" in order to run for President in '24.

Well, at least I know who I'm not voting for in 24.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Well, at least I know who I'm not voting for in 24.

I can't imagine he'll get the nomination to even run. Who would his supporters be on the Democratic side? Running as an Independent would be about as effective as not running at all. He also clearly doesn't want to be seen as a Republican.

I don't see a run for office working out for him. But I guess if you're bored, retired CEO with money looking for attention and something to do...

 

[draybook]

As I stated in my trip report, the next one to get the axe is whoever is in charge of the Magic Kingdom exit transportation.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Hawking his book? Word is he's trying to position himself for a post-Disney career in pre-fabricated "outreach" in order to run for President in '24.

Iger has been trying to find women and non-whites to elevate to senior leadership. It's telling that Ms. Powell was simply fired instead of shuffled into something new in Burbank's current "We're Looking For Women!" corporate environment.

Ms. Powell obviously took the fall for the Star Wars Land flops on both coasts.

So Iger is STILL wanting a political career? Is he that oblivious? My god, he's a gold mine for any political opponent, and not just because he tried to sell Disneyland to a foreign country...

 

[HMFan999]

I can't imagine he'll get the nomination to even run. Who would his supporters be on the Democratic side? Running as an Independent would be about as effective as not running at all. He also clearly doesn't want to be seen as a Republican.

I don't see a run for office working out for him. But I guess if you're bored, retired CEO with money looking for attention and something to do...

 

[_caleb]

Somebody help me understand (@TP2000, @the.dreamfinder, et al) is the firing of Powell a win for the ”undermining Chapek” campaign, or did he use up one of his extra lives here?

 

[TP2000]

Somebody help me understand (@TP2000, @the.dreamfinder, et al) is the firing of Powell a win for the ”undermining Chapek” campaign, or did he use up one of his extra lives here?

It appears Mr. Chapek just used one of his extra lives. (Great analogy, by the way!)

Mr. Chapek canned his direct report who was in charge of the Star Wars Lands in Anaheim and Orlando, and thus she is easy to blame for their underwhelming performance in the marketplace. Who knows, maybe it really was Catherine Powell all along who convinced Mr. Chapek to cut all the entertainment and interactive elements WDI had planned for these new lands and then convinced TDA to roll out a disastrous "Reservations Required!" marketing campaign that scared away anyone west of Denver who might be mildly interested?

But that's something we'd never heard of before, and Ms. Powell only assumed her role in March, 2018 barely a year before it opened. My hunch is that all of those cuts were already well under way from Mr. Chapek when Ms. Powell took the Parks job for Disneyland and WDW.

It's very difficult to look at the timeline of the last 18 months and not assume that Ms. Powell was used as the fall guy for Star Wars Land's low attendance and its underwhelming reviews on both coasts.

 

[disney4life2008]

I hate to say this but I feel like Disney is going to take a big hit on this new star wars hotel. Yes I understand it's an experience with only certain days but I don't think there is enough people who can afford this. It will be popular but I don't think it's sustainable long term.

As for star wars land, I view it like pandora. Visually appealing but lackluster. Where Disney wins is their magic IPO and Disney specific characters. Star wars land is a waste.

 

[Thelazer]

I hate to say this but I feel like Disney is going to take a big hit on this new star wars hotel. Yes I understand it's an experience with only certain days but I don't think there is enough people who can afford this. It will be popular but I don't think it's sustainable long term.

As for star wars land, I view it like pandora. Visually appealing but lackluster. Where Disney wins is their magic IPO and Disney specific characters. Star wars land is a waste.

Oh I've been saying that from Day 1.

 

[_caleb]

It appears Mr. Chapek just used one of his extra lives. (Great analogy, by the way!)

Mr. Chapek canned his direct report who was in charge of the Star Wars Lands in Anaheim and Orlando, and thus she is easy to blame for their underwhelming performance in the marketplace. Who knows, maybe it really was Catherine Powell all along who convinced Mr. Chapek to cut all the entertainment and interactive elements WDI had planned for these new lands and then convinced TDA to roll out a disastrous "Reservations Required!" marketing campaign that scared away anyone west of Denver who might be mildly interested?

But that's something we'd never heard of before, and Ms. Powell only assumed her role in March, 2018 barely a year before it opened. My hunch is that all of those cuts were already well under way from Mr. Chapek when Ms. Powell took the Parks job for Disneyland and WDW.

It's very difficult to look at the timeline of the last 18 months and not assume that Ms. Powell was used as the fall guy for Star Wars Land's low attendance and its underwhelming reviews on both coasts.

Thanks for the explanation. It is an interesting development, though, isn’t it? A sort of admission of failure, really. But now I suppose the pressure will be on to sort out what to do next.

 

[bcoachable]

It will work- they just can’t keep pricing people out of things...