By Aditya Soni
Feb 3 (Reuters) – Walt Disney on Tuesday named theme parks head Josh D’Amaro as CEO, ending years of succession uncertainty and placing a longtime insider at the helm as artificial intelligence and a wave of consolidation upend the media industry.
D’Amaro, 54, will take the reins from Bob Iger, 74, at the company’s annual investor meeting on March 18. Iger, credited with shaping the modern Disney through deals for Pixar, Marvel and 21st Century Fox, will stay on as a senior adviser and board member until his retirement from the company on December 31.
Disney also named entertainment co-chief Dana Walden, a creative executive in the mold of Iger with a string of commercial and critical hits and strong talent ties, as chief content officer and president.
Walden was among the internal candidates for the CEO role along with entertainment co-chief Alan Bergman and ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro.
Succession has long been the storied entertainment giant’s weakness – it delayed Iger’s retirement several times and brought him back in 2022 to replace his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek, after the pandemic hobbled its business.
To avoid another misstep, Disney in 2024 named Morgan Stanley veteran James Gorman as its chairman to oversee the CEO search. Gorman, who led a smooth transition at the Wall Street bank, joined after the House of Mouse extended Iger’s tenure for a fifth time through 2026. The search committee evaluated 100 external candidates in addition to internal contenders.
Gorman said the committee considered the candidates’ vision for the company, their understanding of the Disney brand, their creative chops, and their embrace of technological innovation – particularly artificial intelligence.
“There’s so much that he’s done creatively, and storytelling, and such a deep understanding of the brand and where the industry is going,” said Gorman. “I thought it was a fabulous choice.”
With D’Amaro, Disney is turning to a nearly three-decade company veteran who runs its biggest profit engine – the experiences unit that includes theme parks and cruises and whose sales have grown every year after the pandemic receded in 2021.
Last fiscal year, the division turned a record operating profit of nearly $10 billion, making up nearly 60% of the company’s earnings.
Disney shares were down 0.7% on Tuesday.
D’Amaro is leading the company’s push into the Middle East with a theme park in the United Arab Emirates’ capital, Abu Dhabi, that would mark its first major new park in nearly a decade.
CHALLENGES FACING NEW CEO
But a decline in international visitors to the U.S. is weighing on the parks business, with Disney shares falling more than 7% on Monday after the company flagged the “headwind” even as its overall sales and profit exceeded expectations.
While D’Amaro is a familiar face for visitors to Walt Disney World in Florida, analysts have said he is little known in Hollywood. That could pose a challenge as he confronts an entertainment industry that generative AI tools threaten to reshape by automating writing, editing and visual effects.
The timing is particularly high-stakes as the announcement comes just months before the industry’s major guild contracts – including those for writers and actors – expire in May and June, setting the stage for a new round of labor negotiations.
A breakdown in talks, partially over the use of AI, had led to dual strikes in 2023 by the unions that hobbled much of Hollywood production and cost around $6 billion in lost output.
Disney is especially under scrutiny after it agreed late last year to let OpenAI use characters from its Star Wars, Pixar and Marvel franchises in the startup’s Sora AI video generator. It has also agreed to invest $1 billion in the startup.
Chapek, another parks veteran turned CEO, had struggled with talent relations and bungled a dispute with Scarlett Johansson over the simultaneous streaming and theatrical release of “Black Widow,” which resulted in a lawsuit and eventual settlement.
“These are big boots to fill. Disney can ill afford another messy handover,” PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore said.
“Ultimately, the key to Disney’s success and future growth lies in content creation, which drives the flywheel across theatrical releases, experiences, licensing and streaming.”
Competition is also heating up as Netflix and Paramount try to bulk up by buying Warner Bros assets, with either combination expected to result in a major streaming and studio rival.
D’Amaro will also have to navigate political pressure from the Trump administration.
In September, the company pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live” after the host’s remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk drew a threat from the communications regulator. It quickly reinstated the late-night show following backlash over the decision.
President Donald Trump said in November that licenses used by affiliates of Disney-owned ABC should be “taken away” after a reporter for the network questioned him about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Disney has set D’Amaro’s annual base salary at $2.5 million, and he will receive a long-term incentive award with a target value of $26.3 million each fiscal year.
Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner lauded the choice of Iger’s successor, and the decision to elevate Walden, in a post on the social media platform X.
“My advice to Josh is continue Bob Iger’s strategy that creativity will handle profits, always protect the brand,” wrote Eisner. “And keep close the words of Walt Disney: ‘We love to entertain kings and queens, but the vital thing to remember is this—every guest receives the VIP treatment.'”
(Reporting by Aditya Soni in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Harshita Varghese and Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Arun Koyyur, Anil D’Silva, Chris Reese and Nick Zieminski)
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