CEO Hall of Fame
Most Respected CEOs and CEO Hall of Fame

Walter Disney
Disney World - Every Child's Dream - (1901-1966) - USA

• " Why should I run for Mayor when I'm already king?" (Walt Disney)

Key Work

• Tries to enlist for World War 1, at age 16, but is rejected.
• Creates his first original animated characters. Cartoons
• Creates Mickey Mouse.
• First feature-length musical animation, Snow White and the seven Dwarfs, premieres.
• Disney and over 1.000 staff occupy the Burbank Studios.
• Dumbo, and Fantasia follow up, Mary Poppins and wildlife features such as The Vanishing Prairie among its 100-plus films
• His studio won 48 Academy Awards and 7 Emmys among others
• Disneyland opens.
• Conceives Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (Epcot).
• Disney World opens in Orlando, Florida, with Epcot to follow in 1982.
• A Global homespun entertainment giant laced with fantastic imagination and traditional family values

Books and References:

• Byrne, Eleanor, and Martin McQuillan. Deconstructing Disney. London: Pluto Press, 1999.
• Giroux, Henry A. The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence (Culture and Education). Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999.

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