For the past several years, Josh D’Amaro has been running the engine of Disney’s business. But it’s not a movie studio or a slate of streaming channels. It’s the company’s lucrative and iconic theme parks.
Now, the longtime Disney executive is set to take the top job.
The Walt Disney Co. announced Tuesday that D’Amaro will become CEO on March 18, succeeding Bob Iger after a carefully choreographed succession process.
He is taking over at a moment when streaming, film and sports media remain in flux and big studios and networks are struggling to predict how audiences will be consuming media three years from now.
The uncertainty makes D’Amaro’s success with the theme parks all the more valuable to the company.
As Disney embarks on its largest global parks expansion ever — a roughly $60 billion, decadelong investment that includes new cruise ships, domestic expansions and a planned resort in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates — the board is betting that the executive leading the company’s most reliable business line is the right person to take over the whole show.
“Josh D’Amaro is an exceptional leader and the right person to become our next CEO,” Iger said in a news release. “He has an instinctive appreciation of the Disney brand, and a deep understanding of what resonates with our audiences, paired with the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects.”
Michael Eisner, who was Disney’s CEO from 1984 to 2005, also weighed in on the decision, writing on X: “My advice to Josh is [to] continue Bob Iger’s strategy that creativity will handle profits, always protect the brand, and keep close the words of Walt Disney: ‘We love to entertain kings and queens, but the vital thing to remember is this—every guest receives the VIP treatment.’ Good luck.”
Disney’s succession planning has been under close scrutiny after its last leadership transition ended when CEO Bob Chapek — hand-selected by Iger in 2020 — was ousted after less than three years on the job.
Like D’Amaro, Chapek previously led the parks business before he was promoted to CEO. That history has sharpened the board’s focus this time on ensuring a smoother transition and continuity from Iger’s tenure in the top.
Disney’s stock has struggled to gain traction despite Iger’s return. Shares are trading around $103, down about 9% over the past year — a sign that the company’s turnaround is still very much a work in progress.
D’Amaro joined the company in 1998, starting at the Disneyland Resort. He spent more than two decades moving through roles across finance, marketing, strategy and operations before he went on to lead both the Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort.
He was named chairman of Disney Experiences in 2020, overseeing the global theme parks and resorts, Disney Cruise Line, consumer products and Walt Disney Imagineering.
Under D’Amaro, Disney’s parks division weathered a once-in-a-generation shock: the Covid-19 pandemic, which forced extended closures and capacity limits at parks that brought the business to a near halt.
As travel recovered, the division faced inflationary pressure, consumer backlash over rising prices and, more recently, intensifying competition in Orlando, Florida, from Universal’s Epic Universe. In its most recent quarter, revenue for the NBCUniversal parks business jumped about 22% from the same period a year ago. (NBC News is part of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.)
Despite those headwinds, Disney’s parks business rebounded sharply starting in 2021 and 2022 as resorts reopened and travel demand returned.
In the three months that ended Dec. 27, Disney’s parks division posted record quarterly revenue. For full-year 2025, Disney’s parks and experiences segment generated $36 billion in revenue, cementing its role as the company’s primary profit driver.
While management has flagged international visitation headwinds at domestic parks’ weighing on near-term results, Disney reiterated its full-year guidance for high single-digit operating income growth Monday, pointing to strong forward-looking indicators such as hotel bookings weighted toward the back half of the year.
Analysts have largely viewed those pressures as manageable. Evercore ISI analyst Kutgan Maral described the international headwinds as “not a new concern” in a note to clients Tuesday, adding that Disney has so far been able to navigate around them.
Under the new leadership structure, D’Amaro will be paired with Dana Walden, a co-chair of Disney Entertainment and a veteran television executive, who was named president and chief creative officer.
Together, the duo represent a balance Disney has been working toward since Iger’s surprise return in 2022 — pairing creative cohesion with a leader who has delivered consistent financial performance through volatile cycles.
“D’Amaro’s ascension from the Experiences segment somewhat mirrors the choice of former CEO Bob Chapek to succeed Iger back in 2020,” wrote Doug Cruetz, media analyst at TD Cowen. “However, while D’Amaro lacks experience on the creative side of the business, Walden’s elevation directly addresses any content leadership gap, pairing D’Amaro’s operational strengths with proven creative expertise.”
“It will however be critical for the two executives to be able to forge a strong partnership,” Cruetz said.
But as with Disney’s last succession, how that translates beyond the parks within a company still in the midst of a transition will become clearer only with time.
