Disneyland Executive Bows Out of Rat Race

Disneyland’s top marketing executive for the past three years said Wednesday that she is leaving the theme park at the end of the month to spend more time with her husband and relatives in Montana.

Michele Reese, who has been commuting from her home in Whitefish, Mont., said she decided it was time to change her priorities and leave the whirlwind business lifestyle that has prevented her from spending more than about two months at home since taking the job in 1994.

Reese, one of two senior vice presidents at the park, is well regarded in the industry and recognized as one of the more influential women in travel and tourism circles.

She said that she and the park are negotiating a contract that could keep her involved as a part-time consultant as Disneyland gears up to market the new Tomorrowland next year.

The park also is completing plans for its California Adventure, a separate theme park adjacent to Disneyland that insiders call the second gate.

“As I look down the road, I see the revamped Tomorrowland and the second gate coming,” she said. “The demands on my time weren’t going to be any less. So I had to ask myself if I could make that kind of commitment, and I decided it’s just not as high priority as my family is.”

Reese, a former Marine who worked in the motion picture and television industry for 12 years and then at Universal Studios Hollywood for six years, said she left her job at Universal in 1993 to move with her husband to her home state.

But a year later, she joined Disneyland, where she oversaw the successful marketing of the Main Street Electrical Parade’s farewell season last year and the opening of the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction.

She also supervised the marketing of the much-criticized Light Magic show that replaced the Electrical Parade last summer.