DIS Shareholders and Stock Info ONLY

[OKW Lover]

The Walt Disney Company Board Names James P. Gorman as Chairman, Effective January 2, 2025

He Will Succeed Mark G. Parker, Who Is Departing After Nine Years of Service on the Disney Board

Gorman Provides Update on Succession Planning Process, Says Board Plans to Announce Disney’s Next CEO in Early 2026

Interesting development! Have to do some research on Gorman....

 

[RivShore]

Announce Disney’s Next CEO in Early 2026

So nearly a year and a half before the choice is known? Can the stock make any real moves with that giant question mark hanging over it's head?

 

[wabbott]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/disney-ceo-succession-james-gorman-chairman.html

Disney Says It Will Hire a New C.E.O. in ‘Early 2026’

In a board shake-up, James Gorman, a director in charge of planning for a successor to the chief executive, Robert A. Iger, will become chairman on Jan. 2, 2025.

By Brooks Barnes
Reporting from Los Angeles
Oct. 21, 2024, 8:30 a.m. EDT

Disney said on Monday that it would name a new chief executive in “early 2026,” which is later than many in Hollywood had expected.

The timeline — the first Disney has described publicly — came as part of a board shake-up. James P. Gorman, a veteran Wall Street banker who joined the board in February, will become Disney’s chairman on Jan. 2, 2025, the company said. He will replace Mark G. Parker, who will step down after two years in the role and leave the Disney board entirely.

“A critical priority before us is to appoint a new C.E.O., which we now expect to announce in early 2026,” Mr. Gorman said in a statement. “This timing reflects the progress the succession planning committee and the board are making and will allow ample time for a successful transition.”

In August, Disney’s board put Mr. Gorman in charge of finding a successor to Robert A. Iger, 73, who came out of retirement in late 2022 to retake Disney’s reins. The board rehired Mr. Iger after it fired Bob Chapek, Mr. Iger’s handpicked successor.

Mr. Iger has publicly said he is “definitely” leaving when his contract expires on Dec. 31, 2026, a vow some people inside and outside of Disney have viewed with skepticism. During his earlier, 15-year stint as Disney’s chief executive, Mr. Iger delayed his retirement four times and seemed reluctant to leave when he did.

The Disney board and Mr. Iger are widely viewed as having botched the selection of Mr. Chapek, who had been running the Disney theme parks. The board never interviewed Mr. Chapek, and Mr. Iger soon turned on him, leading to a power struggle just as Disney was contending with the pandemic and the entertainment industry’s shift to streaming. Disney has been hit with multiple shareholder lawsuits related to Mr. Chapek’s tenure.

This time, four division leaders at Disney are vying to succeed Mr. Iger. They are Dana Walden, Disney’s top television executive; Josh D’Amaro, who runs theme parks and video games; Alan Bergman, Disney’s movie chief; and Jimmy Pitaro, whose fief is ESPN.

The question of whether any of those executives will ascend to the top job has captivated Hollywood since Disney announced in January 2023 that it had formed a succession planning committee. In recent weeks, chatter in the gossipy entertainment industry has escalated, with people speculating one day that Ms. Walden had already won the race, and the next day that Mr. D’Amaro was instead the choice, perhaps with Ms. Walden as chief creative officer.

The 2026 timeline given by Mr. Gorman may be designed to cool the rumor mill and refocus Disney employees on their work. The Disney board reiterated on Monday that external candidates are also being “reviewed.”

Mr. Gorman ran Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, from 2010 until last year. He remains the bank’s executive chairman, a role that ends in December. He was recruited to serve on the Disney board as part of Mr. Iger’s response to attacks from activist investors — one of whom, Nelson Peltz, harshly criticized the company for slipshod succession planning.

Mr. Gorman has won praise across corporate America for how he managed the succession process at Morgan Stanley. It was an unusually public three-way race that Mr. Gorman once jokingly compared to the cutthroat television series “Succession.”

Mr. Parker, Disney’s current chairman, indicated in a statement that he needed to focus attention on the troubles at Nike, which he ran from 2006 to 2020 and where he remains executive chairman. He was recruited to the Disney board in 2016, when Mr. Iger served as both chairman and chief executive. The board asked Mr. Parker to consider serving as interim chief executive in 2022, when Mr. Chapek was struggling with internal ******* over a restructuring and the consequences of a political battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Mr. Parker declined, citing his Nike workload.

