Disney Executive Out, Major Change Coming to Theme Parks?

The President of Walt Disney Imagineering, Barbara Bouza, has announced that she is leaving The Walt Disney Company.

Bouza dropped the news on Instagram today (March 9), where she revealed that she will wrap up her work with Imagineering this month and instead go on to “create an even bigger impact for [the] world.”

Related: The Winding Path to Becoming a Walt Disney Imagineer

She also unveiled Bruce Vaughn – the current Chief Creative Officer – as her successor.

Check out her full statement below:

Proudly building upon our extraordinary legacy, Imagineers are shaping a future that inspires humanity.  As one global team of innovative creators and storytellers, we immerse our guests in experiences that make memories of a lifetime.

As a licensed architect I was recruited by The Walt Disney Company to challenge the norm and bring broader global industry perspective and expertise. Joining Walt Disney Imagineering in June of 2020, I truly believed humanity needed Disney more than ever.  The world was trying to understand the impact of a global pandemic, business disruption, stay at home orders, a reckoning on race, and the growing political divide. From there Imagineers endured the pressures of talent reductions, unprecedented hyper-escalation on projects, political crosshairs, and the need to make life changing decisions with their families around the relocation from California to Florida.

Through all of this, Imagineers relentlessly created and delivered some of the most impactful projects in the history of The Walt Disney Company.  This success has fueled the turbocharged growth of Disney Experiences through $60 billion in investment over the next 10 years that Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro speak of. So I want to take this moment to personally thank all Imagineers, past, present and future for making the impossible possible.

It is bittersweet as I wrap up my work as President of Walt Disney Imagineering this month before I create an even bigger impact for world. Stay tuned! WDI will be in excellent hands with my partner, Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Officer, who is an exceptional creative leader.

Bouza first joined The Walt Disney Company in 2020, before becoming the President of Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) in November 2021, when she replaced Bob Weis.

During her tenure at Walt Disney Imagineering, the company’s theme parks have increasingly drawn criticism for lackluster creative design. Projects such as the refurb of Disney’s Pop Century Resort (which was compared to a hospital room) and the new coffee shop Carousel Coffee at Disney’s Boardwalk Resort generated particular ire among diehard parkgoers.

Some fans linked these changes to Bouza, whose background lies in corporate hotel and building engineering. “Imagineering needs to be lead by imagineers, not by soulless corporate hacks who only know how to build sterile Marriott-type experiences,” said one fan on Reddit.

As Bruce Vaughn steps up to the position of President, there’s a chance we could see some creative shifts from Walt Disney Imagineering – especially with the parks reportedly receiving $60 billion investment over the next decade. Having first started out as an Imagineer in 1993, he worked on projects such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold (one of Disney’s most acclaimed attractions of all time) and the infamous roaming animatronic Lucky the Dinosaur.

Vaughn returned to the company after a seven-year absence in 2023, when fans were quick to share their excitement about him coming back aboard for future Disney park projects.

Are you excited for Bruce Vaughn to take over Walt Disney Imagineering? Let us know in the comments!