Disney Names Josh D’Amaro As New CEO Amid Tumult

Walt Disney Company, the century-old titan of global entertainment, is embarking on a new era. On February 3, 2026, Disney announced that Josh D’Amaro, the charismatic chairman of its Experiences division, will step up as the company’s ninth chief executive officer, effective March 18. The move comes at a pivotal time for Disney, as it faces both headwinds and opportunities that could shape its future for decades to come.

D’Amaro, 54, is no stranger to Disney’s vast and varied empire. Since joining the company in 1998, he’s held a string of leadership roles spanning marketing, creative development, finance, and operations. Most recently, he led the Experiences division, which encompasses Disney’s theme parks, resorts, cruise lines, and consumer products. Under his watch, this segment not only crossed $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, but also generated over 70% of the company’s operating profit—$3.3 billion in the quarter ending December 2025, according to Reuters.

The succession marks the culmination of a more than yearlong search process, led by Disney’s board and its succession planning committee. D’Amaro was one of four internal candidates, alongside Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, and Jimmy Pitaro. Walden, Disney Entertainment’s co-chair, was named president and chief creative officer in the same announcement. The process, described as “rigorous,” included mentorship from outgoing CEO Bob Iger, external coaching, and extensive engagement with Disney’s board, as reported by Variety.

For Disney’s workforce and fans, D’Amaro is already something of a celebrity. His approachable style and enthusiasm for the company’s legacy have won him admirers on Main Street U.S.A. and beyond. “Disney runs through his blood,” a former Imagineer told Reuters, highlighting D’Amaro’s passion for the brand. On a recent tour of Disneyland, he was stopped for selfies and group photos by guests and cast members alike—a testament to his high profile and personal touch.

Yet D’Amaro steps into the top job amid a landscape that’s anything but magical. Disney’s stock, trading at around $102 per share as of February 3, has fallen 9.8% in the past month, 13.8% in the past six months, 9.7% in the past year, and a staggering 43% over the past five years, Variety noted. The company’s shares dipped another 1.5% following the CEO announcement, extending a slide that began after Disney reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and offered weak guidance. The stock had already shed 7% the day before the announcement, according to CNBC.

Analysts have pointed to the leadership transition as a source of uncertainty weighing on Disney’s stock. As Jefferies analysts wrote before the announcement, the “leadership transition remains an overhang on shares.” BofA analysts echoed that sentiment, adding that the prominence of the Experiences division made D’Amaro’s appointment likely to be “well received by the investment community.” Guggenheim Securities’ Michael Morris suggested D’Amaro’s elevation could mark a strategic inflection point for Disney, potentially leading to more disciplined content investment and greater coordination across business units.

D’Amaro’s rise comes as the company’s traditional television business declines, production costs rise, and box office returns for tentpole franchises like Star Wars and Marvel wane. Competition is fierce, with Comcast’s NBCUniversal opening the $7 billion Universal Epic Universe theme park near Walt Disney World, and streaming giants like Netflix, Paramount Skydance, and Warner Bros Discovery locked in a battle for dominance. Hollywood, meanwhile, is grappling with the creative upheaval brought by generative artificial intelligence.

Despite these challenges, D’Amaro has spearheaded ambitious projects. He’s overseen a $60 billion expansion of Disney’s parks and cruise lines, including plans for a new resort in Abu Dhabi—Disney’s first in the Middle East. He also played a key role in the company’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, aiming to bring Disney’s magic to new digital frontiers. “We envision this as a world or a universe that I think can be important not only to (the) game space, but to the Walt Disney Company,” D’Amaro said in a 2024 interview, as quoted by Reuters.

D’Amaro’s leadership style is frequently compared to that of Bob Iger, the outgoing CEO. Iger, whose contract expires at the end of 2026, will transition to a senior advisor role and remain on the board pending a vote at Disney’s annual meeting on March 18. Iger will step down from the executive committee of the board after the meeting. During his tenure, Iger was known for high-profile acquisitions—Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox—and for guiding Disney through turbulent times, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz.

Iger’s first stint as CEO ended in 2020, when Bob Chapek, another parks veteran, took the helm. Chapek’s tenure, however, was short-lived and fraught with controversy, from mishandling the Scarlett Johansson lawsuit over “Black Widow” to a delayed response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Chapek was ousted in late 2022, prompting Iger’s return. Reflecting on his legacy, Iger told analysts, “The good news is that the company is in much better shape today than it was three years ago, because we have done a lot of fixing, but we’ve also put in place a number of opportunities, including the investment across our experiences business to essentially expand in every location we do business and on the high seas.”

For D’Amaro, the road ahead is daunting. He inherits a company that’s both beloved and embattled, with a stock price that’s struggled and a shifting media landscape. His compensation package for his first year as CEO will be approximately $38 million, while Walden’s will be about $24 million. Meanwhile, Iger received $45.8 million in 2025, up from $41.1 million in 2024.

In his own words, D’Amaro has described feeling “the heavy awe of the moment and the responsibility that I had to carry on the legacy of this place.” He’s credited with improvements to the parks during the pandemic, such as the World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland and Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea. Yet he’s also faced criticism, notably for supporting a 2021 proposal to move 2,000 California-based employees to Florida—a plan later reversed by Iger during a legal battle with Florida’s governor. Ticket price hikes and a drop in international visitors have also posed challenges.

Still, D’Amaro’s supporters believe his deep connection to Disney’s ethos and his track record of innovation could help steer the company through its next chapter. As Iger put it, “I also believe that in the world that changes as much as it does that in some form or another, trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake, and I’m certain that my successor will not do that.”

With a legacy to honor and a future to shape, Josh D’Amaro now faces the ultimate Disney adventure—leading the Mouse House into its second century, with all eyes watching to see if he can deliver the magic once again.