Meg Gilbert Crofton (born Mary Elizabeth Gilbert in 1953) is an American businesswoman, who served as president of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. She was named to the position on August 7, 2006, replacing Al Weiss, who had been promoted to president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in November 2005. Crofton served as a member of the University of Central Florida Board of Trustees, after being appointed by the Florida Board of Governors for a five-year term in 2011. In 2008, ''The Orlando Sentinel'' named her among the top 25 most powerful people in Central Florida.

Early life and education

Born in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, Crofton moved to Florida with her family as a 6-year-old when her father, Charles "Chuck" Gilbert, was relocated there in his work with the aerospace services division of Pan American, a contractor to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

. She attended

Rollins College Rollins College is a Liberal arts college, private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several master's programs. Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institut ...

before transferring to

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

, where she earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and an MBA. Married to Rich Crofton since 1981, she and her husband have lived in Winter Park, Florida.

Career

Crofton joined Disney in 1977 as a marketing manager with Vista-United Telecommunications, a company subsidiary that provided telecommunication services to the Florida resort. After a brief period away from the organization, she re-joined Vista-United in 1981 as operations manager. In 1984, she became manager of The Golf Resort (later called The Disney Inn), a hotel that is now

Shades of Green Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, colorfulness, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shad ...

, a military resort operated by the U.S. Department of Defense at

Walt Disney World Resort The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Walt Disney Company. ...

. Crofton later became the resort's vice president of human resources and spent five years as senior vice president of human resources and organizational improvement. In 2002 she was promoted to executive vice president of human resources for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, the division of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

that operates its theme parks, resort hotels, cruise line and other vacation businesses worldwide. Crofton was promoted to her last position, which includes oversight of Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, in wake of the retirement of Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations for all of Disney parks and resorts. She is getting part of his duties. Crofton's promotion was announced on July 5 by the Orlando Sentinel. Previously, she was the president of Walt Disney World. She was succeeded by George Kalogridis. It was announced January 9, 2013, Crofton would be stepping down from her post to become president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Operations, U.S. and France. On December 9, 2014, it was announced that Crofton would be retiring on June 1, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crofton, Meg 1953 births Living people Rollins College alumni Florida State University alumni Walt Disney Parks and Resorts people Disney executives Businesspeople from San Diego People from Winter Park, Florida University of Central Florida Trustees