Alexandra Steigrad
Disney CEO Bob Iger said he is laser-focused on finding his replacement by the time he steps down in 2026 — after his previous CEO pick blew up.
Iger told Kelly Ripa on her podcast earlier this month that the search has “obsessed” him following his return to the top job in 2022.
“I think it would be safe to assume that I think about [CEO succession] all the time,” he told Ripa. “I could say that ‘I’m obsessed with it’ would be probably an understatement, and actually, the board and I established when I returned that that would be among our biggest, if not our biggest, [priorities].”
In 2020, Iger handpicked Bob Chapek to succeed him, but the former Disney theme parks chief made a series of missteps — including political battles, A-list talent blow-ups and controversial reorganizations –before he was ousted two years later.
Iger returned to the Mouse House, which had been ravaged by the pandemic and the acceleration of cord cutting, for an initial two-year stint before it was extended by the Disney board until December 2026.
As Iger works to stabilize Disney, his top priority is finding a capable successor, following a bitter months-long proxy war with activist investor Nelson Peltz, who argued the company had underperformed in the streaming-television era and criticized its succession planning.
Last week, Disney revealed that board member and former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will chair the company’s succession planning committee.
help Disney find its next leader. Getty Images for 20th Century Studios
Gorman joined as a Disney director this year and oversaw the recent succession process at Morgan Stanley. He was the Wall Street bank’s CEO from 2010 to 2023 and will be ceding his role as executive chairman in December.
For Iger, the quest for his successor threatens to become a black mark on the media tycoon’s legendary career should he flub the search again.
Chapek’s disasterous tenure was marked by a bitter battle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation, as well as his bungling of Scarlett Johansson’s “Black Widow” contract, in which the A-list actress sued Disney over her compensation for starring in the superhero flick.
Iger, who was the CEO from 2005 to 2020 before coming back, told Ripa that he returned to Disney as CEO because it was in dire straits.
“It was not my intention to be pulled back in,” Iger said. “I owed it to the company that meant so much to me and had been so good to me to answer the call.”
Disney now faces a host of challenges that include the shift away from linear TV, creative issues at its cash cow Marvel, fundamental changes at ESPN and antitrust roadblocks for its upcoming sports joint-venture Venu — not to mention a slowing of its theme parks business.
With the CEO search looming, Iger is hard-pressed to find a successor who has touched all areas of Disney’s complicated business.
Internal candidates that have been pegged to fill Iger’s big shoes include Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, co-chairs of Disney Entertainment; Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney’s parks and experiences division; and Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN.
But Hollywood insiders told The Post in April that it was unlikely that any of the top contenders would be ready by 2026, with some wondering if Iger would stay in the role a little longer.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he stays,” a Disney source said of Iger at the time. “He is ageless and there aren’t many internal successors who are ready.”
Other possibilities include former executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, who are serving as strategic advisors. But both men had been passed over for Iger’s job in the past, making it unlikely, insiders said.
This post was originally posted by New York Post
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