From Parks to the Top: Disney Names Josh D’Amaro Its Next CEO

With input from the New York Times, The Walt Disney Company, CNN, ad CNBC.

Disney has picked Josh D’Amaro – the parks boss who’s spent nearly three decades building rides, hotels and cruise lines – as its next chief executive, handing him the reins on March 18 and ending a long, often messy succession drama.

The board voted unanimously for D’Amaro, 54, who currently runs Disney Experiences – the parks, resorts, cruises and consumer-products arm that pulls in roughly $36 billion a year and supplied about 60% of Disney’s profit last year. He’ll join the company’s board when he takes over and will report to a leadership team that includes a newly promoted creative chief, Dana Walden.

“Josh has that rare combination of inspiring leadership and innovation,” board chair James Gorman said in a statement.

Bob Iger, who is handing off the job he returned to in 2022, called D’Amaro “an exceptional leader” and praised his mix of operational rigor and feel for the brand. Iger will stay on as a senior adviser and board member through Dec. 31, 2026.

D’Amaro is a 28-year Disney veteran who started at Disneyland in 1998 and worked his way up through finance, ops and marketing to run Walt Disney World and, since 2020, the Experiences business. He’s the architect behind big park bets – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Avengers Campus, World of Frozen – and is shepherding new projects from an Avatar land to a major resort in Abu Dhabi.

That parks-heavy résumé is precisely what makes this choice notable. D’Amaro is widely seen as lacking deep experience in movies and TV – the creative engines that power Disney’s studios and streaming ambitions. Disney also promoted Dana Walden to president and chief creative officer, effective March 18; she’ll be the first companywide CCO in Disney’s history and will oversee storytelling across the empire, reporting directly to D’Amaro.

The succession cap has hung over Disney since Iger’s return; activist investors and boardroom pressure pushed the company to map out a multiyear plan. Gorman, a Wall Street veteran recruited last year, chaired the search that ultimately narrowed to internal candidates including Walden, studio chief Alan Bergman and ESPN’s Jimmy Pitaro.

Vestiges of past bumps remain in the headlines. D’Amaro follows Bob Chapek – another parks alum – whose fraught tenure led to Iger’s comeback in 2022. That history raises expectations and nerves: the new CEO must marry parks cashflow and operational excellence with the culture and creative muscle of Disney’s studios and streaming teams.

This is a bet on what’s been paying the bills: immersive experiences, vacations and merchandise. D’Amaro’s track record running Disney’s biggest profit engine gives shareholders a clear, operationally focused leader – and Walden’s elevation aims to reassure creative communities that storytelling still sits at the company’s center. Whether that pairing can hit the sweet spot between blockbuster content and blockbuster parks will be the real test.