Here Are the Other People Who Might Run Disney
Since Bob Iger returned to Disney in November 2022, everyone has focused on his successor.
We’re not that far removed from the Bob Chapek Years, and nobody wants to relive anything like that.


Photo: Variety
So, while Papa Iger fixes everything wrong with The Walt Disney Company, we’re all grateful.
We’re also all nervously peering over his shoulder, trying to guess who comes next.


Holywood Reporter PHOTOGRAPHED BY DIANA KING
Throughout the past two years, most of the spotlight has shined on two candidates, Dana Walden and Josh D’Amaro.
Today, I’d rather talk about Disney’s other internal candidates as CEO, plus a couple of outsiders.


Photo: JIM CARCHIDI
Let’s discuss the Disney CEO candidates you don’t know.
Alan Bergman


Photo: The Hollywood Reporter
Disney Entertainment Co-Chairmen Alan Bergman and Dana Walden recently held a Zoom interview with Vulture.
Walden has held several of these victory lap interviews lately. For Bergman, this song could have easily played as the soundtrack:
As Justin Hermes details here, Bergman relished this conversation, as it represented a dramatic reversal of fortune.


Photo: Walt Disney Company
Just a year ago, Bergman was clinging to his job after a series of high-profile box office disappointments and even some outright bombs.
Someone had to take the fall for the failures, but Disney chose Sean Bailey instead. Once Bergman survived, he thrived.
The past 12 months have been a banner year for Disney cinema, with three titles earning more than $750 million.
Currently, Disney claims three of the top four global box office hits of the year, and it has other bright spots as well.


Photo: 20th Century Studios
Sequels reinvigorated the Alien and Planet of the Apes franchise, and Disney has made clear its plans for the future.
Under Bergman’s watch, Disney prioritizes established brands for monetization.


Photo: The Walt Disney Company –
Everyone in Hollywood understands that new stories, while engaging to viewers, provide more risk.
They’re so-called “elevator” performers, which is to say some never get off the first floor, while others reach the penthouse.


Photo: Deadline
So, you take the risk of investing nine figures on a project that could lose money in hopes of it becoming a wildly profitable franchise.
However, the safer play is to make sequels, spinoffs, or reboots of known stories.


Photo: The Disney Store
A vocal minority of fans haaaaate this idea, but consumers vote with their wallets. For Disney, 2024 is proof of that.
Frankly, that’s the positive and negative of Bergman as a candidate. He plays it safe more than he takes chances.
Personally, that’s not the person I want leading Disney, but Wall Street is risk averse.
Jimmy Pitaro
In September, I wrote this article about ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
Since then, Pitaro has seemingly spent every second of his life proving me wrong.


Photo: ESPN Press Room
The man effectively in charge of live sports and sports coverage in this country already had a good year.
Disney secured NBA broadcast and streaming rights for the next decade, something Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) failed to do.


Photo: Tamir Moore
However, what happened next is the masterstroke. Identifying an opportunity, Pitaro went to WBD with a deal.
Disney acquired the broadcast and streaming rights to Inside the NBA in exchange for a handful of college football and basketball games.


Photo: ESPN
On the open market, Inside the NBA would have cost tens, possibly even hundreds, of millions of dollars to acquire.
Pitaro bagged the show sans bidding for 25 sporting events ESPN won’t even miss. That’s a masterstroke.


Photo: CNBC/ Getty
In addition, the New York Times (NYT) posted a devastating piece about the old ESPN under living legend John Skipper.
I personally have referred to Skipper as the genius whose homework Pitaro has copied.


Photo: ESPN
To a large extent, I’ve viewed Pitaro as riding Skipper’s coattails. Well, Skipper apparently did that by looking the other way. A lot.
The NYT article details countless examples of sexual harassment that occurred under Skipper’s watch.


Photo: Disney
Frankly, only one ESPN employee comes across well in the reporting…and it’s Jimmy Pitaro. The precise quote is this:
“(Pitaro) was quickly labeled a “boy scout” by some long-time ESPNers as he pushed the company’s internal business and culture to be more synergistic with Disney’s.”


Photo: Deadline
Now that Pitaro is fully calling the shots, he appears to be good at his job and, as far as we can tell from the outside, improving the culture.
Overall, Pitaro’s candidacy seems to have improved the most lately.
Two Other Names to Watch


Photo: Disney
A subtle but hysterical thing happened the other day. I must confess that I didn’t even catch what went down at first.
Morgan Stanley publicly stated their opinion that the best is yet to come at Disney, and I thought, “Hey, that’s great!”


(Photo by Hou Yu/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
After a while, my brain started itching. That’s when I realized the irony of the announcement.
Gorman was Executive Chairman of the Board at Morgan Stanley until last year.


Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Disney coveted Gorman due to how he handled succession there, as the company had three top candidates.
Gorman chose one but then handed the other two tens of millions of dollars to stay.


Credit: Disney
That’s the executive team that just threw its support behind Disney. Go figure!
Still, there’s something telling here. Gorman will choose Iger’s successor, but he doesn’t really know the Disney people well.


Photo: Pexel.com
How could he? Gorman has only been with the company for about a year now. But do you know the candidates he’s overly familiar with?
Yes, the two losing candidates at Morgan Stanley, current Co-Presidents Andy Saperstein and Dan Simkowitz, would make a lot of sense.
It’s All Connected


(Photo by Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Saperstein and Simkowitz have worked closely with Gorman for years.
While he didn’t choose them to run Morgan Stanley, he liked each one enough to bring them to stay.


(Photo by Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Saperstein actually had just learned he had cancer at the time Gorman decided.
I have no idea whether that unfortunate medical news played into Gorman’s decision, but it’s possible he would have been the pick.


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If Saperstein’s health remains an issue preventing him from moving to Disney, Simkowitz becomes a leading outside contender.
The only reason I’m not listing current Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick is because he just committed to be the Chairman of the Board there.


Photo: Playbuzz.com
Still, this is a kernel of thought to follow. Who does Gorman know well outside Disney?
Which of those individuals makes for a potentially great successor?


(Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)
This is the same thinking linking EA CEO Andrew Wilson to Disney.
So, while I fully believe the job remains a showdown between D’Amaro and Walden, you can see that several interesting candidates remain.


(Charley Gallay / Getty Images for Disney)
To a larger point, anything is possible if one of these individuals has a particularly great 2025.
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