{"id":448928,"date":"2026-02-04T18:06:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448928\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:06:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:06:19","slug":"how-josh-damaro-won-the-battle-to-replace-bob-iger-as-disney-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448928\/","title":{"rendered":"How Josh D’Amaro Won the Battle to Replace Bob Iger as Disney CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHow do you replace Bob Iger<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s been the question dogging Disney<\/a>\u2019s board for more than two years, ever since the superstar executive, back in the CEO chair for a second term, negotiated his exit for the end of 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Tuesday, the Mouse House\u2019s board finally delivered its answer<\/a> after a lengthy examination of the two top in-house candidates. By unanimous vote, Josh D\u2019Amaro, the Disney veteran who heads the theme parks business, will be the new CEO. At the same time, Disney elevated Dana Walden<\/a>, co-chair of the entertainment division overseeing TV and streaming, to the role of president and chief creative officer \u2014 adding oversight of the film business to her purview.<\/p>\n

\n\tWalden will report to D\u2019Amaro, who is seen as a CEO in the classic Disney mold. His 28 years of experience on the retail side of the house give him a visceral understanding of how kids and families interact with the enormously valuable global brand. (Disney did not immediately name a replacement for D\u2019Amaro. Among the contenders: Walt Disney Imagineering President and Chief Creative Officer Bruce Vaughn, Disney Consumer Products President Tasia Filippatos, DIsneyland Resort President Thomas Mazloum and Walt Disney World Resort President Jeff Vahle.)<\/p>\n

\n\tD\u2019Amaro and Walden are not co-CEOs: Walden, after jockeying for the job, ultimately didn\u2019t get it. In the end, Disney opted to put D\u2019Amaro in the buck-stops-here position, responsible for answering to investors and the board. But the board also created a new position for Walden<\/a> that establishes her as one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\n\tREAD MORE: Keys to the Kingdom: Why Josh D\u2019Amaro and Dana Walden\u2019s Fates at Disney are Now Intertwined<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAnd in running the sprawling Disney empire, D\u2019Amaro and Walden will have a kind of left-brain\/right-brain division of labor. The announcement ends a lengthy succession battle, one that also ensnared ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro and Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman. It was a bake-off that left executives hesitant to make decisions about what shows and movies to greenlight, sources within the company say, because every one of those moves had the potential to blow back on Walden, Bergman and Pitaro, potentially hobbling their candidacies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere was a sense of limbo,\u201d says one producer who works at Disney.<\/p>\n

\n\tWall Street seemed to prefer D\u2019Amaro, who has knowledge of parks and attractions, areas of Disney\u2019s business that are growing. Walden\u2019s group has been instrumental in driving the growth of Disney+ and Hulu; on the other hand, the executive\u2019s connections to cable and linear television, two parts of the company\u2019s portfolio that are contracting, were seen as less sexy. Walden\u2019s Rolodex and the respect she commands across Hollywood did make it appear at certain points that she would prevail in the bake-off. Still, sources suggest there were concerns that Walden\u2019s friendship with Kamala Harris might put a target on Disney\u2019s back with the Trump administration, which has shown no hesitation about doing battle with media companies. Walden\u2019s campaign also likely suffered from her handling of Jimmy Kimmel\u2019s suspension last summer, which was widely viewed within the company as a public relations debacle, sources say. Kimmel was benched for three nights in September. After he was reinstated, the host publicly credited Walden with helping him make it through an emotional and volatile situation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think the result, which I think turned out to be very positive, would have been as positive if I hadn\u2019t talked to Dana as much as I did. Because it helped me think everything through, and it helped me just kind of understand where everyone was coming from,\u201d Kimmel said at an industry conference<\/a> in October 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tPart of Disney\u2019s struggle to select a replacement for Iger, still widely viewed as one of the most successful CEOs in history, is that it\u2019s nearly impossible to find someone with the skill set needed to run a company that\u2019s so universally known. Not only does a leader need to have a certain amount of charisma, but they also must be able to withstand a torrent of criticism. Because Disney controls family-friendly characters ranging from Mickey Mouse to the Avengers, any decision it makes is heavily scrutinized. Just look at the debates that have raged when the company has introduced people of color into the \u201cStar Wars\u201d universe or put LGBTQ characters in Pixar films.<\/p>\n

\n\tMoreover, the company is enormous and complex, with global operations as disparate as hospitality, technology, engineering, R&D, creative development, film and TV production and distribution, live sports, video games and consumer products. Iger has been a hands-on manager, covering all those bases while guiding the Magic Kingdom into the future in forging partnerships with Epic Games (for Disney\u2019s immersion into \u201cFortnite\u201d) and OpenAI (for AI-generated videos of iconic Disney characters).<\/p>\n

\n\tIn short, it\u2019s a lot for one person to get their head around. It remains to be seen how actively D\u2019Amaro will court Hollywood relationships, or if he lets Walden essentially serve as Disney\u2019s ambassador to those stakeholders. Also unclear right now: what the role will be for Bergman, who has overseen movie studios. Will he be willing to take a back seat to Walden?<\/p>\n

