News The Walt Disney Company Board Names James P. Gorman as Chairman

[DCBaker]

Here's the press release:

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) Board of Directors (the “Board”) has named James P. Gorman as Chairman of the Board, effective January 2, 2025. He will succeed Mark G. Parker, who is departing the Disney Board on January 2 after nine years of service.

Gorman is Executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley and, as previously announced, will be stepping down from that role on December 31, 2024. He is currently Chair of the Disney Board’s Succession Planning Committee, which is working to identify and prepare the next chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company.

“James Gorman is an esteemed leader who has become an invaluable voice on the Disney Board since joining earlier this year, and I am extremely pleased that he has agreed to assume the role of Chairman upon my departure. Drawing on his vast experience, James is expertly guiding the extensive search process for a new CEO, which remains a top priority for the Board,” said Parker, who is Executive Chairman of NIKE, Inc. “As I prepare to leave the Board to focus on other areas of my work, I am proud of Disney’s renewed position of strength and excited for the company’s future, and I want to thank my fellow directors, Bob Iger and his exemplary management team for their continued strong leadership and dedication.”

“The Disney Board has benefited tremendously from James Gorman’s expertise and guidance, and we are lucky to have him as our next Chairman – particularly as the Board continues to move forward with the succession process,” Iger said. “I’m extremely grateful to Mark Parker for his many years of Board service and leadership, which have been so valuable to this company and its shareholders, and to me as CEO.”

“I am honored and humbled to have the opportunity to serve as Disney’s Chairman at this important moment in the company’s history,” Gorman said. “In the short time I have had the opportunity to work with Mark, I have come to appreciate and deeply respect his authentic leadership, humility and intelligence. I know all Directors join me in saying we have been honored to serve with him as the Chairman of the Board.”

“A critical priority before us is to appoint a new CEO, which we now expect to announce in early 2026. 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,” Gorman said.

 

[donaldtoo]

No…

Sorry, couldn’t resist…!!!!!

 

[Lilofan]

Wall Street and Disney is a marriage made in _______

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

So someone with zero entertainment experience whatsoever?

Yeah…that fits

Roy is rolling

 

[EagleScout610]

 

[MisterPenguin]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/business/disney-ceo-succession-james-gorman-chairman.html?unlocked_article_code=1.T04.rbkd.Lkyll4b0T8Fb&smid=url-share

Disney Names James Gorman Chairman, Sets ‘Early 2026’ for C.E.O. Change​

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

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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.​

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James P. Gorman, wearing a blue suit and tie with a white shirt, is speaking in front of a microphone against a dark backdrop.​

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James P. Gorman, a longtime Wall Street banker, was named to the Disney board this year and later put in charge of succession planning.Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times​

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Oct. 21, 2024, 8:30 a.m. ET​

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

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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.​

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“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.”​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.​

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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.”​

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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.​

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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.”​

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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 discord over a restructuring and the consequences of a political battle with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. Mr. Parker declined, citing his Nike workload.​

 

[Heppenheimer]

So someone with zero entertainment experience whatsoever?

Yeah…that fits

Roy is rolling

Someone needs to clean house.

I guess Disney is the next multinational media giant to be headed by an Australian.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Someone needs to clean house.

I guess Disney is the next multinational media giant to be headed by an Australian.

…well that will make my travel plans (somewhere else) much easier.

The only way Iger saves face is to sell it. It’s either than or he’s fired first.

It’s a binary choice. Believe me now or believe me later.

 

[John park hopper]

Bob is gone in 2026 ---I'll believe it when I see it

 

[monothingie]

I'm sure Dana isn't happy today about this...as are the rest of the insiders.

None of the current crop of internal candidates are of the mold of Iger and Gorman.

This does not bode well for any of the current internal candidates.
Gorman has no entertainment industry experience. He's a Wall Street fixture.
TWDC under Iger's reign has been more interested appeasing Wall Street than Hollywood Blvd.

