Four internal Disney employees make up the company’s short list for Bob Iger’s successor.
Bob Iger is hard at work trying to find his replacement prior to the expiration of his current contract at The Walt Disney Company. In fact, the Disney CEO admitted in a recent interview he’s even a bit “obsessed” with finding the right person to lead the company when his contract expires at the end of 2026.
“I think it would be safe to assume that I think about this all the time. 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 priority,” Iger said during a recent stop on SiriusXM’s Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa.
“It’s actually something that I’m obviously very focused on, not just because of the past, but because I’d like to retire again and I’d like to leave the company in great hands, and that is my intention,” he added. “I’m now confident that not only will we do that, but we’ll do so on a timely basis that works for the company and hopefully works for me as well, but yes. It’s a huge priority.”
Iger’s first stint as Disney CEO lasted from 2005 to 2020, where the executive oversaw the acquisitions of Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox. Upon his retirement, he named former Disney Parks head Bob Chapek as his successor, an arrangement that lasted less than a year.
Iger then returned with a new four-year contract with the understanding he and the Disney board would exhaustively vet future candidates in hopes of finding the best Iger replacement possible.
TheWrap reports four internal Disney employees are currently being looked at to become Iger’s successor including Disney Parks head Josh D’Amaro, Disney Studios co-heads Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, and ESPN boss Jimmy Pitaro.
“I know this company has asked so much of you during the past three years, and these times certainly remain quite challenging, but as you have heard me say before, I am an optimist, and if I learned one thing from my years at Disney, it is that even in the face of uncertainty—perhaps especially in the face of uncertainty—our employees and Cast Members achieve the impossible,” Iger wrote in a memo sent to Disney employees upon his return.
