Disney Names Feature Animation Chief

Peter Schneider has been promoted to the newly created post of feature animation president at Walt Disney Studios, which made the recent animation hit, “Beauty and the Beast.”

Schneider will oversee development and production of feature-length animation and short subjects for theaters and theme parks. He will report to Roy E. Disney, who heads animation. Studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, in a prepared statement, said Schneider was being rewarded for the success of “Beauty and the Beast” and its predecessor, “The Little Mermaid.”

Schneider joined Burbank-based Disney in 1985 as vice president of feature animation. Before that, he worked for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee as the associate director of the Olympic Arts Festival.