Citadel and Citadel Securities Founder Ken Griffin showed Disney how to reward employees, by taking his to Walt Disney World for a weekend. Griffin paid out of pocket for 10,000 staff members and their families to visit the Most Magical Place on Earth for two days. According to various news outlets, he even paid for the flights, along with the hotels, meals, and park tickets. The employees even got a live concert with Coldplay, DJ Diplo and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Employees in Asia did not get to participate in this trip, but don’t worry, they are going to get an event like this next year.

He did this to reward his hedge fund employees for what is shaping up to be a record year for the company. This while the stock market has been a bit tumultuous in the past year. Even with the ups and downs their Wellington fund still returned about 32% over the year while others fared far worse.

Griffin and employees were also celebrating a milestone year for the company. Citadel Securities has reached it’s 20th anniversary while the hedge fund has hit 32 years.

According to the New York Post, Griffin “has donated has donated more than $1.5 billion to the arts, educational and medical causes” during his life. It’s not unusual for someone to donate to outside causes, but to go above and beyond for the employees and their families is special.

In contrast Walt Disney World employees are protesting and fighting for livable wages while the theme park keeps raising prices on consumers. The parks are charging historically high rates for entry, packing people into the parks, up charging for Genie+ and Lightning Lane, and have raised prices across the board on everything else, yet somehow they didn’t perform well and can’t pay Cast Members more.

Mr. Griffin just showed corporate America how to make money in a downturn and reward your employees for helping you do it. Maybe they should all take notes.

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