Disney’s CEO Succession Planning Under James Gorman
Disney‘s board has named director James Gorman, executive chairman of Morgan Stanley, as the chair of its succession planning committee to identify a CEO replacement to take over the reins from Bob Iger.
Gorman, who joined the Disney board earlier this year, oversaw the recent succession process at Morgan Stanley, where he had previously served as the firm’s CEO. As per the committee’s March 2024 letter to shareholders, the committee and the board are “reviewing internal candidates and external candidates.”
According to Disney’s announcement, internal candidates are “going through a preparation process” that includes mentorship from Iger, as well as external coaching and engagement with all board directors. Internal CEO candidates the Disney board is said to be considering are its four division heads: Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, and Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
This is an especially delicate issue, given that Disney and Iger have already done this once. Iger had previously stepped down as CEO of Disney in early 2020. He was leaving on a high, having led Disney to a record-breaking 2019, complete with the unparalleled blockbuster success of Avengers: Endgame at the box office.
However, COVID-19 hit shortly after, and Iger’s replacement, Bob Chapek, proved to be unprepared for what the company required. He was a highly questioned leader, and the added pressures of attempting to get Disney+ into the green and keeping the company alive through COVID, which necessitated full-on closures of nearly all of their theme park institutions, made things even harder for him.
In the end, Iger returned as CEO in November 2022 following the ousting of Bob Chapek. Iger’s return was met with joy and praise both from insiders at Disney and fans across the globe, but Iger’s leadership and choices in the time since have been anything but easy.
Iger’s Legacy and the Challenges of His Return
While Iger undoubtedly went out on a high note in early 2020, stepping out just before COVID rocked the entertainment industry and the world at large, his 2023 and 2024 have seen him face substantial hardships and not always come out on top. Iger’s legacy at Disney has become more complicated due to a series of tough choices. During the writer and actor strikes of 2023, he was quoted as saying the fair compensation demands were “unrealistic.” He also publicly criticized Disney’s own brands, including Marvel and Pixar, for not meeting past successes. Additionally, despite initially promising to make theme parks more affordable, Iger has instead raised ticket prices multiple times.
Iger’s renewed Disney contract currently runs through the end of 2026, and at the recent D23 event (Disney’s own personal convention), it was made clear that Iger plans to go out on top once more. While the studio has struggled to keep a healthy balance of theatrical and streaming service content over the past several years, D23 saw them announcing a slate of theater-exclusive titles engineered to garner mainstream success across the board. From Frozen 3 to Toy Story 5 to Zootopia 2, Disney now has numerous projects lined up for the next few years that are essentially guaranteed slam-dunks at the box office, and that is certainly not by coincidence.
In the same way that this past summer’s Inside Out 2 was able to dominate the box office by dealing with more recent nostalgia, acquiring audiences spanning several generations in the process, so too are these films crafted to become four-quadrant smashes.
If all goes according to plan, Iger could very well be leaving Disney on a high note once more in 2026, and with James Gorman at the helm of picking a worthy successor, Iger could be leaving for good this time, with the company in equally capable hands.
