How do you replace Bob Iger?
That’s been the question dogging Disney’s 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.
On Tuesday, the Mouse House’s board finally delivered its answer after a lengthy examination of the two top in-house candidates. By unanimous vote, Josh D’Amaro, the Disney veteran who heads the theme parks business, will be the new CEO. At the same time, Disney elevated Dana Walden, co-chair of the entertainment division overseeing TV and streaming, to the role of president and chief creative officer — adding oversight of the film business to her purview.
Walden will report to D’Amaro, 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’Amaro. 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.)
D’Amaro and Walden are not co-CEOs: Walden, after jockeying for the job, ultimately didn’t get it. In the end, Disney opted to put D’Amaro in the buck-stops-here position, responsible for answering to investors and the board. But the board also created a new position for Walden that establishes her as one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood.
READ MORE: Keys to the Kingdom: Why Josh D’Amaro and Dana Walden’s Fates at Disney are Now Intertwined
And in running the sprawling Disney empire, D’Amaro 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.
“There was a sense of limbo,” says one producer who works at Disney.
Wall Street seemed to prefer D’Amaro, who has knowledge of parks and attractions, areas of Disney’s business that are growing. Walden’s group has been instrumental in driving the growth of Disney+ and Hulu; on the other hand, the executive’s connections to cable and linear television, two parts of the company’s portfolio that are contracting, were seen as less sexy. Walden’s 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’s friendship with Kamala Harris might put a target on Disney’s back with the Trump administration, which has shown no hesitation about doing battle with media companies. Walden’s campaign also likely suffered from her handling of Jimmy Kimmel’s 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.
“I don’t think the result, which I think turned out to be very positive, would have been as positive if I hadn’t 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,” Kimmel said at an industry conference in October 2025.
Part of Disney’s struggle to select a replacement for Iger, still widely viewed as one of the most successful CEOs in history, is that it’s nearly impossible to find someone with the skill set needed to run a company that’s 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 “Star Wars” universe or put LGBTQ characters in Pixar films.
Moreover, 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’s immersion into “Fortnite”) and OpenAI (for AI-generated videos of iconic Disney characters).
In short, it’s a lot for one person to get their head around. It remains to be seen how actively D’Amaro will court Hollywood relationships, or if he lets Walden essentially serve as Disney’s 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?
D’Amaro remains something of a cipher to the entertainment community. Top producers and talent have rarely interacted with the parks chief and don’t think that will change much, with the expectation being that Walden will be the main decision-maker on the content that Disney produces. That’s in contrast to Iger, who was known to walk into editing suites and give blunt, populist-leaning notes on projects. But D’Amaro does have a similar vibe to the photogenic and perpetually affable Iger.
“He’s like the Midwestern version of Bob,” says one executive who’s worked with D’Amaro. “He exudes Americana.”
Another former colleague praises D’Amaro’s emotional intelligence and strategic vision, noting that he spearheaded Disney’s investment in Epic Games.
“Josh realized that Disney has all these characters that people love, but beyond shows and movies, they didn’t have a way for people to interact with them in an immersive way that they could monetize,” the colleague says.
Disney is giving Walden a big financial incentive 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’s initial annual pay package comes in at around $24 million, while D’Amaro’s is set at approximately $38 million.
Meanwhile, from their new perches, both D’Amaro and Walden will work closely with Pitaro, who runs the company’s 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, giving the league a 10% stake in ESPN that’s valued at $3 billion; in return, ESPN is taking over the NFL Network and RedZone linear-TV properties.
Overall, Wall Street analysts gave a thumbs-up to Disney’s orderly post-Iger transition. D’Amaro 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’Amaro’s experience running the now-thriving parks division and his track record expanding the business globally speak “to his ability to drive durable growth while balancing investment, returns and brand stewardship,” Evercore ISI analyst Kutgun Maral wrote in a research note, adding that “a clean handoff gives D’Amaro ample runway to set strategy and align the organization under his vision.”
In an interview with Variety, Disney’s board chairman James Gorman, the former CEO of Morgan Stanley, praised both executives, lauding D’Amaro’s “curiosity, innovation, energy, passion for the brand,” and calling Walden “a fabulous executive.”
D’Amaro, 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.
In 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.
“She reads the room,” a former colleague says. “She is very good at managing difficult situations and big egos.”
Disney’s board of directors was under pressure to execute a strong succession plan this time around — 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’Amaro now holds.
Chapek 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’s 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.
Now Disney has two seasoned execs to lead the media conglomerate in partnership.
The prepared remarks from Iger were revealing. Iger praised D’Amaro as “an exceptional leader” who has “the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects.” Meanwhile, regarding Walden’s promotion, Iger noted that she “commands tremendous respect from the creative community.” He added, “Given that creativity is at the heart of everything Disney does, she is a wonderful choice to serve in this new leadership role.”
On paper, the moves give Disney the best of both worlds, allowing D’Amaro 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’Amaro is empowered to be the ultimate decision-maker.
“You need a hierarchy,” says the former Disney executive. “Dana can debate and argue her point of view, but when Josh delivers his verdict, she needs to salute and be a good corporate citizen.”
Matt Donnelly and Michael Schneider contributed to this story.