Brooks Barnes covers all things Hollywood. He joined The New York Times in 2007 and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal. More about Brooks Barnes

 

[wabbott]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/car...ob-iger-s-successor-in-early-2026/ar-AA1sEkJl

Disney to Name Bob Iger’s Successor in Early 2026
Company says former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman would become chairman

By Robbie Whelan and Sabela Ojea - The Wall Street Journal
Updated Oct. 21, 2024 - 10:26 am EDT

Disney said it would name longtime Chief Executive Bob Iger’s replacement in early 2026 and will replace its board chairman, signs to investors that the company’s succession process is advancing after past turbulence.

This is the first time the company has formally given a time frame for when it aims to name Iger’s successor, a decision that would shape the entertainment company’s next chapter. Iger’s contract expires at the end of 2026.

Disney said former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman, chair of its succession committee, would become board chairman on Jan. 2, 2025, succeeding Mark Parker, who plans to resign.

The stakes are high for Disney’s board, which has been criticized by some investors for its past handling of succession. During Iger’s first stint as CEO, he positioned at least three executives to succeed him, only to repeatedly extend his own contract. Bob Chapek, his eventual successor became CEO in early 2020, but was ousted two years later after clashing with Iger.

Appointing a new CEO is a critical priority for Disney, Gorman said. “This timing reflects the progress the Succession Planning Committee and the Board are making, and will allow ample time for a successful transition before the conclusion of Bob Iger’s contract in December 2026,” he said.

The company is reviewing external candidates for the role in addition to current executives. Among the internal executives seen as contenders are Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s experiences division, which includes its theme parks; Dana Walden co-chairman of Disney’s entertainment unit, which includes all of the company’s TV and streaming operations; ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro; and Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Alan Bergman.

The succession committee met six times in Disney’s fiscal year ended in September and its work includes an “evaluation of transition structures and organizational frameworks” and planning for how succession decisions impact the company.

In an August podcast interview with ABC television host Kelly Ripa, Iger said succession is his top priority. “To say that I’m obsessed with it would be an understatement,” Iger said. “I’d like to leave the company in great hands.”

Gorman joined Disney’s board earlier this year and was tapped to lead the search for Iger’s successor in August. He is executive chairman of Morgan Stanley and will be stepping down from that role on Dec. 31, 2024.

Disney on Monday said Parker’s resignation will be effective on Jan. 2, 2025 after a nine-year career at Disney. Parker, executive chairman of Nike, was elected chairman of the Disney board in early 2023.

Write to Robbie Whelan at robbie.whelan@wsj.com and Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com

 

[wabbott]

So nearly a year and a half before the choice is known? Can the stock make any real moves with that giant question mark hanging over it's head?

Maybe, I'm reading too much into this, but it is interesting that this news DID NOT come from Iger's office, but directly from the board of directors. And there's no quotes in the press release from Iger. Usually he has something to say in these matters.

Again, pure conjecture on my part.

 

[irlandaise]

Maybe, I'm reading too much into this, but it is interesting that this news DID NOT come from Iger's office, but directly from the board of directors. And there's no quotes in the press release from Iger. Usually he has something to say in these matters.

Again, pure conjecture on my part.

Iger works for the BoD, not vice versa, so it wouldn't make sense for him to send out a press release about their actions. Has that happened before?

 

[wabbott]

Iger works for the BoD, not vice versa, so it wouldn't make sense for him to send out a press release about their actions. Has that happened before?

You've heard nearly nothing of consequence from DIS' board of directors, either directly or indirectly since forever. To me, today's announcement signals that they no longer are Iger's rubber stamps. I sure hope that's the case.

 

[RivShore]

Iger works for the BoD, not vice versa

On paper yes...in practice...it actually has been vice versa. Just see the Bob 2.0 selection for proof.

