As Disney Consumer Products’ (DCP) global leader between 1985 and 2000, Bo oversaw all aspects of worldwide merchandise licensing and the Disney Store.
Under his watch, Disney’s licensing business expanded to 90 countries on six continents.
In 1994, entertainment licensing reached a pinnacle with merchandise sales for The Lion King, which remained the top film-licensing program for Disney for over a decade.
Bo also developed the first Disney Store outside the theme parks. The concept proved so successful that over 750 additional stores were eventually opened worldwide. “Bo was an incredibly gracious predecessor who helped me learn the ways of Disney and DCP,” says current DCP Chairman, Andy Mooney. “He and Kay Kamen were the two most memorable figures in licensing. Kay invented it, and Bo brought it into the modern era. He had a global perspective and was a true road warrior.”
A native of Laguna Beach, California, the second of four brothers and a sister, Bo took to retail merchandising early, bypassing the family restaurant to land his first job at the landmark Pottery Shack on Pacific Coast Highway, at the age of 12. By 16, he was driving a truck to Los Angeles to buy dinnerware.
At 25, Bo was hired by Disneyland as an assistant supervisor for the retail and gift shops on Main Street, and soon after became supervisor of the famous Emporium. In 1971, he answered the call to help establish merchandising at the new Walt Disney World resort. “I was the third Disney person to move to Florida,” Bo recalled years later. “We had to create tens of thousands of square feet of store space in the new Magic Kingdom and the resort hotels around it.”
Bo returned to California in 1976 as corporate vice president of retail merchandise, was named president of DCP in 1985, and was promoted to chairman in 1997. Disney Consumer Products expanded rapidly, driven by the specialists Bo hired and mentored in product development, merchandising, distribution, rights licensing and systems management.
After Disney retirement in 2000, Bo was involved in numerous business ventures, from sports fishing to biotechnology to entertainment, and with charitable and philanthropic organizations.
The family requests that donations are given in his name to Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach.
