Today is the day! Mr. D’Amaro’s Wild Ride as CEO of the Walt Disney Company officially has started as of March 18, 2026. Along with unveiling the new Chief Executive Officer’s bio, Disney has made a couple of other leadership & structural changes. Here’s the latest, along with the (positive!) implications for Parks & Resorts.
This follows the Walt Disney Company Board of Directors announcing early last month that it elected (now former) Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro to become Chief Executive Officer, effective at this morning’s Annual Meeting of Shareholders. So technically, Bob Iger still has a few hours in the role, but all signs point to him being out as of today.
Alongside D’Amaro’s appointment as CEO, Dana Walden, Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, has been named President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company, also effective today. In this historic new role for Disney, Walden will report directly to D’Amaro.
Also effective as of the Annual Meeting, longtime Disney CEO Robert A. Iger will transition to a new role, continuing to serve as Senior Advisor and a member of the Disney Board until his retirement from the company on December 31, 2026.
With all of these changes now seemingly effective, the Walt Disney Company has a new bio for Josh D’Amaro, sharing his experience and emphases as CEO:
Josh D’Amaro is Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company, leading a unified portfolio of world-class brands and businesses committed to exceptional storytelling and meaningful consumer connections. As part of his strategic vision for the company, D’Amaro has outlined priorities aimed at uniting human creativity with cutting-edge technology to create unforgettable storytelling experiences that deepen Disney’s enduring bond with fans and consumers. Under his leadership, Disney is harnessing the power of its creative engines, global reach, and multiple consumer touchpoints to accelerate into a new era of innovation and growth.
D’Amaro assumes the role of CEO after serving as Chairman of Disney Experiences, the company’s largest and fastest growing business segment, with $36 billion in annual revenue in FY2025. During his tenure leading Disney Experiences, D’Amaro spearheaded the largest expansion in the segment’s history, guiding a multi‑year strategy with capital investment to significantly expand Disney’s footprint worldwide, including new cruise ships, resorts, themed lands, attractions, and technologies that will redefine the Disney guest experience for future generations — all powered by close collaboration between Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney Studios, and the filmmakers and creators behind Disney’s most enduring franchises.
Over his nearly three-decade career at Disney, D’Amaro has played a central role in shaping the modern Disney brand across theme parks, cruise ships, retail, games, immersive experiences, and real world and digital storytelling. His leadership has been defined by a commitment to quality, ingenuity, and strategic growth — and by a core understanding of how Disney’s stories create unmatched experiences for audiences around the world.
A forward-looking leader with an acute focus on the intersection of creativity and innovation, D’Amaro has championed the integration of cutting-edge technology across Disney’s businesses — from Walt Disney Imagineering’s breakthroughs in advanced robotics and next-generation animatronics to a landmark platform partnership with Epic Games that will redefine how fans play, create, and connect with Disney stories. His vision places technology in service of creativity, using it to expand the Disney universe for new audiences and position the company at the forefront of a rapidly evolving global media landscape.
Recognized for his global perspective, D’Amaro has held executive roles at Disney both in the U.S. and internationally across finance, business strategy, marketing, creative development, and operations. His work has contributed to some of Disney’s most celebrated recent achievements, including the launch of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Avengers Campus, and multiple milestones in the company’s cruise and resort portfolio.
Throughout his career, D’Amaro has been guided by an abiding belief in the power of the Disney brand — its heritage, its storytelling legacy, and its unparalleled emotional connection with audiences and families. His leadership emphasizes creative courage, disciplined investment, global expansion, and relentless innovation to ensure Disney continues to inspire generations to come, supported by a culture that empowers the people who bring its stories to life.
D’Amaro holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University.
Along with this, the senior leadership page of the Walt Disney Company’s corporate governance section has been updated with all of the fresh faces. Here’s a look at that:
One to watch on the top right is Asad Ayaz, Chief Marketing and Brand Officer. I’m becoming a bigger and bigger fan of his. Some of the work he and his team have been doing has been fantastic, and he is clearly another leader who “gets it.” Here’s hoping Disney can keep him around another decade, as he might be the next CEO.
On a separate but related note, Dana Walden announced earlier this week a new leadership structure for Disney Entertainment. This matters for theme park fans because it means Disney Games, which includes the prolific Epic Games partnership, is now under Entertainment as opposed to Experiences.
Here’s the announcement from that Disney Experiences structural switch-up bringing together the company’s streaming, film, and television businesses along with its growing games and digital entertainment division:
Consumers today want to engage with Disney’s storytelling and characters in a multitude of ways — whether on Disney+, in theaters, or through the digital games they love to play. With this unified approach, Disney can deliver the world’s most beloved entertainment to fans across the many ways they choose to enjoy it.
“The strength of Disney has always been the emotional connection between our stories and the people who love them,” said Walden. “As fans engage with Disney across more formats and platforms than ever before, we are bringing together the full power of our creative businesses to build an even more connected experience for audiences. I’m very fortunate to work alongside such a passionate and talented group of leaders who are driven by the joy of storytelling, and I’m especially excited to work with our new CEO Josh D’Amaro as we enter this next chapter together.”
