Disney Chair Gorman: Iger Successor D'Amaro is 'Standout' Pick

It is Josh D'Amara. Good morning, Ed. He is a fantastic executive. He is strategic. He has run a huge operation, one which Disney has now invested $60 billion of capital into. He has great creative instincts. He has what Bob Iger calls exceptional tastes. He is a leader who has operated all over the globe, including the recent expansion that will happen in the UAE which he did with Bob. He is the person for this time. Josh is a standout executive. We looked all over the world. We wanted to do this right and make sure whoever got the job beat all comers, and he beat all comers. We are thrilled.

We have not set goals in terms of his contract. He has not started. He will take over at the annual meeting which is March 18. Bob will be working with him through 2026, guiding him, mentoring and helping further develop him. He laid out a vision for the board and the various discussions we had, which we had numerous ones. We got to know Josh and all the other top executives. Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, just a tremendous group of executives we had to consider in the process. Over time we will work with him as he settles into the job to lay out what the right route to take is, what moves will be, and how we are going to measure ourselves against those. I'm highly confident in Josh and the team working with him.

Let's just talk about Bob. He has had effectively two jobs at Disney. He did deals no one could have done. You are at George Lucas, Rupert Murdoch to buy a bunch of studios which we now oversee seven studios. Produced under Alan's and working with Dana has produced over $6 billion with the movies in the last few years. Bob did a phenomenal job and the company got in trouble before I joined the board. The invite about to come back. There were two mandates. One was to get us through the very difficult post-COVID period and the changes taking place with what was going on in streaming and now AI. He did that and got the company fit for purpose. The second was to make sure if we were to go internal, that the lead executives -- we have four to consider -- would be ready for prime time if and when we went in that direction. We ultimately did. Bob came to us and said they are ready. Josh is ready. He's ready to take over. If the board's will, stay on the board for the end of the year. It is not about the length of the contract he was under. It's about his role as CEO and then mentor for the next CEO. Hats off to Bob. It was selfless and frankly what is great for the company.

Bob will stay on as an employee advisor and board member until the end of 2026, then step off the board. He will not be an employee and will continue to consult with the company consistent with what former executives do. I'm doing that at my former institution, Morgan Stanley. No, Bob was not interested in remaining as a chair or co-chair. We needed a completely clean start here, which is what we are having. He will be there to support and mentor, and we have the right structure for the future. We are thrilled. You look at what's going on now that we have appointed Dana as president and the chief creative officer. That is to ensure that the leadership team at the heart of the company is creativity and storytelling. It is to ensure the leadership team brings their absolute best every day, leveraging our IP, telling stories across all of our properties, whether it is cruises or parks, TV, ESPN platform and obviously the studios. We are set for the next decade and very excited about it.

If you don't want to keep talented executives there is something wrong with you. We had an embarrassment of riches. We had Jimmy who is running ESPN, a fabulous executive. Alan Bergman has run the studio businesses, seven studios. Dana obviously is an incredible executive with a long history in Hollywood in the industry. We wanted to keep all of them. I believe we will. This is a win-win for everybody. I could not be more excited about it. If you have talent, you want to keep them. Finding talent and developing talent is really hard. When you got it, you do what you can to retain it.

We really approached this. We had a succession planning committee and I was honored to serve with Calvin McDonald and Mary Barra. Then we quickly moved to full board engagement. Each of the directors played a meaningful role in this and I couldn't be more grateful for what they did. We decided we wanted to look at all comers. The list must have been over 100 people initially that we thought about, considered, evaluated. We ended up talking to several executives outside the company. We all wanted to be sure whoever got the job got it on their merits. They had beaten anything presented from the marketplace. We have the best possible candidates. That included external and internal and the four you talked about. I think all of them are important to the company and we are honored to have them in critical roles.

We look at the individual, not by unit. You have to look at what the individual has done. Josh is incredibly innovative in what he has done with those creative teams building the IP into the parks and cruises. This is not an operations job. This is an operations and creative job. It is telling stories that create incredible experiences for everybody who goes through the gates or gets on one of the ships. It is not just what they have done that is important. It is what they are capable of doing. I ran Morgan Stanley for 14 years and I had never been a trader, never been a banker. You build on what they have learned in the process. I look at Josh as an individual, not a comparison, and I think he will be a fabulous CEO.

Suggesting I retire?

No, I worked with General Atlantic which is an amazing firm in the financial space but I'm not interested in going back into the world of finance. I want to help the Walt Disney Company and help Josh and the new leadership team and work with Bob on this transition and help the board in making sure we deliver what we can. This company is trading 15 times earnings. That is nuts. There are very few companies that have this quality of assets, this quality of brands than what we have. I'm excited about the prospect of what we can see from Disney.