Pick One: Dana Walden or Josh D’Amaro

In less than 18 months, Bob Iger will retire from The Walt Disney Company.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. However, this time it seems like it’s different.

Iger legitimately tried to leave once before, but Bob Chapek’s failures as CEO forced his old boss’s triumphant return.

Then again, Iger wasn’t at all triumphant at first, as Chapek’s mess took a loooong time to clean up.

Now that Disney has secured its future, it’s time to take the question of succession more seriously.

Last year, James Gorman, Disney’s Chairman of the Board, delayed a decision on Iger’s replacement.

Now, we’ve nearly entered the window where Gorman will finally choose that individual.

So, it’s time to pick one of Dana Walden or Josh D’Amaro. Who should it be? Let’s discuss.

Occam’s Razor

I wrote this piece two months ago, and I planned to stay away from the topic of succession for a while.

However, recent events have crystallized the reality of the situation. One of two things is happening.

Either Disney is ready to shock the world with a surprise pick or, more likely, the race is down to just two people.

On May 1^st, I showed you the betting odds for all the likely candidates, as well as a few absurd ones.

My greatest disappointment with this story was that you couldn’t bet on Disney’s next CEO on ESPN BET.

Like, what are we even doing here? That’s the betting site with Disney’s branding on it.

If they can’t bet on Iger’s successor, nobody should be able to do it, right?

Anyway, if Disney is seriously considering fringe candidates, they’re doing something quite impressive.

They’re keeping it a secret even though this is THE topic of interest on Wall Street and in Hollywood circles.

The money people need to know whether something with financial acumen will succeed the ever-savvy Iger.

Meanwhile, the creatives do NOT want a rehash of the Bob Chapek debacle.

History will debate who was the worst CEO for creatives between David Zaslav and Chapek.

Right now, God help me, I think Zaslav has elevated himself above Chapek. And I consider Zaslav comically inept.

So, you can imagine how nervous Hollywood execs are about history repeating itself at Disney.

Still, based on all the information we have available to us, the choice comes down to two candidates.

And yes, it’s the same two candidates we’ve been discussing pretty much since the day Iger returned. One of Dana Walden or Josh D’Amaro appears likely to become Disney’s next CEO.

Why It Could Be Somebody Else

Before we move forward, I’ll throw in a caveat. In 2019, I wrote what most insiders were saying at that.

The prevailing belief was that Chapek had fallen out of favor at Disney, opening the door for Kevin Mayer to become CEO.

Less than 90 days after I wrote that, Bob Chapek became CEO. Folks, I haaaaaaaate when I’m wrong.

You can tell by the fact that this mistake still irks me six years later. And it’s possible that I’m making it again.

Gorman is a bit of a mystery in Disney circles, as he came here after a storied career at Morgan Stanley.

He knows a lot of talented executives and could be great at keeping negotiations a secret.

That wasn’t at all what happened when Gorman chose his successor at Morgan Stanley.

That three-way competition was shockingly public in nature, with all three candidates under the microscope.

Perhaps Gorman has learned from that situation and chosen to be more private this time.

What we know with certainty is that at Morgan Stanley, Gorman loudly proclaimed three worthy candidates.

Then, after a reasonable vetting process, Gorman selected Ted Pick as his successor.

Remarkably, the other two candidates, Andy Saperstein and Dan Simkowitz, have stayed with Morgan Stanley.

Both individuals earned promotions and guaranteed stock incentives, which secured their loyalty.

Disney is presumably trying to keep Walden, the Chairman of Disney Entertainment, and D’Amaro, the Chairman of Disney Experiences, as well.

But Highlander had it right all those years ago. There can be only one.

Why Walden Should Win

We just learned the latest batch of Emmy nominations, and Disney earned 137 of them. That’s…a lot.

Somehow, that total is 46 fewer than Disney managed in 2024, though. That really was a performance for the ages.

Since then, other shows like Severance have gotten hot, while voters (inexplicably) soured a bit on The Bear.