\n\tD\u2019Amaro remains something of a cipher to the entertainment community. Top producers and talent have rarely interacted with the parks chief and don\u2019t think that will change much, with the expectation being that Walden will be the main decision-maker on the content that Disney produces. That\u2019s in contrast to Iger, who was known to walk into editing suites and give blunt, populist-leaning notes on projects. But D\u2019Amaro does have a similar vibe to the photogenic and perpetually affable Iger.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s like the Midwestern version of Bob,\u201d says one executive who\u2019s worked with D\u2019Amaro. \u201cHe exudes Americana.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother former colleague praises D\u2019Amaro\u2019s emotional intelligence and strategic vision, noting that he spearheaded Disney\u2019s investment in Epic Games.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cJosh realized that Disney has all these characters that people love, but beyond shows and movies, they didn\u2019t have a way for people to interact with them in an immersive way that they could monetize,\u201d the colleague says.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney is giving Walden a big financial incentive<\/a> to stay with the company. Under her new contract, which runs through March 2030, Walden will have an annual base salary of $3.75 million, a bonus targeted at 200% of her salary plus a long-term stock award of $15.75 million per year. Including one-time bonuses, Walden\u2019s initial annual pay package comes in at around $24 million, while D\u2019Amaro\u2019s is set at approximately $38 million.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, from their new perches, both D\u2019Amaro and Walden will work closely with Pitaro, who runs the company\u2019s third pillar: ESPN. Under Iger, Disney carved out the sports-media operations as it brought on a new investor: Disney on Jan. 31 closed its deal with the NFL<\/a>, giving the league a 10% stake in ESPN that\u2019s valued at $3 billion; in return, ESPN is taking over the NFL Network and RedZone linear-TV properties.<\/p>\n

\n\tOverall, Wall Street analysts gave a thumbs-up to Disney\u2019s orderly post-Iger transition. D\u2019Amaro will take over the CEO spot on March 18, whereupon Iger will assume an advisory role until he retires from the company at the end of 2026. D\u2019Amaro\u2019s experience running the now-thriving parks division and his track record expanding the business globally speak \u201cto his ability to drive durable growth while balancing investment, returns and brand stewardship,\u201d Evercore ISI analyst Kutgun Maral wrote in a research note, adding that \u201ca clean handoff gives D\u2019Amaro ample runway to set strategy and align the organization under his vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an interview with Variety<\/a>, Disney\u2019s board chairman James Gorman, the former CEO of Morgan Stanley, praised both executives, lauding D\u2019Amaro\u2019s \u201ccuriosity, innovation, energy, passion for the brand,\u201d and calling Walden \u201ca fabulous executive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tD\u2019Amaro, 54, has been with Disney since 1998, starting out in sales and marketing at Disneyland. He has worked across a range of business, marketing and operations posts within the company, from chief financial of Disney Consumer Products Global Licensing to president of Disneyland Resort and president of Walt Disney World Resort. He was promoted to his current post as head of Disney parks and cruises, consumer products and Walt Disney Imagineering in May 2020.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn contrast, Walden, 61, is a relative newcomer to Disney, having come over after the company bought much of 20th Century Fox in 2019. Most of the executive team was laid off or left; Walden not only retained her job but also saw her responsibilities grow. Fox had a sharp-elbowed culture, while Disney operates in a more collaborative fashion, one that Walden embraced.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe reads the room,\u201d a former colleague says. \u201cShe is very good at managing difficult situations and big egos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\u2019s board of directors was under pressure to execute a strong succession plan this time around \u2014 after the disaster that ensued when Iger handed the CEO baton to Bob Chapek, a Disney veteran who was promoted from the same perch that D\u2019Amaro now holds.<\/p>\n

\n\tChapek took over as CEO in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID pandemic turned global markets upside down and forced immediate and drastic changes in the way Disney operated. Iger stepped down as CEO but remained in charge of creative matters for the company. The two men\u2019s relationship quickly deteriorated, setting the stage for an epic clash of strategic visions (and executive egos) that culminated in the Disney board ousting Chapek in November 2022 and Iger reclaiming the CEO role.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow Disney has two seasoned execs to lead the media conglomerate in partnership.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe prepared remarks from Iger were revealing. Iger praised D\u2019Amaro as \u201can exceptional leader\u201d who has \u201cthe rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects.\u201d Meanwhile, regarding Walden\u2019s promotion, Iger noted that she \u201ccommands tremendous respect from the creative community.\u201d He added, \u201cGiven that creativity is at the heart of everything Disney does, she is a wonderful choice to serve in this new leadership role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn paper, the moves give Disney the best of both worlds, allowing D\u2019Amaro to focus on modernizing the company while Walden acts as a liaison to the creative community. But it will only work, sources say, if D\u2019Amaro is empowered to be the ultimate decision-maker.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou need a hierarchy,\u201d says the former Disney executive. \u201cDana can debate and argue her point of view, but when Josh delivers his verdict, she needs to salute and be a good corporate citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMatt Donnelly and Michael Schneider contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How do you replace Bob Iger? That\u2019s been the question dogging Disney\u2019s board for more than two years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[46632,28,105798,3716,200651],"class_list":["post-448928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bob-iger","tag-business","tag-dana-walden","tag-disney","tag-josh-damaro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}