The wait is over. Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro will succeed Bob Iger as the entertainment giant’s next CEO, the company said on Tuesday. Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment and largely seen as D’Amaro’s main competition for the CEO job, will become President and Chief Creative Officer in a newly created position.
Both roles will take effect on March 18. Iger will continue to serve as Senior Advisor and a member of the Disney Board until his retirement from the company on Dec. 31, 2026.
D’Amaro’s ascension comes at a sensitive time for Disney with a bevy of both opportunities and risks for the new CEO. While Iger has stocked the company with a robust library of franchises, and D’Amaro himself helped propel the growth in its theme parks and cruise businesses, he will have to deal with an unpredictable political environment and the transition out of a shrinking linear TV business and an industry that’s consolidating around fewer media and tech superpowers.
The appointment is a bet that D’Amaro will be able to navigate Disney through these rough waters.
“The CEO transition to Josh D’Amaro represents a potential inflection point for the company’s strategic direction,” said Michael Morris, an analyst for Guggenheim Securities. “D’Amaro’s extensive experience across the organization, particularly in Experiences where he has overseen significant operational improvements and capacity expansion, positions him well to drive a more integrated approach to leveraging Disney’s brands across businesses …While some observers view the timing as providing an easier setup for the incoming CEO, we believe the challenges facing the business—including linear decline, streaming profitability, and Experiences investment returns—remain substantial and will require decisive strategic action.”
Disney praised D’Amaro’s track record and leadership abilities at the company as key reasons for his appointment.
“Josh D’Amaro possesses that rare combination of inspiring leadership and innovation, a keen eye for strategic growth opportunities, and a deep passion for the Disney brand and its people – all of which make him the right person to take the helm as Disney’s next CEO,” said James Gorman, Chairman of The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors.
“Josh D’Amaro is an exceptional leader and the right person to become our next CEO,” added Iger. “He has an instinctive appreciation of the Disney brand, and a deep understanding of what resonates with our audiences, paired with the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects. His ability to combine creativity with operational excellence is exemplary and I am thrilled for Josh and the company.”
D’Amaro was one of four internal candidates in the running for the job. Other Disney executives under consideration included Walden and Disney Entertainment co-chair Alan Bergman, as well as ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
All four candidates went through a rigorous preparation process that included mentorship from Iger, external coaching and engagement with all 10 of the board’s directors.
Walt Disney Company shares rose 1.3% to $105.84 in pre-marketing trading on news of D’Amaro’s appointment.
D’Amaro’s time spearheading the Experiences division — which includes the parks and cruise ships — has been marked by significant revenue gains. Just on Monday, Disney announced that the Parks & Experiences division hit $10 billion in the fiscal first quarter for the first time ever, carrying the financial load for the media giant.
“I am immensely grateful to the Board for entrusting me with leading a company that means so much to me and millions around the world,” D’Amaro said in a statement. “Disney’s strength has always come from our people and the creative excellence that defines our stories and experiences. There is no limit to what Disney can achieve, and I am excited to work with our teams across the company and brilliant creative partners to honor Disney’s remarkable legacy while continuing to innovate, grow, and deliver exceptional value for our consumers and shareholders. I also want to express my gratitude to Bob Iger for his generous mentorship, his friendship, and the profound impact of his leadership.”
D’Amaro, who first joined Disney in 1998 through the resorts business, has previously held leadership roles both in the U.S. and internationally across finance, business strategy, marketing, creative development and operations, including chief financial officer of Disney Consumer Products Global Licensing and president of Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort.
As chairman of the Experiences division, D’Amaro has led a team of 185,000 employees across 12 theme parks and 57 resort hotels in six global destinations in the U.S., Europe an Asia. He has overseen the expansion of Disney theme parks across the globe, with new lands and attractions such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the Marvel-themed Avengers Campus, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and World of Frozen.
In addition to the company’s theme parks, his oversight includes Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Consumer Products, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Signature Experiences, Disney Vacation Club, Adventures by Disney and Storyliving by Disney.
In 2023, Disney said it would invest $60 billion over the next decade for new cruise ships, resorts, themed lands, attractions and technologies, which includes upcoming projects such as a Monsters Inc.-themed land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a new Avatar-themed land at Disneyland, and new areas inspired by Cars and Disney Villains in Magic Kingdom.
Looking ahead, Disney is planning to open new theme park in Abu Dhabi and will grow its cruise ship fleet from seven to 13 ships by 2031. It is also developing a digital universe within Fortnite through its $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games where users can play, watch, shop and engage with characters and stories from Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Avatar, and more.
Additionally, Disney has taken a $1 billion stake in OpenAI and will license its characters to the latter’s Sora video platform. The characters — though not the talent who portray or voice them — will also be available for use for ChatGPT’s image-generation platform, and will include everyone from Mickey Mouse to Iron Man to Elsa. Disney will also host a series of curated Sora-generated videos on Disney+, and OpenAI will help power new experiences on the streaming service. Disney employees will also have access to ChatGPT.
