Walt
Disney Company CEO Bob Iger only wants the best.
That
includes his replacement.
In
fact, he
says he is obsessed by it. Maybe that’s because his first attempt at
retiring didn’t go so well for his replacement.
“I
think it would be safe to assume that I think about [CEO succession] all the
time,” he told daytime television host Kelly Ripa. “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, [priorities].”
Iger,
who is in his 70s and said he will step down in 2026, is in his second stint running
the entertainment giant. He first retired in 2020 and chose Bob Chapek to
succeed him.
It
did not work out.
Chapek resigned
after two years following falling stock prices and a
highly publicized feud with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Disney
board member and former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will chair the
company’s succession planning committee to find Iger’s successor. The new CEO
will likely have to face challenges including reduced theme park attendance and
a reorganization of ESPN.
“It
wouldn’t surprise me if he stays,” a Disney source said of Iger and told the
New York Post. “He is ageless and there aren’t many internal successors who are
ready.”
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