After a decade of ups and downs, Disney is picking a familiar, friendly face at the heart of its profit engine to lead the company into a new era.
Disney’s board just tapped Parks boss Josh D’Amaro to take over for longtime CEO Bob Iger, starting on March 18. Iger, who plans to retire as CEO for the second time, will remain in an advisor role before stepping aside for good later this year.
After a decade marked by strategic changes and a failed succession, Disney is turning to the guy who runs its most reliable moneymaker to navigate a period of massive change in the entertainment industry.
Disney’s new CEO has his work cut out for him. The Mouse House’s stock has only mustered an 11% gain in the last decade, compared to a more than threefold increase for the S&P 500. And while Disney’s parks are gushing cash, the streaming business isn’t yet making enough money to offset the steady erosion of the company’s ever-fading cable networks.
However, D’Amaro appears as well-positioned as any possible Iger successor to lead Disney into the next decade.
Not only is D’Amaro intimately familiar with the company’s most lucrative business, but he also seems to have the charm and leadership acumen needed to lead a juggernaut like Disney. That’s in contrast to former CEO Bob Chapek, who took over after Iger’s first retirement and was known as a gruff, business-minded executive who lacked Iger’s high level of charisma.
Yet D’Amaro isn’t just a likable face. Here are three points about Disney’s choice of D’Amaro and what his leadership could mean for the company.
He represents stability and consensus
While it’s still too early to say how D’Amaro might run things, the board’s decision to go with a company insider, who happened to be the consensus pick, signals a preference for stability, analysts and leadership experts told Business Insider.
D’Amaro — who turns 55 on February 10 — has been at Disney since 1998. As Disney’s experience chairman, D’Amaro oversees the parks division, which has been a financial standout compared to the fast-eroding linear TV business.
By tapping D’Amaro and elevating entertainment and TV chief Dana Walden to the role of president and chief creative officer, Disney could be focused on helping D’Amaro succeed by giving him a strong assist from Walden, said Jo-Ellen Pozner, an associate professor of management and entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.
“The company appears to be reorganizing in ways that shore up his shortcomings,” Pozner told Business Insider, referring to D’Amaro.
By promoting Walden, who was also in the running for the CEO job, Disney is suggesting that there could be some bifurcation of responsibilities, or at least a reorganization of tasks, Pozner said.
Disney didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on its reasoning.
Because D’Amaro is 20 years younger than Iger, D’Amaro could have a lengthy run in the top job, she said.
“He’s still got a long time horizon in front of him,” Pozner said. “This is really planning for the future. And I think that’s a great signal about stability.”
Analyst Joe Bonner of Argus Research said it’s “hard to really tell much about anyone under that big shadow” of Iger.
He is known as an affable guy
D’Amaro is known among colleagues for being a likable guy who takes selfies with parkgoers.
“D’Amaro definitely feels like a man of the people,” Pozner said.
D’Amaro is “broadly popular” and known for being approachable, said a Disney ad sales staffer who said they’d been in the same room as D’Amaro but hadn’t met him. This person added that the incoming CEO seems “very well-liked over at Parks” and added that it’s “always a good sign when people love working for someone.”
That affability could help him forge relationships in other divisions of the entertainment conglomerate — and navigate a new course while Iger initially remains on the board.
Pozner said D’Amaro’s relative youth and his “flesh-pressing image” could signal that Disney’s board wants to help the company maintain its friendly perception. That matters because of criticisms, for example, that the costs of the theme parks have become out of reach for some families.
That concern has worried some investors, who wonder how much consumers will be willing to hand over to spend time at the happiest place on earth, Ben Barringer, global head of technology research at the UK wealth management firm Quilter Cheviot, told Business Insider.
He will oversee a creative business that he didn’t grow up in
Barringer said that D’Amaro will likely have to develop new skills to match his broader remit.
“Dealing with Parks people is different from dealing with studio people,” Barringer said.
It could help that Walden is staying at the Mouse House in a major role.
D’Amaro will likely also want to work on his influence skills, Barringer said, in part because moving the company through the big upheaval in the entertainment industry won’t be easy.
“Hollywood faces quite a lot of disruption,” he said. The ascent of AI and Disney’s partnership with OpenAI are signs that more change is coming, Barringer said.
“Embracing the disruptive threat and trying to leverage it is a good way to start,” Barringer said, referring to AI.
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