The titles and accolades George Aguel, senior vice president, worldwide sales and services, for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts has earned are many.
Chairman of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau; former chairman of Meeting Professionals International; board member for the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE); twice recognized as one of the 25 most extraordinary minds in sales and marketing by Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International. Aguel is also one of only a handful of industry professionals to receive the Academy of Leaders Award from ASAE and he's part of an equally select group of executives to be inducted into the Convention Industry Council’s Hall of Leaders.
As rudimentary as it may sound, Aguel attributes his success to old-fashioned hard work. A young boy, Aguel emigrated with his family from Cuba in the late 1950’s, shortly before Fidel Castro came to power.
“My parents came to the United States with absolutely nothing. They worked extremely hard in this country,” Aguel reminiscences. “By watching my father, I was fortunate to develop a work ethic and to recognize that hard work is essential to being successful. You certainly have to incorporate many other things, but if you don’t have the willingness to apply yourself and give more then you’re asked to give and exceed expectations of you, it will be hard to ever generate any strong feeling of success. Thankfully, I’ve been aware of that for as long as I can remember and have been around leaders who had the same philosophies. Hard work has always been part of my DNA.”
His father’s hard work resulted in the ultimate American dream, entrepreneurship. He became the proud owner of a Bonanza Sirloin Pit, a small restaurant in St. Petersburg, FL, and looked to his son, a college student at the time, for help. As with any father-son working relationship, at times, things got tumultuous. “I quit a few times and he fired me a few times,” Aguel says with a laugh.
At that restaurant, Aguel’s passion for providing service was ignited. “I started to realize I had an affinity for being service orientated. I had that knack and desire to be of service to others,” he explains.
Another family member turned Aguel on to the hotel industry. First as a front desk clerk, then on to banquets, convention services, catering, sales, and marketing--he worked his way through the ranks. The Marco Beach Hotel and Villas was where he gained the breadth of his hotel experience early on.
A pivotal point in Aguel’s career came when he joined Gaylord Entertainment in Nashville, where he worked for 12 years. A senior sales and marketing professional with Gaylord, he was part of the opening team for the first Opryland Hotel, a pioneering concept. This was the first large convention hotel to open with a massive amount of meeting space, compared to the number of guestrooms.
“Professionally, this was one of my proudest accomplishments. Being part of this legacy,” he says. “I’m also very proud that I was able to bring the Disney brand into the meeting and convention industry.”
It is with pride he watches those he has worked with achieve success. Most recently, Jerry Wayne, who was on Aguel’s team when he was at Opryland, was inducted into the Convention Industry Council’s Hall of Leaders.
“You define yourself by the legacy of great leaders you’ve worked with over a period of time and how successful many of them have become,” explains Aguel.
Personally, his proudest accomplishment is his family. He has been married to his wife Ana for 35 years and they have two sons who recently graduated college.
Today, as senior vice president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, he leads a team of over 1,000 cast members across the globe. His responsibilities include overseeing the organizations that drive group business to the company’s resorts, hotels, theme parks, and cruise ships.
Aguel is also responsible for the Disney Event Group and the Disney Institute, the latter being one of the most recognized names in the training and development industry. Disney Institute professional development experiences are offered around the world and take business professionals inside the Disney organization to discover best practices that are easily transferable to their organizations.
Other businesses reporting to Aguel include Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Alliance Development organization, which forges strategic business relationships with corporations around the globe; and Disney’s Operating Participants teams, which are responsible for all third-party organizations operating businesses at any Disney resort destination; and overall corporate responsibilities for Disney’s gift card line of business.
He has been with Disney for more then 19 years and plans to continue with the company for years to come. “Disney is one of the most recognized, respected companies you can possibly associate yourself with. It’s a great organization to be a part of, and a brand second to none. I’m proud to be in the position I’m in.”
A hands-on leader, Aguel enjoys the dichotomy of being part of a global company with employees all over the world but being on site in Orlando, home to Walt Disney World Resort, covering more than 40 square miles, an area twice the size of Manhattan.
How does Aguel define success? “When you feel you’ve done the best you can do and you’re remembered fondly by those you’ve worked with. Success is not automatically part of a title you achieve or a position you’ve acquired.”
Hard to Fall Off the Floor
“Unprecedented” is the only word that describes the past year, says Aguel. “I’ve seen recessionary periods like we had in the seventies and challenging scenarios like the eighties when unemployment and interest rates were through the roof. This has been worse. Just the sheer length of it. Combine that with the strange hype and publicity around corporations spending money on conferences and events,” he explains. “The industry will get better. It’s hard to fall off the floor. Companies will start to recognize that to be competitive they must apply those best practices that includes getting their people on the same page and bringing them together.”
Imagination is what fueled the world Walt Disney created and continues to be at the core of the company’s success. If you ever catch a glimpse of Aguel, a man who exudes professionalism and class, dressed in jeans and black leather riding a Harley, it’s not your imagination getting the best of you.
“I have a passion for motorcycles and spend as much personal time as I can riding them,” he says with a chuckle. “I have the required Harley as well as a custom bike that is my real fun ride.”
Walt Disney was once quoted as saying, “You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality.”
He would be proud to have a professional like George Aguel as part of his team.