As previously announced, Walden will become president and chief creative officer of The Walt Disney Company on March 18. In this new role — a first for the enterprise — Walden will report directly to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro.
Walden’s new senior leadership team is as follows:
Alan Bergman, chairman of Disney Entertainment, Studios, will continue overseeing all aspects of the company’s world-class film studios including production, marketing and distribution, and maintaining shared oversight of Direct to Consumer alongside Walden.
Joe Earley and Adam Smith will become co-presidents of Direct to Consumer, sharing responsibility for strategy and financial performance across Disney+ and Hulu, reporting to Walden and Bergman. Earley will also serve as head of content strategy for Direct to Consumer, while Smith continues as chief product and technology officer for Disney Entertainment, and for ESPN, where he will continue to report to ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
Debra OConnell will assume the newly created role of chairman of Disney Entertainment Television, overseeing the television brands, including ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Hulu Originals, National Geographic Content and creative for 20th Television and 20th Television Animation. She will also continue to oversee ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations.
Sean Shoptaw, EVP, Games and Digital Entertainment, along with his organization, will now join Disney Entertainment, reporting to Walden. Shoptaw oversees the company’s Games business and its collaboration with Epic Games, developing a Disney universe connected to Fortnite, and brings deep insight into the central role that games play in today’s entertainment landscape. By combining the power of its creative engines and games, Disney can bring immersive new ways to tell stories to audiences across platforms in even more engaging ways.
John Landgraf, Chairman of FX, will continue to report directly to Walden.
Asad Ayaz, Disney’s Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, leads teams across the company’s business segments. Ayaz will report to incoming Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and Walden.
My guess is that this was negotiated as part of the original package to keep Dana Walden on board, as it enhances her portfolio and power.
Or it’s possible that new Disney Experiences Chair Thomas Mazloum wasn’t as comfortable with the gaming sphere, and wanted to focus on Parks & Resorts. The ‘why’ of this is fascinating, but ultimately does not make a material difference.
As a Parks & Resorts fan first and foremost, I am pleased by the Disney Experiences division, a name I still only using begrudgingly at times (and it’s been like ~8 years at this point?), consolidating back around Parks & Resorts. Yes, consumer products are still part of it, but I assume that division is mostly doing its own thing without oversight from the Parks Chair.
I say this as someone who thinks Disney should have a more active presence in the video game world (see Disney’s Biggest Weakness: Why Mickey Mouse Should Be More Like Mario). I’m just skeptical that putting all of its eggs in the Fortnite basket is the way to go, and feel like we’ve seen this movie before with Disney Infinity, among other things.
Even if I’m wrong (and I hope I am) and the Fortnite universe proves fruitful in attracting younger generations, I still see the virtual experience as distinct from the physical experiences. This type of crossover has been tried before, and is exceedingly difficult to pull off, which is probably because the two experiences are mutually exclusive.
So again, the ‘why’ is interesting, but the end result of having Mazloum more singularly focused on Parks & Resorts–Disney’s biggest business unit–makes more sense. Mazloum has plenty on his plate shepherding those $60 billion expansion plans without worrying about what skin Madam Mim is going to wear when she makes her Fortnite debut.
Ultimately, we’re optimistic about Disney’s new era under Josh D’Amaro, Dana Walden, Thomas Mazloum, etc. Hopefully the outcome here is very different from the Chapek saga, and this actually is Mr. D’Amaro’s Not-So-Wild Ride.
Nothing would make me happier than not writing another article involving Bob Iger until the end of the year when he really-for-real retires. (And it seems like he may already have one foot out the door–the ‘parting post’ on the corporate website is just a bunch of old quotes from Iger.)
Our enthusiasm for having a “Parks Guy” at the helm is a point we’ve made repeatedly, perhaps best in My Meeting with Josh D’Amaro. That explains the critical distinctions between he and Bob Chapek despite their undeniable similarities, why D’Amaro “gets” Disney unlike many executives, and why all of this matters.
We view Josh D’Amaro as a great pick to be the next Disney CEO when operating within the bounds of reality, and feel similarly about Thomas Mazloum as incoming Parks Chairman. I don’t know nearly as much about Dana Walden, but generally like the original programming for which she’s been responsible on Hulu and FX. (Very superficial assessment, I know.)
The new leadership team will hit the ground running, with the annual meeting of shareholders of the Walt Disney Company, including remarks by management regarding the Company, is being held live today at 1:00 p.m. ET/ 10:00 a.m. PT. We’ll keep you posted about any news out of that event.
Here’s hoping Josh D’Amaro does the thing and announces a new Journey into Imagination with Figment & Dreamfinder. If so, we’ll never say anything negative word about him (unless the ride is awful). If not, well, the honeymoon might come to an early end. Stay tuned.
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OUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Josh D’Amaro as new Disney CEO? Dana Walden as President and Chief Creative Officer? Thomas Mazloum as new Experiences Chairman? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!