Shares of the entertainment giant, which fell 1.5% on Monday, are down 9.7% in the past year and 43% in the past five years
Disney shares dipped 1.5% on Tuesday after the company crowned Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro as its next CEO and Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden as president and chief creative officer.
Iger, whose contract is set to expire at the end of 2026, will transition into the role of senior advisor and remain a board member, subject to the vote at Disney’s annual meeting on March 18. He will step down from the executive committee of the board after the annual meeting.
Disney stock, which is trading at around $102 per share as of Tuesday morning, has fallen 9.8% in the past month, 13.8% in the past six months, 9.7% in the past year and 43% in the past five years.
Guggenheim Securities analyst Michael Morris says D’Amaro’s appointment represents a potential inflection point for Disney’s strategic direction. He added that D’Amaro’s expertise in the company’s Experiences division “positions him well to drive a more integrated approach to leveraging Disney’s brands across businesses.”
“We believe his leadership could result in more disciplined content investment decisions, better coordination between content creation and distribution, and enhanced focus on high-return consumer touchpoints,” Morris added. “While some observers view the timing as providing an easier setup for the incoming CEO, we believe the challenges facing the business — including linear decline, streaming profitability and Experiences investment returns — remain substantial and will require decisive strategic action.”
D’Amaro, who first joined Disney in 1998, has previously held leadership roles both in the U.S. and internationally across finance, business strategy, marketing, creative development and operations, including chief financial officer of Disney Consumer Products Global Licensing and president of Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort.
As chairman of the Experiences division, D’Amaro has led a team of 185,000 cast members across 12 theme parks and 57 resort hotels in six global destinations in the U.S., Europe and Asia. He has overseen the expansion of Disney theme parks across the globe, with new lands and attractions such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, the Marvel-themed Avengers Campus, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and World of Frozen.
In addition to the company’s theme parks, his oversight includes Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Consumer Products, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Signature Experiences, Disney Vacation Club, Adventures by Disney and Storyliving by Disney.
D’Amaro’s appointment comes after a years-long search process led by the Disney board’s succession planning committee, which includes chairman James Gorman, who led his own search for a successor after an 18-year run as Morgan Stanley’s CEO, and directors Mary Barra, Jeremy Darroch and Calvin McDonald.
