WDI has seen a huge shakeup in recent years under the company’s previous CEO, Bob Chapek. It’s a rare environment that draws really talented people but has also been shedding them rapidly. It’s a startup that was born in 1952 and still manages to maintain a sense that the projects being built are somehow being formed organically from chaos. The internal process for creating and maintaining a flow of unique ideas balances fiscal restrictions, personalities and revenue goals against the much more nebulous questions of art and emotion. Leads inside the division pool resources across a group of people that blend a mélange of art, engineering, organization, supply chain and storytelling into environmental works that are inhabited by millions of people a year. Imagineering is a unique organization with a very different way of working. “I’ve remained an Imagineer at heart, so I’m thrilled to join Barbara and reunite with this phenomenal global team of creators and innovators during this pivotal time,” Vaughn said in a provided statement.īruce Vaughn, chief creative officer, Walt Disney Imagineering Vaughn previously co-lead WDI as chief creative executive for nine years, where he worked on projects across the company - including the renovation of Epcot’s Spaceship Earth early on in his career. He was hired to develop more “immersive” experiences at Airbnb, which had also hired former Disney Parks exec Catherine Powell to help them build out packages of excursions for Airbnb guests in an effort to go beyond lodging bookings. Vaughn has been at Airbnb for a year and a half leading its Experiential Creative Product team.

This news is likely to be shock wave level (in a good way) among Imagineers present and past and those of us who follow the Parks and the people who create them. Vaughn will take the role of chief creative officer and co-lead of WDI. Bruce Vaughn was previously at WDI for 22 years, leaving for VR experience company Dreamscape before landing at Airbnb. Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), the workshop that makes all of the cool things you experience at the Disney Parks, is bringing back a veteran to co-lead the division.

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