I would not want to be Dana or Josh today.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/21/media/disney-board-shakeup/index.html

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

They might as well bring in a hedge fund manager…or the ceo of a bankrupt department store chain…and get it over it.

Member when we all had to vote for bobs people with our shares to “save” the company from the evil old man and Rasulo?

Seems like it was just months ago…

 

[monothingie]

They might as well bring in a hedge fund manager…or the ceo of a bankrupt department store chain…and get it over it.

Member when we all had to vote for bobs people with our shares to “save” the company from the evil old man and Rasulo?

Seems like it was just months ago…

When do the stock buybacks starts?

 

[TsWade2]

I'm sure Dana isn't happy today about this...as are the rest of the insiders.

None of the current crop of internal candidates are of the mold of Iger and Gorman.

This does not bode well for any of the current internal candidates.
Gorman has no entertainment industry experience. He's a Wall Street fixture.
TWDC under Iger's reign has been more interested appeasing Wall Street than Hollywood Blvd.

I would not want to be Dana or Josh today.

You mean there's a chance we get an outsider instead of the internal candidate?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

When do the stock buybacks starts?

Easy…can’t pull all the levers at once

First we need a measley, unjustified dividend…

…wait…I haven’t noticed that one yet

 

[monothingie]

You mean there's a chance we get an outsider instead of the internal candidate?

Bringing on Gorman and almost instantly elevating him to COB in less than a year means that even Bob Iger, assuming he actually will leave, has come to the conclusion that none of the internal candidates are capable of leading.

Parker was on the board because of his Chicom connections via Nike. Since that is no longer a priority for TWDC as so much as being viable with investors, Gorman, with the advice and consent of Bob is the succession maker.

 

[TsWade2]

Bringing on Gorman and almost instantly elevating him to COB in less than a year means that even Bob Iger, assuming he actually will leave, has come to the conclusion that none of the internal candidates are capable of leading.

Parker was on the board because of his Chicom connections via Nike. Since that is no longer a priority for TWDC as so much as being viable with investors, Gorman, with the advice and consent of Bob is the succession maker.

So that means Dana Walden has no chance to become a chairwoman. Good! She’s too political to be CEO of Disney anyway. Disney can’t afford to have another political person to be CEO of Disney.

 

[monothingie]

So that means Dana Walden has no chance to become a chairwoman. Good! She’s too political to be CEO of Disney anyway. Disney can’t afford to have another political person to be CEO of Disney.

I don't think it has anything to do with politics, but more what future CEO is going to have the ability to keep investors happy.

None of the current group of internal candidates have that ability.

One could even argue that Iger falls into the category as well, which may be true considering how TWDC has not impressed investors for the past couple of years. But Iger got his Wall Street cred by basically buying his way up, with what at the time were thought of as foolproof moves to dominate their market...but only to colossally bungle things by bringing on people who couldn't manage the various aquired properties. (Some of the same people who now want to vie for the top job.)

There is the possibility that Gorman would groom a potential internal candidate, but given his newness to the TWDC and the full responsibility he has being in charge of succession, it seems unlikely that anyone internal right now has a shot.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Parker was on the board because of his Chicom connections via Nike. Since that is no longer a priority for TWDC as so much as being viable with investors, Gorman, with the advice and consent of Bob is the succession maker.

Why do you think the Board needs the consent of the CEO they hired?

 

[TsWade2]

I don't think it has anything to do with politics, but more what future CEO is going to have the ability to keep investors happy.

None of the current group of internal candidates have that ability.

One could even argue that Iger falls into the category as well, which may be true considering how TWDC has not impressed investors for the past couple of years. But Iger got his Wall Street cred by basically buying his way up, with what at the time were thought of as foolproof moves to dominate their market...but only to colossally bungle things by bringing on people who couldn't manage the various aquired properties. (Some of the same people who now want to vie for the top job.)

There is the possibility that Gorman would groom a potential internal candidate, but given his newness to the TWDC and the full responsibility he has being in charge of succession, it seems unlikely that anyone internal right now has a shot.

A simple yes or no would’ve been nice.