Tricia Cerrone is a former Walt Disney Imagineering creative executive and spent a career telling stories with new technology, most notably in the field of experience design, collaborating with top thinkers and designers around the world, in more than a hundred disciplines.
She was privileged in all her leadership assignments at Walt Disney Imagineering, and moved from Paris to Hong Kong to the open seas and cruise ships, designing and building attractions before becoming the Walt Disney World Portfolio Producer where she oversaw all things creative in the region’s parks and resorts, and served the guest experience from check-in to check-out. Known for developing original ideas and understanding the potential of different technologies, she was tapped to lead the company’s idea engine—the BlueSky Studio—for four years, innovating everything from rides to retail to new business concepts, while also
developing individuals and teams in the process and struggles that come with innovating.
She was on the forefront of participatory design, and led pioneering work in live character animation, large scale interactive games, and social/collaborative rides. She also brought an expertise in foresight and futurist thinking to her teams, training them to spot signals in behavior and technology trends that could be used in new attractions and businesses.
Her ability to teach and coach gained recognition, and she asked to lead Imagineering’s Producing Studio to create a center of excellence for Imagineering’s top creative leaders. She simultaneously led WDI’s first internal Talent Development Group—a collaboration between the business and human resource teams, designed to help Imagineers address the unique challenges in doing the global, multi-disciplinary work at Imagineering while leveling up business acumen among Imagineers. In this role, she co-led an international, three-year knowledge transfer initiative to bridge the lack of succession between the retiring “EPCOT Generation” and newer Imagineers. She also co-led the Relevancy Project for six years, an initiative to help underserved guests see themselves in parks and resorts around the world.
Tricia left Imagineering to move closer to family and follow her passion for writing and entrepreneurship. Today she speaks and writes on leadership, collaboration, design, and storytelling. While fiction is not new to Tricia, THE POWER OF COLLABORATION co-written with former Disney colleague, Edward J. van Luinen, is her first non-fiction book and taps many lessons she learned through her creative career, and presents a new approach to understand collaboration, how it works, and how it can make our lives happier and more successful. It will be published by Bloomsbury in early 2027.