Bob Iger is stepping down as CEO and will be replaced by the head of the Parks division. Again.

The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors announced today that, in a unanimous vote held on Monday, it elected Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro to become Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, effective at the upcoming Annual Meeting on March 18, 2026, when he will succeed longtime Disney CEO Robert A. Iger. The Board also intends to appoint D’Amaro as a director immediately following that meeting. As head of the company’s largest business segment with $36 billion in annual revenue in FY2025 and 185,000 Cast Members and employees worldwide, D’Amaro, a 28-year Disney veteran, is the architect of the largest global expansion in Disney Experiences history, and has led the segment to new heights financially, creatively, and in guest satisfaction.

Concurrent with D’Amaro’s appointment, Dana Walden, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, has been named President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company, also effective March 18. As Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, Walden has led Disney’s world-renowned, award-winning entertainment media, news, and content businesses globally, including Disney’s streaming businesses. In this new role – a historic first for the enterprise – Walden will report directly to D’Amaro and will ensure that storytelling and creative expression across every audience touchpoint consistently reflect the brand, engage audiences at scale, and advance core business objectives, while driving enterprise-wide initiatives and translating vision into action.

Julia Alexander on why Josh D’Amaro got the job:

D’Amaro will rely on Dana/Alan for their relationships, expertise, etc. But Disney choosing the parks guy at the same time that Dis’ experience division surpasses $10B in quart rev for first time speaks about where the company’s main profit center will draw from. Add in Epic partnership, cruises, and monetizing content flywheel at a more significant rate, and you can see why it isn’t Dana or Alan.

Parks has always been big business, but experiences are what consumers are proving more willing to spend on, and entertainment is being disrupted so fast and so frequently that what it looks like in a decade’s time — and what Disney’s role in it is — is up for debate every day.

There’s a reason it’s been so difficult to find Bob Iger’s successor. He’s both good at business and he has good relationships with talent. Disney needs both of these things in order to succeed. I’ve said for years that they should consider co-CEOs, the way Netflix has Ted Sarandos for the creative side and Greg Peters for the business side. Today’s announcement looks like a similar arrangement.

It seemed like it was always going to come down to either Josh D’Amaro or Dana Walden. I get the sense that D’Amaro is a little bit more of a business guy, and Walden is a little bit more of the creative type. He can manage the spreadsheets, and she can manage the talent. By elevating D’Amaro to CEO and simultaneously creating a new position for Walden, Disney is acknowledging that both of them are needed to run this company.