President of Walt Disney Imagineering announces departure from Disney's creative force

Mar 09, 2024 in "Walt Disney Imagineering"

Gallery / 1 Photo
Barbara Bouza with Josh D'Amaro and Bob Iger

Posted: Saturday March 9, 2024 1:23pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Barbara Bouza, president of Walt Disney Imagineering, has announced that she is leaving her role this month.

Barbara Bouza with Josh D'Amaro and Bob Iger

Barbara joined WDI in June 2020. Before that, she was co-managing director, principal, of Gensler Los Angeles where she brought strategic design management to clients including Netflix, and JPL/NASA. Barbara holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and studied in the Graduate Diploma Program at the Architectural Association in London.

In a post Barbara made on Instagram, she said of her 2020 appointment, "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."

Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters

Former Imagineer Bruce Vaughn made a surprise return to Walt Disney Imagineering as co-lead of Disney's theme park creative team in March 2023. It remains to be seen if Vaughn will now run WDI alone or if Bouza will be replaced as co-lead.

Here is Barbara's full post from Instagram, which announces her departure.

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.

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denyuntilcaughtMar 13, 2024

Well that explains it. They make lovely office buildings.

RainemanMar 12, 2024

What do you mean? That is a perfect example of a traditional concrete South Pacific hotel tower, and fits beautifully with the theming of the rest of the Poly. She should be lauded for her vision and creativity. /s

BocabearMar 12, 2024

Did she actually design stuff or just manage the team? as in, assign schedules etc. It does feel like Disney architecture has been going through an era of forgetting all the reasons that people love Disney....by making everything look usual...not special, the opposite of storytelling...unless of course, the story is "Everyone Loves Marriott"... Even the new half-building in World Celebration does not live up to the building they tore down...it just has panels on it that are a nod to Spaceship Earth, but certainly not architecturally interesting...considering she is an architect.... Seems like that particular building, as a replacement for the central heart of EPCOT should have been something more special...

SirLinkMar 12, 2024

... of forgetting about their own stories and putting them in a vault aka retirement

Jambo DadMar 12, 2024

Inspired by Disney’s legendary storytelling.

SirLinkMar 12, 2024

You forgot that time when Disney was almost going to make a retirement community in the desert.

lazyboy97oMar 12, 2024

Heck “form follows function” was said by a guy rather famous for his ornamentation. And in his writings he makes it clear that he considers the emotion of a space to be a very important function. Traditional Beaux-Arts design, some of the most ornamented of ornamented architected, was very much focused on the parti, the simple main idea behind the design of a building that can be expressed as a diagram.

CliffMar 12, 2024

Can anybody in this forum imagine themselves writing a job exit letter like this? Would you be bragging all about your incredible contributions to "humanity" and YOUR future impact on "the world"...and blah,..blah,...and so forth? I bet nobody here would write anything like this. Grounded people just don't do that. I still wonder why she was fired?

yensidtlaw1969Mar 11, 2024

I mean, that's not an outrageous answer. "Clean design" is not antithetical to Disney. Clean in this case doesn't necessarily mean without ornament or detail, it means without extraneous business that muddies the intention. The example she gives is specifically because of its empasis on guest-facing function and the way the building it is reflective of its purpose. That's not the worst way to design a theme park. Most of the successful architecture in the parks falls in this category. In fact, someone in the Bruce Vaughn thread has been complaining for pages about how Mission: Breakout's design is overwhelmed with ornament to the point that it both fails to communicate its purpose clearly and is aesthetically ugly, which basically everyone agrees on. Greater clarity in that design, even if it meant less "stuff", would likely have been super helpful towards improving that part of the park.

monothingieMar 11, 2024

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HauntedPirateMar 11, 2024

I'd like to thank you personally for the hours and hours of research you did to produce a thorough and accurate report like that. This is the kind of research and reporting that is so difficult to find these days.