The Candidates Who Could Run Disneyland Abu Dhabi

Disneyland is coming to Abu Dhabi, but the identity of its eventual chief executive is still a mystery

Disney

Jobs in the themed entertainment industry don’t come much more magical than running a Disney park. Known as the happiest places on earth, their bosses have a say in everything from the location of trash bins to new restaurants and rides. One lucky executive will soon take charge of the grandest park of them all when Disneyland swings open its doors on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Several candidates seem better suited than the rest to this dream ticket.

Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be unlike any of the Mouse’s other parks. As Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger said when it was announced in May, “our resort in Abu Dhabi will be the most advanced and interactive destination in our portfolio.” That’s not all.

Not only will it be Disney’s first park in the Middle East, it will also be its first waterfront resort. Even its centerpiece castle will be right on the beach.

In May this author revealed that the designer in charge of it is Zach Riddley, famous for his work on his work on Disney’s futuristic Epcot park in Orlando, Florida. Disney confirmed his involvement on Monday when Riddley appeared in a video saying that “Abu Dhabi is a city on the water and so we are really excited about being able to incorporate water in the design of one of our castles”.

Of course, Disney also has a team of highly skilled managers who are up to the task of running the Abu Dhabi park. Two who instantly spring to mind thanks to their international experience are Michael Moriarty and Andrew Bolstein, the general managers of Disney’s resorts in Hong Kong and Shanghai respectively.

However, Disney, doesn’t hold the keys as to who will be in charge of its upcoming extravaganza. That’s because Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be owned and operated by Miral, a specialist local theme park manager which carved a position as the leader in its field.

As this report explained, Miral has amassed its own team of industry experts who handle everything from costume creation and show design to operations and management.

The man ultimately in charge of them is Miral’s visionary chief executive Mohamed Al Zaabi. The INSEAD-educated boss began his 25-year career in business working for the UAE government before switching to Aldar Properties, Abu Dhabi’s biggest listed property developer where he rose to the role of director of strategic investment. This gave him high-level experience of the role real estate plays at the heart of the UAE’s economy and he put it to use when he moved to Miral in 2015.

As Al Zaabi explained to this author, Miral “is a home-grown company. We did not acquire a company from outside. We did not appoint a company from outside. We decided to build our own home-grown company. We brought the best experts from around the world and more than 50 nationalities work in the company.”

Amongst its ranks are multiple executives eminently capable of running the new park. However, it is expected to be unlike any of Miral’s other attractions so it may prefer an outside hire.

Perhaps the biggest difference is the scale and format. Several of Miral’s existing theme parks are almost entirely housed in hangar-like buildings to shield visitors from Abu Dhabi’s intense heat which frequently rises to more than 110 degrees in summer.

In contrast, as this author has reported, when Disneyland Abu Dhabi was announced, Iger confirmed that “we’re not talking about anything small or anything in a box. This will be a significant theme park that we’re putting here.” Indeed, this author’s analysis showed that Miral doesn’t just have the space to build the biggest park in its portfolio but one which could also be Disney’s biggest-ever outpost.

In turn, this could attract tremendous traffic with The Wrap forecasting that as many as 32 million guests could visit in the first year compared to low single digit millions at Miral’s existing parks. It may not sound like much but as this author revealed in local newspaper The Khaleej Times, this attendance has got Miral into the record books as the operator of the first Middle Eastern park to feature on the Themed Entertainment Association’s list of the world’s most-visited theme parks.

The bigger the park is and the more people who visit it, the greater the need to keep it open later. This could be another difference with Miral’s existing theme parks as they currently close at 8PM at the latest which is much earlier than many of Disney’s outposts.

Miral has not yet announced that it has begun looking for a boss for its upcoming park or even that it is seeking one. However, there is no doubt that it will need one and if it does look outside its own ranks, local experience may be essential. The customs and culture in the Middle East are unlike those in other regions and Disneyland Abu Dhabi is set to embrace them as Iger has said it will be “authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati.”

Someone who seems to be the ideal candidate is already spoken for. University of Houston-educated Ignace Lahoud spent 26 years with Disney including a stint as chief financial officer of Disneyland Paris where he presided over one of the greatest periods of growth for the resort. He rose up to become executive vice president and chief financial officer of Disney Consumer Products & Interactive Media in California before he joined Dubai-based entertainment giant Majid Al Futtaim in 2021.

Lahoud is perhaps the only executive worldwide who has C-suite experience at a Disney park and theme parks in the UAE. As this report explained, Majid Al Futtaim operates the most popular indoor snow resorts in the Middle East as well as distributing films from Universal and Warner Bros and running the region’s largest collection of movie theaters including the one on Yas Island.

Another supremely talented theme park executive with ample experience of the Middle East is Bianca Sammut. The Australian spent eight years working for Miral culminating in her heading up all of the Yas Island parks. In late 2023 she moved to Merlin Entertainments in the U.K. to become vice president of the historic Alton Towers Resort, a role that she remains in to this day.

Such is the strength of her track record in the Middle East that it landed her a role as executive director on the Saudi Entertainment Ventures SEVEN chain of indoor theme parks which she will take up at the end of this year. There is no suggestion that she could be tempted to leave if another opportunity came up though if any brand has the power to do it, one would expect it to be Disney.

Catherine Powell is someone who knows all about Disney’s allure. The Oxford-educated superstar manager was at Disney for more than 15 years where she rose to become president of the Disney Parks Western Region in the United States and Disneyland Paris. Five years ago she switched to Airbnb when she became its global head of hosting. During her tenure it launched innovative partnerships with Disney franchises enabling winners of a lottery to stay in houses inspired by ones found in films such as Up, Inside Out 2 and the X-Men ’97 cartoon.

Powell stepped down from Airbnb in June 2024 but still sits on its board and that of Pophouse Entertainment, creators of London’s highly-acclaimed ABBA Voyage virtual concert experience. Powell’s principal role now is chief executive of AmaWaterways River Cruises and, as with Sammut and Lahoud, there is no suggestion that she would leave if asked. However, there is no doubt that they would all cast a powerful spell at the helm of Disneyland Abu Dhabi.

A boss is far from the only hiring which will be necessary for the new park. Approximately 10,000 jobs will be needed to run it with more than 20,000 required to build it. Miral is responsible for both of these areas whereas Disney will supply the designers, known as Imagineers for their imaginative use of engineering. Imagineering too will need to scale up as Disney’s existing parks were already undergoing the largest expansion in their history before Abu Dhabi was announced.

Three obvious choices to assist with the design are Eddie Sotto, Tom Morris and Jim Shull who are all Imagineering legends with decades of experience.

Sotto is the wizard behind the turn-of-the-century Main Street at Disneyland Paris, which is widely seen as one of the most elaborate lands in Disney history. Morris developed the park’s Sleeping Beauty castle which is comfortably one of the most iconic structures ever built by Disney. Shull is one of Imagineering’s most skilled artists and hasn’t just worked at Disneyland Paris but also Tokyo Disney which is renowned for being the world’s most immersive theme park resort. Crucially, all three now run their own businesses so they are free to take on the challenge.

Another logical choice would be Dave Cobb, a former Universal Studios designer who became creative director for Warner Bros. World on Yas Island which broke new ground with its innovative design featuring rides hidden behind internal walls as this report explained. It was a game-changer but Disneyland Abu Dhabi will step it up a level. For the entire region it really will be a whole new world.