 

[wabbott]

https://puck.news/newsletter_conten...g-blame-game-gormans-disney-anora-intrigue-2/

What I’m Hearing: Offshoring Blame Game, Gorman’s Disney & ‘Anora’ Intrigue

by Matthew Belloni

A little more on the Disney news…

Gorman, the former Morgan Stanley C.E.O., is, by all accounts, a very serious person. So after chatting with a couple Disney insiders, here’s my read on his elevation to board chair and the delay of a decision on Iger’s replacement until “early 2026”:

1. Unlike last time around with Bob Chapek, Iger won’t be as influential in the choice of his successor. This is Gorman’s plane to land.
2. Perhaps most important, the delay suggests the internal candidates aren’t currently cutting it—or at least that neither parks chief Josh D’Amaro nor TV head Dana Walden (or, if we’re being generous, Jimmy Pitaro at ESPN and Alan Bergman in film) have convinced the board there is currently an internal person worthy of the golden mouse ears to elevate and anoint now. Which we all kinda knew—none of the four candidates is a perfect package of experience and skill set—but it wasn’t a given that the board actually recognized this. Now we know they do.
3. A more robust search outside the company is likely.
4. Gorman likely would not ascend to board chair in ’25 only to abdicate it to Iger at the end of ’26. So the speculation that Iger will stay on to run the Disney board and thus loom large over the new C.E.O. as essentially his or her boss may be misplaced. More likely, Iger will simply join the board as a director, or even leave the company completely (though I doubt he can do that… See: last time around).
5. Today’s announcement also signals to the media to lay off a bit, since nothing’s happening for at least a year. It won’t quell the speculation over the most important job in entertainment, of course, but it may temper the sense that a move is imminent.

 

[wabbott]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...y-s-search-for-iger-s-replacement/ar-AA1sHEe2

The CEO-Obsessed Succession Pro Leading Disney’s Search for Iger’s Replacement
James Gorman wanted a challenging board role after nailing succession at Morgan Stanley. He’s getting one at Disney.


By AnnaMaria Andriotis, Emily Glazer and Robbie Whelan

Oct. 22, 2024 - 5:30 am EDT

James Gorman is something of a student of CEOs. He calls people when they get the job, studies their weaknesses and offers them advice.

Now, he has to apply what he has learned on a big stage: the succession race at the House of Mouse.

The former Morgan Stanley chief executive is set to become chairman of Disney’s board in January, charged with executing a smooth and lasting transition to a new leadership regime, while righting past wrongs of a board that critics view as too deferential to Bob Iger.

During Iger’s two stints as Disney CEO, the board has repeatedly extended his contract and he struggled to step aside, contributing to years of uncertainty and a chaotic succession saga that has dinged investor confidence and raised the stakes for his ultimate baton passing. In late 2022, after a rocky interregnum when Disney was led by Bob Chapek, his handpicked successor, Iger returned for a second stint as CEO. The next summer, the board extended his contract through 2026.

Gorman and Iger speak regularly. The former Morgan Stanley CEO is focused on finding the right candidate to help Disney move past its reliance on its larger-than-life CEO and ensure it has a strong pipeline of leaders to help it succeed long term, people familiar with the matter said. The board has hired Heidrick & Struggles to lead the search for external candidates, some of the people said.

Gorman’s elevation to chair wasn’t initially planned when he joined Disney’s board earlier this year, according to people familiar with the matter. He will succeed former Nike CEO Mark Parker, a longtime board member who took on the chairman role in 2023 and is also executive chair at the sneaker giant, which is struggling with financial and executive turbulence.

Disney announced that Gorman, along with former Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch, were joining the entertainment giant’s board when it was under siege from activist investor Nelson Peltz, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade shareholders to add himself to Disney’s board.

One of Peltz’s chief criticisms of Disney was that the company had botched succession planning and that Iger was too close to the board. Disney said at the time that Iger had “no personal relationship” with Parker or other directors, and that he wasn’t responsible for appointing board members.

The board initially planned to name Iger’s successor next year, people familiar with the matter said, but on Monday Disney said it would select the next CEO in early 2026. That will give him more time to focus on executing his turnaround strategy and allow Gorman and the board to take a closer look at external candidates alongside internal contenders. Iger has said he is “definitely going to step down” at the end of his contract in late 2026.

“For better or worse, transitions become very personal,” Gorman said in a January interview with The Wall Street Journal after his tenure as CEO of Morgan Stanley ended, and before he joined Disney’s board. He said at the time that the first step in a successful transition is having an incumbent who wants to leave, rather than being compelled to depart because of their age or tenure.

