The Walt Disney Company has been playing its own game of Succession in recent months, and every day we’re getting a little bit closer to when a major change at one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world will take place. Bob Iger will step down as CEO (again) at the end of 2026, but who will replace him is still a major question.
We’ve been told by the Board of Directors at The Walt Disney Company that a decision on a new CEO will come in early 2026, and that person will work closely with Iger over the next several months before taking the reins themselves. While there have been reports that Disney has looked outside the company for potential CEO material, the general understanding has been that the top candidates are all top executives within Disney.
Disney Experiences Head Josh D’Amaro And Disney Studio Co-Head Dana Walden Are Reportedly In A Race For Bob Iger’s Job
A new report from Bloomberg suggests that of the four internal candidates expected to vie for top job, Walt Disney Studios co-heads Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, Disney Experiences chief Josh D’Amaro, and ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro, it is now a “two horse race” with D’Amaro and Walden being front runners and the other two currently seen as “long shots” according to internal sources.
This isn’t the first time it’s been suggested that D’Amaro and Walden are the top contenders. The pair does seem to rise to the top of any discussion on the topic of the next CEO. What’s potentially more interesting is that, according to this report, one of them is a clear frontrunner.
Disney’s Next CEO May Come From The Same Place As The Last CEO
While the Bloomberg report claims that Bob Iger recently “bristled” at the idea that Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro is his likely successor, claiming that no decision has been made, and that he’s not part of the succession committee’s planning, it’s suggested nonetheless that D’Amaro looks like the “CEO in waiting.”
Josh D’Amaro is absolutely a qualified individual, having led Disney’s Experiences division, the most regularly profitable part of the Walt Disney Company, ever since the former head, Bob Chapek, was elevated to CEO himself. But then, that’s sort of the reason that D’Amaro’s alleged frontrunner status surprises me.
The last time that the head of Disney’s Experiences division was made CEO, things didn’t go so well. That said, Chapek and D’Amaro are absolutely different individuals by all accounts. D’Amaro is a people person who gets along with everybody, something that could not be said of Chapek. However, because of the difficulties that Disney had under Chapek, D’Amaro will have a lot of extra work to do to prove that somebody coming from his part of the company can do the job.
Fair or not, Chapek was perceived as somebody who understood the dollars and sense of Disney, but he struggled when dealing with the studio side of the company. That fact was made most obvious when Scarlett Johansson sued Disney over her compensation surrounding the decision to release the Black Widow movie straight to Disney+.
That’s not to say D’Amaro can’t handle these things better than his predecessor, but there will almost certainly be a perception of him if he takes the job because of what happened before, and perception plays a strong role in things that are quite important to Disney, like its stock price.
Whatever way Disney goes, the incoming CEO will have to prove themselves in some way that they hadn’t before. Dana Walden certainly doesn’t know the theme park business the way D’Amaro does, just as he will have to learn about the studio. Either choice has the potential to be great, but also the potential to be another Bob Chapek situation. I don’t envy the people tasked with making this monumental decision.