The Walt Disney Company’s board announced that Josh D’Amaro will replace Bob Iger as CEO, with D’Amaro set to take the role in March. Iger has led Disney for nearly two decades in total and will remain a senior adviser and board member until retiring at the end of the year.
D’Amaro, 54, has been with Disney for 28 years and has served as chairman of Disney Experiences, overseeing cruise ships, resorts and theme parks, including a planned park in Abu Dhabi. Disney’s corporate site credits him as the “architect of the largest global expansion in the history of Disney Experiences,” a roughly $36 billion effort.
The announcement follows earlier controversy in September when ABC briefly suspended late-night host Jimmy Kimmel after his on-air comments about the suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Iger previously stepped down in 2020 after leading Disney from 2005 to 2020 and became creative chairman; he was replaced by Bob Chapek, with whom he clashed. The board asked Iger to return in 2022 when Disney was losing about $1 billion per quarter. Iger is credited with turning the company around through restructuring, $5.5 billion in cost cuts and layoffs.
In a statement, Iger praised D’Amaro as “the right person to become our next CEO.” On an earnings call, Iger said his return was meant to fix immediate problems and prepare Disney for the future, and expressed confidence that his successor would not maintain the status quo.
As CEO, D’Amaro will oversee Disney’s film studios (including 20th Century Studios, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Pixar), television assets like ABC, FX and Hulu, theme parks and other Disney experiences. He will also work with a new licensing deal involving OpenAI’s Sora.