Should the drop in nominations in any way reflect poorly on Walden? Of course not.

Just to be clear, Disney has averaged 160 Emmy nominations over the past two years. That’s impossible, yet it happened.

Walden runs a tight ship and is willing to make the hard choice when needed.

As proof, look no further than the buzzy Doctor Odyssey, which Walden just canceled.

Why? Well, for all the talk about its threesomes and shocking pregnancies, the show only earned five million weekly viewers.

For something expensive to produce, the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. It takes a savvy executive to realize that hard truth.

Most people in the same situation would have doubled down, hoping for future growth.

Walden understood that the show had already led with its most salacious stories.

There was nothing in season two that could top what had already happened.

So, if people weren’t trying it yet, they never would. That’s the kind of leader I want for Disney.

Right now, Walden runs only the television side of Disney Entertainment.

Think about how much she could have helped on the movie side.

All those creative misfires like Wish, Snow White, and Strange Planet could have been avoided.

Walden is the rare Hollywood executive who is universally respected and almost universally liked.

Typically, you can have one or the other in Hollywood, but almost never both.

Also, Disney has never had a woman in charge before, which is kinda shocking.

Why Josh D’Amaro Should Win

At the risk of “Dewey Beats Truman”-ing myself again, D’Amaro is currently in the catbird’s seat.

In the Simpsons meme vernacular, his campaign has the momentum of a runaway freight train.

Why is he so popular? Well, to know Josh D’Amaro is to love him, and I say that as someone in the business of digging up dirt on people.

Disney has basically put Ned Flanders in charge of its precious theme parks, and it’s worked beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

Right now, the Disney Experiences division can seemingly do no wrong…except maybe make Robo Walt Disney look right.

In a span of ten days, Disney has introduced three new theme park experiences.

They are, in chronological order, Walt Disney – A Magical Life, Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, and Test Track 3.0.

Those experiences arrived less than two months after The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After.

We live in the social media era where engagement is the coin of the realm.

If those attractions were terrible, you would NEVER hear the end of it.

So, how much are you actually hearing? Exactly. Disney Experiences has delivered five new hits.

Sure, Robo Walt isn’t perfect, but A Magical Life is very, very good as a show-based attraction.

That’s D’Amaro’s calling card as an executive. He under-promises and then over-delivers time and time again.

Think back to the mockery of the Country Bear Jamboree remake if you don’t believe me.

Nobody’s saying anything negative now because Country Bear Musical Jamboree is exponentially better.

Josh D’Amaro shows up and shows out. His sterling resume matches that of Walden.

You Can Only Pick One, Right?

Right now, the hot streak of Disney Experiences has put D’Amaro in the driver’s seat.

During the Disneyland 70 event, it was D’Amaro speaking with The Hollywood Reporter (THR).

Obviously, theme parks are his domain. So, it would have been weird for Walden to do the interview.

But THR has always been the domain of Walden. It was a bit shocking for him to be front and center in that forum.

This happened in the wake of D’Amaro’s SXSW and MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference appearances.

Disney definitely appears to be field-testing D’Amaro as the future face of the company.

Meanwhile, betting sites still favor Walden, just not as much as one year ago.

Without bringing politics into it, recent events at Paramount have crystallized the complexity there.

With Walden a close friend of former Vice-President Kamala Harris, her promotion would raise eyebrows in some circles.

There is one other option here, the whispered one that has everyone wondering.

Netflix currently employs Co-CEOs, which is something Disney has never done.

Honestly, it’s a rarity among Fortune 100 companies due to the egos involved.

But such a split makes at least a modicum of sense for Disney if it could get Walden and D’Amaro to agree.

I view this as a distinct possibility in that Walden may not WANT to run the theme parks.

Similarly, D’Amaro has typically stayed in his lane with theme parks and Imagineering.

Ultimately, Disney will probably pick one of them, though, and despite what the odds say, D’Amaro has turned this race into a coin flip.

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