A Look Back at Projects Under Josh D’Amaro & Why Theme Park Fans Should Be Excited As He Becomes CEO

As Josh D’Amaro readies to take the reins as the new CEO of The Walt Disney Company this week, we wanted to take a look back at what he oversaw in his current position as Disney Experiences Chairman, and what it could mean for the future. We’ll also take a look at his experience with the theme parks before landing the Disney Experiences Chairman role. While D’Amaro will soon oversee the entire company, he has traditionally been a “parks guy” throughout his career. It will be interesting to see where the parks go under his CEO leadership, but we want to first take a look back at what his impact on the theme parks has been up to this point.

Theme Park Projects Under Josh D’Amaro

I want to start with a caveat. Theme park projects are somewhat difficult to draw boundaries around. Projects live in many forms, from sticky notes to Blue Sky, concept art to construction, reimaginings to built-from-scratch. Therefore, it can be tough to say when a project actually begins. For our purposes, we’ll try to stick with public announcements, but the lines will certainly become blurred a bit when it comes to the early development of ideas and getting ideas across the finish line. With that caveat out of the way, let’s take a look at the timeline of D’Amaro’s career at Disney.

D’Amaro joined Disney in 1998 at the Disneyland Resort and holds a business administration degree from Georgetown University. Over his career, he has held leadership roles across the company, both in the U.S. and internationally, across finance, business strategy, marketing, creative development, and operations.

These include roles with Adventures by Disney, Sales and Travel Operations at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Finance for the Global Licensing division of Disney Consumer Products, and Business Planning and Strategy Development for the Disneyland Resort.

From there, D’Amaro served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Strategy for Walt Disney World Resort, and he led the site’s Resorts and Transportation Operations. D’Amaro also served as Vice President of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park as it underwent the largest expansion in its history. He went on to become President of Disneyland Resort, where he spearheaded the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and supported the development of the Marvel-themed Avengers Campus.

D’Amaro was named President of Walt Disney World Resort in 2019, where he led all facets of business for the resort’s four theme parks, two water parks, more than two dozen resort hotels, four golf courses, two full-service spas, an extensive multi-modal transportation system, Disney’s Wedding Pavilion, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and the Disney Springs entertainment-shopping-dining complex.

In addition, he led America’s largest single-site workforce, which consisted of more than 75,000 cast members at the time, and oversaw the start of a historical expansion that created the Disney Skyliner aerial transportation system, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Disney’s Riviera Resort. He also kick-started plans for the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World Resort in 2021, contributing to the reimagination of the EPCOT theme park and new resort-wide entertainment and experiences.

Josh D’Amaro was named Chairman, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products in May 2020, and oversees the division of the company where Disney stories, characters, and franchises come to life.

With a global team of 185,000 Cast Members, D’Amaro is guiding a multi-year, $60 billion investment to turbocharge Disney Experiences. This includes new cruise ships, resorts, themed lands, attractions, and technologies that will redefine the Disney guest experience for generations to come.

D’Amaro oversees Disney Parks, with 12 theme parks and 57 resort hotels across six global destinations in the United States, Europe and Asia, plus a future landmark Disney theme park coming to Abu Dhabi.

In his official bio on The Walt Disney Company website, D’Amaro is credited with expanding Disney’s iconic franchises through the creation of immersive, story-driven experiences such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the Marvel-themed Avengers Campus, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and World of Frozen. Building on this momentum, upcoming projects include the development of a Monsters, Inc.-themed land at Walt Disney World, a new Avatar destination at the Disneyland Resort, and expansive new areas inspired by Cars and Disney Villains — part of the largest-ever expansion of the Magic Kingdom.

Obviously, D’Amaro was able to really leave his mark on the theme park division as the Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products – later renamed Disney Experiences. D’Amaro was at the helm when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced a “turbocharge” initiative, pumping some $60 billion into the theme park division, which includes a cruise ship fleet expansion.

D’Amaro: A Parks Guy as CEO

As D’Amaro readies to take the reins tomorrow, we are encouraged by his selection as CEO. Not because we love every decision he’s made, but because he has proven himself to be a real parks guy. And before you say “Chapek was Parks Chairman”, there is a night and day difference between Chapek and D’Amaro.

In fact, D’Amaro’s tenure as Chairman of Disney Experiences makes him the perfect incoming CEO for theme park fans, in my opinion. Yes, there were some missteps and D’Amaro’s time as Chairman wasn’t perfect. However, the fact that he was already so deeply invested in seeing the theme parks and cruise ships expand as the leader of the Experiences division at the start of the turbocharging efforts gives me great confidence that these projects will not only continue, but flourish under a CEO D’Amaro.

Whether or not you like the specific projects announced so far or not, under D’Amaro, the parks will remain a priority. I’m not sure if that would be the case under other CEO candidates.

It’s also worth noting that Disney has only spent a portion of the turbocharging money. There is a lot more to be announced, including major projects for the Disneyland Resort and continued investment in Walt Disney World.

There are also a number of goodwill initiatives that D’Amaro could undertake in the coming months that would win over theme park fans as he looks to put his own stamp on what it means to run The Walt Disney Company.

As for me, I’ll be very interested in the 2026 D23 Expo, and we’d expect that newly minted CEO Josh D’Amaro will have a significant presence during the Disney-run fan convention as a “theme parks guy” turned CEO. The 2026 D23 Expo will take place August 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!