By Angela Palumbo

The chairman of Walt Disney's theme-park division could be stepping up to lead one of the world's largest entertainment companies by the end of this year.

Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Disney's board is getting together to promote Josh D'Amaro to the role of chief executive officer and will vote on naming a new leader in the coming week. The report came after Board Chair James Gorman told shareholders last month that the company expects to announce the appointment of its next CEO in "early 2026."

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night that Iger has told associates he plans to step down and pull back from daily management before his contract ends on Dec. 31. The newspaper cited people familiar with the matter.

A Disney spokesperson told Barron's that the board hasn't yet selected the next CEO "and once that decision is made, we will announce it."

D'Amaro is the current chairman of Disney Experiences. That puts him in charge of overseeing the company's highest-margin business segment, including theme parks, resorts, and a growing fleet of cruise ships. He also supervises Imagineering, the design team behind many of the attractions at Disney's parks.

He joined Disney in 1998 at the Disneyland Resort and was named chairman of Disney Experiences in May 2020. He was previously CFO of Disney Consumer Products Global Licensing, president of Disneyland Resort, and president of Walt Disney World Resort.

"Josh D'Amaro is likely to be announced shortly as the next CEO. In our view, succession has been an overhang on the shares recently and given the importance the Experiences segment has to the total consolidated earnings of DIS, we believe this announcement will be well received by the investment community," BofA Securities analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich wrote in a note on Monday.

D'Amaro has had a lot of work to do in his current role. On top of becoming the leader of the experiences segment during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, D'Amaro has also been overseeing the company's recent expansion efforts.

Disney said in 2023 that it was developing plans to speed up and increase investment in its parks, experiences, and products segment, nearly doubling capital expenditures over the course of approximately 10 years. That would have taken the total to about $60 billion.

Then in August 2024, the company said its Magic Kingdom park in Disney World would be getting its "largest land expansion ever." It will include attractions based on Disney villains and the movie Cars. The Hollywood Studios park will get new Monsters, Inc. attractions, Disney said.

Disney shareholders have been on a bumpy ride as the job of CEO has changed hands over the past six years. Bob Iger was CEO from 2005 to 2020, when Bob Chapek succeeded him. Chapek's run at the helm was ill received by shareholders: The stock fell 28% during his tenure, from Feb. 25, 2020, to Nov. 20, 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. Iger eventually came back to replace Chapek.

Disney reported first-quarter financial results Monday morning, but didn't give an update on who the new CEO could be. Instead, Iger said that "while I don't want to really either get too nostalgic or spend too much time on possible transition or the probable transition. I -- the good news is that the company is in much better shape today than it was three years ago, because we have done a lot of fixing."

Nancy Tendler, CIO at Laffer Tengler Investments, wrote on Monday that she expects Disney will announce a successor at its shareholder meeting in March.

It won't be an easy job for whoever gets the promotion. Disney stock has dropped 7.3% over the past 12 months. Linear TV continues to lose watch time to streaming, and streaming continues to be highly expensive and competitive.

Experiences -- D'Amaro's specialty -- is facing headwinds as people continue to feel the impacts of inflation and demand comes into question as some foreign tourists avoid U.S. trips amid rising political tensions. Disney pointed to "international visitation headwinds," as one reason growth in first-quarter operating income for the experiences business was "modest."

Competition is also a challenge: Universal launched Epic Universe last year.

But there are plenty opportunities for growth. Disney's streaming business is growing, theme parks are expanding, and cruise lines are getting more traction.

A different CEO could be just what Disney needs to push those initiatives forward and get investors back on board.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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February 02, 2026 16:05 ET (21:05 GMT)

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