{"id":6006,"date":"2013-01-10T16:09:03","date_gmt":"2013-01-10T21:09:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=6006"},"modified":"2024-08-16T09:42:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T13:42:17","slug":"sociology-graduate-named-president-of-walt-disney-world-resort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/sociology-graduate-named-president-of-walt-disney-world-resort\/","title":{"rendered":"COS alumnus named president of Walt Disney World Resort"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>George A. Kalogridis, \u201976,\u00a0a 41-year veteran of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, was named president of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. this month.\u00a0George will oversee a workforce of more than 66,000 Cast Members at the world\u2019s premier vacation destination. His appointment will be effective Feb. 1, 2013.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/01\/george-a-kalogridis-200x300.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-6034\" title=\"george-a-kalogridis-200x300\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2013\/01\/george-a-kalogridis-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Since 2009, Kalogridis\u00a0has served as president of the Disneyland Resort, where he leads more than 25,000 Cast Members at the over 500-acre resort, which comprises the world-famous Disneyland Park, Disney California Adventure Park, the Disneyland Hotel, Disney\u2019s Grand Californian Hotel &amp; Spa, the Paradise Pier Hotel and Downtown Disney.<\/p>\n<p>As noted in <a href=\"http:\/\/publicaffairs.disneyland.com\/leadership\/george-a-kalogridis\/\">his corporate profile<\/a>,\u00a0Kalogridis\u00a0began his career at Walt Disney World in 1971 as a busboy at the Contemporary Resort. During his tenure, he has held numerous executive positions, gaining a breadth of experience from all aspects of the operation.<\/p>\n<p>From 2006 until his appointment to Disneyland Resort, Kalogridis\u00a0served as chief operating officer for Disneyland Resort Paris and was responsible for leading the daily operations of the Resort\u2019s two theme parks, seven hotels and the Disney Village. During his tenure in Paris, he oversaw the highly successful 15th anniversary celebration of the resort. He also played an instrumental role in reorganizing the Resort\u2019s operations structure to help improve both Guest and Cast satisfaction.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to his role in Paris, Kalogridis\u00a0served as senior vice president of Resort Operations for the Disneyland Resort, where he played a significant role in the first expansion of the resort \u2013 the opening of Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney. In addition, he was responsible for the daily operations of both theme parks and three hotels, as well as Downtown Disney.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his leadership roles in both Paris and Anaheim, Kalogridis\u00a0served as vice president of Travel Operations at Walt Disney World in Orlando, where he implemented a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system that continues to serve as the foundation for how millions of Guests book their travel to Walt Disney World. He also served as vice president of EPCOT, where, in addition to overseeing park operations, he led the Millennium Celebration for The Walt Disney Company.<\/p>\n<p>Kalogridis\u00a0has been active in the community in California, serving on CHOC Children\u2019s Hospital Board of Directors, the Board of Directors of Children\u2019s HealthCare of California, the Out and Equal Board of Directors, California Travel and Tourism Commission, the Cal State University \u2013 Chancellor\u2019s Hospitality Industry Advisors Board, the University of California, Irvine Center for Global Leadership and UCI\u2019s Paul Merage School of Business Dean\u2019s Advisory Board.<\/p>\n<p>Kalogridis\u00a0graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelors Degree in Sociology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>George A. Kalogridis, \u201976,\u00a0a 41-year veteran of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, was named president of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. this month.\u00a0George will oversee a workforce of more than 66,000 Cast Members at the world\u2019s premier vacation destination. His appointment will be effective Feb. 1, 2013. Since 2009, Kalogridis\u00a0has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":6034,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,38,13,41,6492,28,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-shining-knights","category-sociology-department","category-top-news","category-ucf-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>COS alumnus named president of Walt Disney World Resort - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/sociology-graduate-named-president-of-walt-disney-world-resort\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"COS alumnus named president of Walt Disney World Resort - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"George A. Kalogridis, \u201976,\u00a0a 41-year veteran of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, was named president of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. this month.\u00a0George will oversee a workforce of more than 66,000 Cast Members at the world\u2019s premier vacation destination. His appointment will be effective Feb. 1, 2013. 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