Let’s Do a Deeper Dive on the Next Leader of Disney

At this point, we think we know the names of the most likely candidates to become CEO of The Walt Disney Company.

Of course, we thought we knew how Disney’s 2023 movie slate would do, and you all remember how that turned out.

Yes, the future remains unwritten, but we do have a clear idea that Disney will employ true succession for Bob Iger’s replacement.

So, let’s do a deeper dive on the next head of Disney.

Candidate #1: Dana Walden

Let’s start with the leader in the clubhouse, at least according to the scuttlebutt.

Walden is also the most intriguing candidate for multiple reasons.

First, she’s the least “Disney” of the four primary contenders.

In fact, Walden worked for Fox for 25 years. The gifted executive was upwardly mobile throughout her tenure, too.

In 2014, Fox created an entirely new position for Walden. She became Co-CEO of the Fox Television Group.

That’s been a running theme with Walden over the past 15 years or so. The executive has often shared duties and titles.

That statement applies at Disney as well, where she is currently the Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment.

Along the way, Walden has developed a reputation as a survivor, and we can point to the Fox/Disney transition as an example.

At Fox, Walden’s Co-Chairman had been Gary Newman, who retired after Disney purchased those assets.

Newman didn’t earn a job offer at Disney, and Fox no longer had a place for him after it sold most of its media assets.

Conversely, Disney chose Walden and Peter Rice as the high-level executives who could work with Iger and the corporate structure in 2019.

You may remember how the Peter Rice situation ended. It…wasn’t pretty.

Meanwhile, Walden has befriended Iger, taken over many of Rice’s duties, and generally excelled.

Let’s not sleep on the fact that this person has run Fox and Disney’s entire television divisions. Those are two of the big four in this industry.

However, critics will correctly point out that Walden has no experience with theme parks.

Also, she’s had partners like Newman, Rice, and now Alan Bergman to share duties.

So, the question she must answer is whether she can run a company like Disney on her own.

Candidate #2: Alan Bergman

I’ll discuss Bergman next since he shares the same job title as Walden. They’re both Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment.

In recent months, Disney has gone out of its way to clarify that Walden has run the television side while Bergman is in charge of films.

That behavior in and of itself suggests that Disney wants to avert blame from Walden for its recent film struggles.

I’m not going out on a limb when I say that this is historically the kind of thing you say/do when you’re about to throw someone under the bus.

Luckily for Bergman, Disney already did that with Sean Bailey, who took the fall for Disney’s 2023 box office failures.

So, Bergman appears entirely safe in his position, which makes sense because the executive is a noted ally of Iger.

During the CEO’s Disney retirement, Bergman and Walden kept Iger in the loop on all the things Bob Chapek was doing wrong.

Unlike Walden, Bergman is also Disney to the core, having worked in Disney’s film division since 2001.

Bergman’s resume is littered with some of the greatest box office blockbusters ever. Name a recent Disney hit, and he worked on it.

Critics note that legendary studio boss Alan Horn deserves the lion’s share of the credit for many of these blockbusters, though.

The truth is probably closer to the middle, as Horn was in his 70s when he worked at Disney.

Still, a fair evaluation of Bergman is that virtually all of his achievements have come from the film division.

We have little indication that Bergman has made an imprint on the television side of Disney.

He also has zero theme park experience of note, making him a one-trick pony.

Candidate #3: Jimmy Pitaro

As an analyst, I always struggle when evaluating Pitaro, the current Chairman of ESPN.

I do that because Pitaro walked into the easiest job at Disney, at least from the outside perspective.

Legendary Disney employee John Skipper had previously led ESPN for many years.

Then, the ESPN icon retired unexpectedly due to a confession of “substance addiction.”

Much of the dominance of ESPN stems from the leadership and influence of Skipper, even before he was technically in charge.

After Skipper left, Disney created a new job title and then hired Pitaro after a candidate search in 2018.

In five years of Pitaro’s tenure, he’s best known for infighting about whether ESPN talent should publicly discuss political topics.

Several high-profile employees like Dan Le Batard, Sage Steele, and Jemele Hill left the company.

All three disagreed with management’s attempts to control them.

Ignoring those hot-button issues, Pitaro’s handling of ESPN has been solid.

Skipper set the company on a straight course, and Pitaro kept it from hitting any icebergs.

Unfortunately, the decline of linear television has disrupted ESPN.

This reality likely requires Pitaro to focus on his day job rather than train for a bigger one.

In addition, critics perceive Pitaro as just “a sports guy,” which isn’t the reputation a Disney CEO should have.

With no experience with creating content or running theme parks, Pitaro appears an ill fit for that job.

However, he could still gain more power if Disney ever spun off ESPN, an unlikely scenario that business analysts believe may yet happen.

As a candidate, Pitaro is the most challenging to evaluate in that he has the worst credentials, but ESPN didn’t miss a beat after Skipper left.

That should count for something, right?

Candidate #4: Josh D’Amaro

Be still, your beating heart, right?

Look, I’ve made the argument that Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro should succeed Iger as Disney CEO. So, a deep dive isn’t needed here.

I’m totally in the tank for this guy, but that’s not the same as saying I believe that’s what will happen.

Critics of D’Amaro can make the same arguments as any of the other three candidates.

Walden has just done television, Bergman is the movies guy, Pitaro has stuck to sports, and D’Amaro is Mr. Disney Theme Parks.

Among those four candidates, Walden’s resume is the best, save for the fact that she lacks experience with the Disney empire.

Similarly, Pitaro came up via Yahoo! Sports and hasn’t been at ESPN much longer than Walden has been with Disney Entertainment.

Bergman and D’Amaro are Disney through and through, a trait that matters to me personally.

Since Iger came to Disney from Capital Cities, I’m unsure whether he feels the same.

He’d been with Disney about a decade when he became CEO, so he falls somewhere between these candidates in terms of tenure.

D’Amaro has been with Disney since 1998, and you’ll struggle to find anyone who says an unkind word about him.

Trust me when I tell you that this fact makes Hollywood and Wall Street tycoons deeply uncomfortable.

 

The “nice guys finish last” mantra drives much of the treachery in big business.

So, the outcry about D’Amaro being just a theme park expert really hurts him.

If Walt Disney could have created a theme park executive in a lab – expect this story on a Mousetrap News TikTok later – it’d look just like D’Amaro.

This person is perfect for the Disney brand. Alas, Walden’s track record makes her the more popular candidate at the moment.

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