Disney is close to picking theme parks chief Josh D’Amaro as next CEO

Josh D’Amaro, 54, has led the unit that delivers most of Disney’s profits since 2020.

• Disney board may promote Josh D’Amaro to CEO, vote expected next week
• D’Amaro has led Disney's profitable theme-park division since 2020
• CEO search led by Chairman James Gorman to conclude after three years

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The board of Walt Disney Co. is aligning on promoting theme-park division chairman Josh D’Amaro to the role of chief executive officer and will vote on naming a new leader in the coming week, according to people familiar with the matter.

D’Amaro, 54, has led the unit that delivers most of Disney’s profits since 2020. If approved, D’Amaro will succeed Bob Iger, who ran the world’s largest entertainment company from 2005 to 2020 and returned as CEO in 2022. The board could still change its mind.

“The board has not yet selected the next CEO of the Walt Disney Co. and once that decision is made, we will announce it,” a Disney spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

The appointment will conclude a three-year CEO search, which since 2024 has been led by Disney Chairman James Gorman, who earlier in his career ran a successful CEO transition process at Morgan Stanley.

Disney’s four divisional chiefs — D’Amaro, entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, and sports chair Jimmy Pitaro — all began competing for the top role on the return of Iger, which followed the tumultuous tenure of his handpicked successor Bob Chapek.

During his first tenure, Iger’s contract was extended several times, dashing the hopes of executives perceived to be heirs apparent.

D’Amaro joined Disney in 1998 after previously working at the Gillette razor company. He was promoted primarily through the company’s theme-park ranks, working in leadership roles at resorts in California, Hong Kong and Florida.

As chairman of what the company calls its experiences division, D’Amaro is leading a $60 billion investment in expanding Disney’s resorts and nearly doubling its fleet of cruise ships. He also spearheaded the purchase of a $1.5 billion stake in Fortnite publisher Epic Games.

Disney is scheduled to report fiscal first-quarter earnings on Monday.

In a regulatory filing in January, Disney reiterated plans to name a successor in early 2026 and scheduled its annual shareholder meeting for March 18. In 2020, when Iger previously stepped down, Chapek was announced about two weeks before the meeting.