Disney is close to picking parks chief D’Amaro as next CEO
He is now leading a US$60 billion investment in expanding the company’s resorts and nearly doubling its fleet of cruise ships
[LOS ANGELES] The board of Walt Disney is aligning on promoting theme-park division chairman Josh D’Amaro to the role of chief executive officer, and it will vote on naming a new leader in the coming week, said sources.
The company is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Monday (Feb 2).
The 54-year-old has led the unit that delivers most of Disney’s profits since 2020. If approved, he will succeed Bob Iger. The board could still change its mind.
Iger ran the world’s largest entertainment company from 2005 to 2020, and returned as its CEO in 2022.
“The board has not yet selected the next CEO of the Walt Disney and once that decision is made, we will announce it,” a Disney spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.
The appointment will conclude a three-year CEO search, which since 2024 has been led by Disney chairman James Gorman, who earlier in his career ran a successful CEO transition process at Morgan Stanley.
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Disney’s four divisional chiefs – D’Amaro, entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, and sports chair Jimmy Pitaro – all began competing for the top role on the return of Iger, which followed the tumultuous tenure of his handpicked successor Bob Chapek.
During Iger’s first tenure, his contract was extended several times, dashing the hopes of the executives perceived to be heirs apparent.
D’Amaro joined Disney in 1998 after previously working at the Gillette razor company. He was promoted primarily through the company’s theme-park ranks, working in leadership roles at resorts in California, Hong Kong and Florida.
As chairman of the company’s experiences division, he is leading a US$60 billion investment in expanding Disney’s resorts and nearly doubling its fleet of cruise ships.
He also spearheaded the purchase of a US$1.5 billion stake in Fortnite publisher Epic Games.
In a regulatory filing in January, Disney reiterated its plans to name a successor in early 2026, and scheduled its annual shareholder meeting for Mar 18. In 2020, when Iger previously stepped down, Chapek was announced about two weeks before the meeting. BLOOMBERG
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