D’Amaro’s appointment comes after a years-long search process led by the Disney board’s succession planning committee, which includes chairman Gorman, who led his own search for a successor after an 18-year run as Morgan Stanley’s CEO, and directors Mary Barra, Jeremy Darroch and Calvin McDonald.
In fiscal 2025 alone, the succession planning committee met five times. It reported to the full board at every scheduled meeting and reserved time to meet without Iger present as appropriate. It also discussed succession with Iger present at least once a year.
As part of the discussions, the board’s compensation committee reviewed and considered shareholder feedback to determine a new CEO pay package when succession takes place and design an executive compensation program aimed at “driving the creation of long-term shareholder value.” In 2025, Iger was paid $45.8 million, an 11.5% increase from $41.1 million in 2024.
Iger returned to Disney as CEO in November 2022 following the disastrous ouster of his successor-turned-predecessor Bob Chapek.
Chapek, who previously served as the company’s parks chief before taking on the role of CEO from 2020 to 2022, had a tenure that was marked by multiple missteps, including a poorly handled lawsuit from Scarlett Johansson over her salary tied to the streaming release of “Black Widow” as well as his initial decision to stay mum about Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, drawing the ire of numerous employees. He also was in charge as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the globe, which resulted in temporary closures of Disney’s theme parks and thousands of employees who were either furloughed or laid off.
Prior to handing off the reins to Chapek, Iger served as Disney’s CEO for 15 years from 2005 to 2020, during which time he oversaw the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. He has famously been a well-liked CEO, delaying his departure date multiple times.
Iger’s latest term has included a number of milestones, such as Disney+ reaching streaming profitability, the launch of the ESPN Unlimited streaming service, the sale of Star India to Reliance industries, acquiring full control of Hulu and a majority stake in Fubo and a landmark deal with OpenAI.
But it also included a fair number of challenges, including the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strike in 2023, a proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz, the failed launch of Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery joint streaming venture Venu Sports, a $16 million legal settlement between ABC News and President Donald Trump, box office struggles and the temporary suspension of ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel.
“When I came back three years ago, I had a tremendous amount that needed fixing. But anyone who runs a company also knows that it can’t just be about fixing. It has to be preparing a company for its future and really putting place, taking steps to create opportunities for growth,” Iger told analysts during Disney’s first quarter earnings call on Monday. “The good news is that the company is in much better shape today than it was three years ago, because we have done a lot of fixing, but we’ve also put in place a number of opportunities, including the investment across our experiences business to essentially expand in every location we do business and on the high seas.”
“I also believe that in the world that changes as much as it does that in some form or another, trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake, and I’m certain that my successor will not do that,” Iger continued. “So they’ll be handed, I think, a good hand in terms of the strength of the company, a number of opportunities to grow, and also the exhortation that in a world that changes, you also have to continue to change and evolve.”
“On behalf of the entire Board, we extend our deepest gratitude to Bob Iger for his extraordinary leadership and dedication to The Walt Disney Company,” Gorman said on Tuesday. “The Board asked Bob to return as CEO in 2022 for two critical reasons. First, to lead the company through a challenging transition and ensure Disney was fit for purpose for the future. Second, to strengthen the leadership bench and to help develop candidates for the CEO transition. Bob has delivered on both priorities, while also guiding Disney through a transformative period with an ambitious strategy that has further strengthened its position as the world’s premier entertainment company. After nearly two decades leading Disney, the Iger era has been defined by enormous growth, an unyielding commitment to excellence in creativity and innovation, and exemplary stewardship of this iconic institution.”
When asked how he’d like to be remembered during a podcast interview in November, Iger said he hoped he’d be remembered as someone who helped usher Disney to “a place that even Walt would be proud of.”
“What that means is more great storytelling to a larger audience, more innovation, more risk-taking, more really creation of happiness. It’s really that simple,” Iger said. “At one point I thought, ‘Well, OK, you’re now running Disney. What’s the most you want out of it?’ Well, don’t screw it up, but it’s much more than that. I really have been mindful of the duty that I feel has been handed to me to make it even better than it’s ever been.”
As for his successor, Iger said that he hopes they would be “respectful of our past and well aware of the values that really created the value of the company in the first place, and carry them forward, but not let anything that’s been done in the past get in the way of bringing the company into the future.”
“That’s really constant innovation, a constant exploration, constant desire to reinvent or to invent even more than anything else. That’s what I’d want,” he said. “But I think we do occupy a place in the world as great storytellers, perhaps maybe the greatest in many respects. And I would hope that position would continue for years and years, decades ahead.”