“Once you arrive at the decision that you want to leave, it’s much easier to embrace life after that and to support your successor and stay away,” Gorman said in the interview.

Given Disney’s wide range of businesses, from parks to streaming, cable TV and sports, a key area of focus for Gorman will be finding a CEO who has the strategic chops to lead the company’s entire portfolio through a period of dramatic change, said Alan Schwartz, executive chairman of investment firm Guggenheim Partners. Schwartz has known both Gorman and Iger for years.“The most important thing is maintaining a total team culture,” he said. “What I think James and the board will look at is which of the company’s leaders is being really thoughtful about that. Not just saying, ‘Here’s what my division needs,’ but ‘Here’s what the whole company needs.’”

Since returning to Disney, Iger has cut costs, helped the company achieve its first-ever streaming profit, sought to revitalize its studios and charted a digital future for ESPN.

Among the internal Disney executives seen as contenders for the top job are Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s experiences division, which includes its theme parks; Dana Walden, co-chairman of Disney’s entertainment unit, which includes all of the company’s nonsports TV and streaming operations; ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro; and Alan Bergman, co-chair of Disney entertainment.

Gorman helped Morgan Stanley’s board last year to decide between three internal candidates to succeed him. He stepped down as the bank’s CEO at the end of 2023, and in the spring said he will step down as executive chairman of Morgan Stanley’s board at the end of the year.

Gorman reaches out to almost all new chiefs named in the U.S. and elsewhere within several weeks of them landing the top job. He typically introduces himself and offers his wisdom as a fellow CEO if they want it.

Growing up with nine siblings in suburban Melbourne, Australia, Gorman watched as his engineer father navigated complex problems with what Gorman described in the January interview with the Journal as “enormous clarity of thinking” and the ability to “focus on things that matter, not things that don’t.”

Gorman started working on Morgan Stanley succession during his first board meeting as CEO in 2010, sharing a list of people who could immediately succeed him if there were an emergency. After about five years, he updated the list, and then updated it again in 2020.

By then, Gorman and the board had started actively evaluating candidates. “We asked them for health checks, we asked them to tell us if there’s something we should know about their lives,” he said, speaking on the “In Good Company” podcast late last year.

Morgan Stanley tested its CEO candidates by giving them different jobs: one was moved to run strategy, another to lead global technology. “We took them to forums and situations and put them on TV and showed them what the job of a CEO is really like and saw how they moved toward the flame,” he said on the podcast. “Some people retreat from the flame and the fight, and some people move towards it.”

Morgan Stanley ultimately chose Ted Pick to succeed Gorman. Gorman recommended to the board that the bank pay all three candidates awards valued at $20 million each “to show they were a team at the top of the company” that contributed to its market-share growth over the years.

Gorman has acknowledged that the CEO role is lonely at the top. Earlier in his career, he would find himself vomiting frequently from day-to-day stresses, he has said. Now, he recommends that CEOs find a way to manage their stress so that they don’t burn out and leave exhausted.

Gorman said on the 2023 podcast that he was looking for a board role that required real effort.

“I want something that is complicated. I like solving problems. I’m not interested in joining boards so I can attend board meetings and get paid for it,” he said.

—Suzanne Vranica and Jessica Toonkel contributed to this article.

Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com, Emily Glazer at Emily.Glazer@wsj.com and Robbie Whelan at robbie.whelan@wsj.com

 

[wabbott]

"...while righting past wrongs of a board that critics view as too deferential to Bob Iger."

translation: rubber stamp.

 

[Marek Zyskowski]

The concerns of the board members should be to right the ship. Maybe there will be some action in that regard but we might not see it. I think the preference to promote from within the company for senior management has waned. There is also the question of supervision with regards to the media side of the business. Too many good assets were squandered and very little accountability.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I'm a bit concerned over which outsider James Gorman would/could consider for the next Disney CEO, and I was hoping Alan Bergman, an internal in charge of the film division, would get picked by Gorman. Thankfully, I know that today, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that he has no interest in being Disney CEO.

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/netflix-ted-sarandos-disney-ceo-not-even-on-my-mind-1236186524/

I would consider, though, Tom Staggs and/or Kevin Mayer as candidates Gorman would pick, but I bet that Tom and Kevin are happy running their own company together.

