Walt Disney, after a more than two-year saga, has landed on its next CEO: Josh D’Amaro, head of the company’s theme parks and consumer products division.

D’Amaro, 54, will take over the top job at Disney from current CEO Bob Iger, who cumulatively has served in the post for nearly two decades, having been CEO from 2005 to 2020 when he we replaced by Bob Chapek, only to return in 2022). The Disney board on Tuesday announced the selection of D’Amaro, currently chairman of Disney Experiences, capping the media giant’s extended and closely watched succession drama

D’Amaro, a 28-year-veteran of the company, will succeed Iger effective March 18, the Burbank, California-based company said Tuesday in a statement. He has been with Disney since 1998, starting out at Disneyland. He has worked across a range of business, marketing and operations posts within Disney, from CFO of Disney Consumer Products Global Licensing to president of Disneyland Resort and president of Walt Disney World Resort. He was promoted to his current post as head of Disney parks and cruises, consumer products and Walt Disney Imagineering in May 2020. 

D’Amaro is seen as CEO in the classic Disney mold with nearly 30 years of experience on the retail side of Disney, giving him an intimate understanding of how children and families interact with the Mouse House brand, according to Variety. D’Amaro at present steers a $60 billion investment in an expansion of Disney’s theme parks around the world, including a new destination coming to Abu Dhabi. Before joining Disney, D’Amaro worked in Gillette’s finance department. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration/marketing from Georgetown University.

According to Bloomberg, the head of Disney’s Experiences division, by far the company’s biggest source of profit, D’Amaro, 54, was chosen from among several internal candidates who were in line to succeed Iger. They included Dana Walden, co-chair of entertainment and head of TV; Alan Bergman, also co-chair of entertainment and head of film; and Jimmy Pitaro, ESPN’s chairman.

Iger has been personally mentoring potential replacements, according to the company, an attempt by the board to ensure succession goes smoothly after botched efforts in the past.

Disney’s board of directors, led by chairman James Gorman, was under pressure to execute a strong succession plan this time around — after the debacle that ensued when Iger previously handed the CEO baton to Bob Chapek, a Disney veteran who was promoted from the same perch that D’Amaro now holds. Chapek took over as CEO in February 2020, just weeks before the COVID pandemic turned global markets upside down and forced immediate and drastic changes in the way Disney operated. Iger stepped down as CEO but remained chairman overseeing creative matters for the company. That set the stage for an epic clash of strategic visions and executive egos that culminated in the Disney board ousting Chapek in November 2022 and Iger reclaiming the CEO role. 

But Iger’s return had a time limit from the start. In October 2024, the Disney board committed to naming a CEO successor by early 2026. After the Chapek fiasco and increasing investor scrutiny on corporate governance issues (of which CEO succession planning is paramount), Disney’s board has little margin for error this time around.

 In announcing Disney’s year-end 2025 quarterly results on Monday, Iger said there was “healthy competition” between D’Amaro’s parks division and entertainment business, led by Walden and co-chair Alan Bergman.

“We have a healthy competition now at our company in terms of which of those two businesses is going to essentially prevail as the No. 1 driver of profitability for the company,” Iger said. “But I’m confident that both have that ability, meaning both have the ability to grow nicely into the future, given all the investments that we’ve made and the trajectory that we’re on.”

Iger also offered his thoughts on the next Disney CEO’s agenda. “In the world that changes as much as it does… trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake, and I’m certain that my successor will not do that,” he said. “So [the new CEO will] be handed, I think, a good hand in terms of the strength of the company, a number of opportunities to grow and also the exhortation that in a world that changes, you also have to continue to change and evolve as well.”