By Ben Fritz, Joe Flint and Jessica Toonkel

In Disney's executive dining room, known as the Rotunda, Chief Executive Bob Iger lunched with Josh D'Amaro and Dana Walden last Thursday to talk about the future of America's best-known entertainment brand.

The trio sat in a private room with panoramic views of the Disney studio lot and surrounding San Fernando Valley where Iger discussed scenarios the board of directors was considering. Could D'Amaro, chair of Disney's experiences business, including theme parks and consumer products, and Walden, co-chairman of the entertainment business, lead the company together? What about with one in charge and the other as deputy?

D'Amaro and Walden, who by that point were the finalists to succeed Iger, said they were open to all the scenarios, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Disney's board of directors was scheduled to meet in the same building and hold its final vote on who the next CEO would be the following Thursday. People close to the company predicted D'Amaro would be given the top job, with Walden in an elevated role to ensure she stayed.

The only surprise, it turned out, was the timing. Keenly aware of the intense public anticipation, Disney's 10 directors, including Iger, voted unanimously Monday afternoon to make D'Amaro CEO and Walden president and chief creative officer.

"We were ready to go and I don't like sitting out there with news," board Chairman James Gorman, who led the succession process, said in an interview.

At an employee town hall Wednesday, D'Amaro described the moment as surreal and said he was initially embarrassed by his reaction. "I got a little choked up when they let me know, because it's a big responsibility," he said.

His ascension will, save for any unexpected snafus, mark the end of a decade-plus search for a lasting successor to Bob Iger that has been marked by delays, missteps and reversals. Employees said they are happy to have the biggest question about the company's future finally resolved and anxious about what a former parks leader running the company with a veteran television executive as his top deputy will mean for Disney's future.

Two-person race

Gorman, who previously ran leadership succession at Morgan Stanley, took over Disney's process in 2024 after joining the board. He said the succession committee reviewed information on more than a hundred candidates and homed in on several outsiders along with four Disney executives: D'Amaro, Walden, entertainment and ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro.

Gorman said the board interviewed the candidates formally and in intimate lunches. They conducted 360-degree reviews of the Disney executives, talking to subordinates and colleagues as well as bosses.

By last summer, the race had narrowed to two candidates: D'Amaro and Walden. Sports had little to do with the rest of Disney's businesses. Bergman, who began his career in finance, had less creative experience than Walden.

D'Amaro and Walden traveled to Orlando in August to present their visions for Disney's future at a board meeting, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. In the ensuing months, they met with board members in less formal settings. Both executives talked to Iger frequently about what it took to run a company like Disney.

Employees noticed and gossip was rampant. Staffers speculated about whether D'Amaro's background in parks would hurt him, given that Bob Chapek had also run the company's theme parks before his short-lived tenure as CEO, which ended with Iger succeeding his own handpicked successor in 2022.

They noted that Walden was close with Iger, her neighbor in Los Angeles's wealthy Brentwood neighborhood and a fellow veteran of the television industry. But her friendship with former Vice President Kamala Harris could be a liability when dealing with the Trump administration.

Every public move by the pair was dissected, whether it was Walden traveling to Silicon Valley to meet with OpenAI and Nvidia leaders or D'Amaro not speaking at this year's coming SXSW conference.

The looming leadership change also made it difficult to make consequential decisions about Disney's future. In recent months, executives have discussed potential partnerships with game companies, but shelved the topic until a new CEO started, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Disney currently has a deal with Epic Games and doesn't want to do anything to take away from that relationship, which D'Amaro oversees, according to people familiar with the situation.

A cleaner process

Disney's leaders wanted the succession process to be as clean as possible, without runners-up leaving the company. Given the Chapek fiasco, "we wanted to get this right," Gorman said.

As a result, few were surprised that Walden was named president, a position no one has held at Disney in 20 years, with a recommended retention bonus worth $5.3 million.

Walden's chief creative officer position is a new one for Disney. Some in the company's movies division are nervous about what Walden's rise will mean for their business, which she hasn't worked in before and now oversees.

A few company leaders were told about the succession decision Monday, while most employees learned with the rest of the world Tuesday morning. As they absorbed its implications, they discussed how D'Amaro would adjust to his new position. D'Amaro has said he wants to use technology to accelerate the flywheel that moves Disney content between different media platforms and to theme parks and store shelves.

The incoming CEO has previously visited ESPN's headquarters in Connecticut and spoken with film executives about their business, according to people familiar with the matter.

He'll now be tasked with handling some of the biggest challenges facing the company, like making streaming more profitable, ensuring a $60 billion investment in theme parks and cruise ships pays off, and convincing Wall Street that its long-stagnant stock is undervalued.

People who watched the Wednesday town hall said there were few hints of how D'Amaro and Walden will change the company.

D'Amaro closed the event with a short tribute to Iger, whom he credited with making the brand as powerful as it is today. "You won't escape without a celebration," he warned the CEO.

Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com, Joe Flint at Joe.Flint@wsj.com and Jessica Toonkel at jessica.toonkel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2026 22:12 ET (03:12 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.