My biggest hope, THOUGH, is that James Gorman will pick someone who has experience in running a major film studio, like Michael Eisner, who ran Paramount Pictures before becoming Disney CEO in 1984.

 

[wabbott]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-succession-plan-race-rule-130000293.html

Disney’s Succession Plan: Who’s In and Who’s Out in the Race to Rule the Magic Kingdom | Analysis

by Drew Taylor - The Wrap
Wed, October 23, 2024 at 8:00 AM CDT

 

[OKW Lover]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-succession-plan-race-rule-130000293.html

Disney’s Succession Plan: Who’s In and Who’s Out in the Race to Rule the Magic Kingdom | Analysis

by Drew Taylor - The Wrap
Wed, October 23, 2024 at 8:00 AM CDT

Interesting that Iger seems to have a lot of influence on the search. What does the board get paid for???

 

[wabbott]

https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...y-its-ships-are-a-bright-spot-for-the-company

Disney is doubling its fleet of cruise ships. What that says about the company’s strategy

by Samantha Masunaga
10/24/2024 = 3:00 AM PDT

When Cal State Fullerton professor Andi Stein set sail on her first Disney Cruise trip to the Bahamas for research more than a decade ago, she was on the fence about the idea. Unsure what it would be like voyaging with so many youngsters, she booked a short four-day journey.

By the time she came back, Stein was hooked. She booked another Disney cruise to the Mexican Riviera aboard the Disney Wonder with her mom about two months later. Her fandom has persisted since then. Last year, she took a seven-day cruise on the Disney Fantasy to the Caribbean.

“Disney really understands entertainment, and that carries through onto their cruise ships,” said Stein, who wrote a book about the Disney brand. "But they add the luxury experience that a cruise can provide that you’re not necessarily going to get in the theme parks.”

Walt Disney Co. is banking on winning over more vacationers like Stein, and it's spending big bucks to do so.

Disney plans to expand its five-ship fleet to eight ships by next year. By 2031, the company will have 13 ships worldwide, Disney experiences chairman Josh D'Amaro said in August at the D23 fan event in Anaheim.

"Expanding our fleet gives more people, in more parts of the world, the opportunity to experience a vacation at sea like only Disney can provide,” he said at the event.

The fact that the company is investing heavily in the cruise line indicates that it sees future opportunity there, said Brent Penter, associate analyst at investment banking firm Raymond James. He expects Disney's capital expenditures to rise 27% to $7 billion companywide next year, an increase driven primarily by final payments for the new ships.

Penter said the ships are "billion-dollar investments," but they're worth the expense.

"It's a business that’s still small enough that demand really outstrips supply," he said. "We think they're doing the smart thing by investing in this business so that they can serve a lot more of that demand."

Though still a relatively small business, the Disney Cruise Line is becoming an increasingly important part of the company's financial picture, and is currently a bright spot as the firm's parks segment begins seeing signs of softening demand.

The Burbank media and entertainment giant doesn't break out financial results for the cruise line, but Raymond James estimates it brings in about $3 billion a year, comprising 3% of Disney's overall 2023 revenue.

Disney in August said the cruise line, among other segments, had "improved results" compared to the prior year for Disney's fiscal third quarter while its overall "experiences" division reported a 3% decrease in operating income. (That division includes the theme parks, merchandise and travel and leisure offerings such as the Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii.)

Disney is willing to take a short-term financial hit from its investment in an expanded fleet. The company warned analysts during its third-quarter earnings call that its fourth-quarter results would reflect pre-launch costs for two of its new ships.

"The business, even prior to COVID, ... continues to generate double-digit return on investment for our shareholders," said Thomas Mazloum, president of Disney's New Experiences Portfolio and Disney Signature Experiences, which includes the cruise line. "With our expansions, we certainly expect similar, attractive returns from our future ships."

The cruise industry was growing before the pandemic, but took a big plunge once the virus spread. Demand for such tourist voyages have since rebounded. Last year's global passenger volume was up 6.8% to 31.7 million, compared to 29.7 million in 2019, according to a May report from the Cruise Lines International Assn. trade group. By 2027, the number of cruise passengers is expected to reach nearly 40 million.

"It's part of the total pent-up demand for tourism coming out of COVID," said Andrew Coggins, Jr., a cruise industry analyst who teaches at Pace University's Lubin School of Business. "The industry is very bullish about what’s coming up ahead.”

That's why many cruise lines, ranging from major players such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corp., which is the biggest cruise parent company, to smaller operators like Disney, are building new ships and expanding their business.

For Disney, that's meant adding new routes, particularly in the Asia market, and new onboard attractions. The company now represents about 5% of the total Caribbean market and 2.5% of the worldwide market, Mazloum said.

He called the cruise line a "significant contributor" to the experiences division, with a "long runway left."

After launching in 1998, the Disney cruise line has capitalized on the company's virtuous cycle strategy of having parks and experiences fuel interest in its movies and TV shows, and vice versa.

Disney cruises offer themed experiences at sea that focus on characters from popular franchises such as Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel. Guests interact with Disney characters aboard, hear talks from animators, eat at themed restaurants, and watch Disney stage productions.

Disney views the cruise line as a "movable asset" that serves as an ambassador of the company's brand, Mazloum said. The ship allows guests from all areas of the U.S. and world to interact with Disney characters outside of the parks and combines that experience with travel destinations, he said.

"This growing fleet ... truly enables us to bring that experience — that Disney experience, that vacation experience — to new audiences and new places all around the world," Mazloum said.

While some have groused that Disney theme park prices have gotten too expensive, the same hasn't been said of the cruise line, according to a survey conducted this summer by Raymond James. A recent two-day cruise aboard the Disney Magic from Auckland, New Zealand, for one person started at $728.

Only 31% of respondents said the cruises were overpriced, despite Disney cruises being about two to three times more expensive than that of competitors, according to the survey, which interviewed 20 Disney "superfans," annual passholders, travel agents and local business owners. Though comments acknowledged that the cruises were expensive, respondents felt it was worth it because of the "all-in" price.

David Hahn of Dothan, Ala., has been on many cruises and said he was willing to pay the high price for Disney's quality of service. He tells family members to choose a Disney cruise over a visit to the theme parks because it'll be enjoyable with less stress.

For years, Hahn channeled his love for all things Disney through the company's sprawling parks, visiting Walt Disney World hundreds of times. But as the magic wore off in recent years because of massive crowds and long lines, this 37-year-old waste hauling operations manager turned to cruises instead. (He also worked at Disney's resorts for several years until 2020.)

He's taken three Disney cruise trips so far, sailing to the Bahamas aboard Disney ships and in 2019 proposing to his now-wife, April, aboard the Disney Dream. The crew helped him get his room ready for the proposal, with rose petals, champagne and towels shaped into hearts and animals.

"When you go on the ship, you're kind of secluded, you're surrounded by all the Disney, the atmosphere, you get that feeling of great hospitality," said Hahn. "You're going to pay for it, of course, ... but you're going to get what you pay for."

 

[clarker99]

Interesting that Iger seems to have a lot of influence on the search. What does the board get paid for???

That article is the same regurgitated information and names we have heard over and over again.

Disney just appointed Gorman and gave him till early 2026. Feels like the succession process/campaign has only just began. I look forward to this same article being written several times over for the clicks.

 

[RivShore]

Interesting that Iger seems to have a lot of influence on the search. What does the board get paid for???

The two articles from yesterday gave the opposite view - that Gorman was in charge of the search and that none of the internal candidates had the inside track. As usual, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

 

[clarker99]

The two articles from yesterday gave the opposite view - that Gorman was in charge of the search and that none of the internal candidates had the inside track. As usual, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

This committee was put together in Jan 2023. Gorman just joined the committee in Aug 2024. Should it take 3+ yrs to find a successor? Lol. Why is Disney so bad at this succession stuff?

 

[clarker99]

In terms of Iger being influential on the next CEO, I could only find 1 comment from him on the succession process and it was in the Q2FY24 Earnings call Q & A back on May 7, 2024:
https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/app/uploads/2024/05/q2-fy24-earnings-transcript.pdf (page 19)

"Bob Iger – Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company (in response to his involvement in Succession):

Regarding succession, as we've said before, the Board is heavily engaged in the process and has appointed a Succession Planning Committee that is meeting on a regular basis to not just discuss, but also to manage the process. I'm confident that they will choose the right person at the right time. And that to the extent that I can, will participate in the smooth transition."

This doesn't sound like a person heavily involved in the process but who knows.