Disney’s Next CEO: Five Things to Know About Josh D’Amaro
The years-in-the-works changing of the guard atop the C-suite at Disney is happening this week: The CEO mantle is being passed from Bob Iger to Josh D’Amaro, a 28-year veteran of the company most recently in charge of the Disney Experiences theme parks, cruises and consumer products division.
D’Amaro, 55, will officially assume the role as the ninth chief executive in Disney’s nearly 103-year history on Wednesday, March 18, coinciding with the company’s 2026 annual shareholders meeting.
Here are five things to know about D’Amaro:
D’Amaro has a politician’s ability to make anyone he encounters feel seen and heard, as documented in Variety‘s Feb. 25 cover story on the exec. “He’s so relatable,” said Joe Gavigan, a friend of D’Amaro who worked in Disney’s parks division for 25 years. “He looks people in the eye. He’s extremely confident but not cocky.” He’s a minor celebrity among diehard fans of Disney’s parks and is said to be broadly popular among the company’s rank-and-file. At Disneyland in Anaheim, D’Amaro “is constantly accosted by guests who want to hug him and take pictures with him. I’ve walked the park with dozens of Disney execs over the years, and this mobbing has never happened before,” said Marcus Buckingham, a leadership expert who shadowed D’Amaro for his upcoming book, “Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business.”
D’Amaro doesn’t have a deep background in Hollywood — and he has made it clear he will lean on the expertise and connections of Dana Walden, newly promoted to chief creative officer (and who was in the running for the CEO spot). “Dana has so much experience in Hollywood, in television, and in creativity,” he said at a Disney town hall the day after his CEO appointment was officially announced. He predicted that the two execs’ “partnership is only going to grow stronger.”
As Spencer Neumann, a former Disney executive who now is Netflix’s CFO, put it, “Josh is not afraid to surround himself with people who know more about something than he does.”
At the same time, D’Amaro is super detail-oriented. At Disneyland, for example, he has “a reputation for being obsessed with everything from the color of the trash cans to the taste of the popcorn,” per Variety‘s cover story. In 2022, shortly after Mattel announced a deal to make Disney Princess and “Frozen” dolls and other products, D’Amaro drove himself to the toy maker’s headquarters in El Segundo — unaccompanied by any PR handlers or assistants. “Josh wanted to meet the people who actually do the work, the product designers and developers,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, also a former Disney exec, said. “That was very telling about his approach: It was about the people and the work.”
D’Amaro, at the Disney town hall, said he got “choked up” when Iger and chairman James Gorman informed him (on Feb. 2) that he was being named the next CEO. “To be invited into a room two days ago and have Bob and James Gorman on the other side of the door asking me to be CEO, it’s surreal. A lot goes through your head in that moment,” D’Amaro said. “I got a little embarrassed. I got a little choked up when they let me know, because it’s a big responsibility.”
Disney hasn’t disclosed D’Amaro’s compensation for past years; SEC rules requires public companies to disclose compensation for its CEO, CFO and the three other most highly compensated executive officers. That implies that D’Amaro’s pay package as head of Disney Experiences in 2025 was less than the $6.2 million in total compensation granted to Kristina Schake, Disney’s outgoing chief communications officer.
As CEO of Disney, D’Amaro’s annual compensation in his first year is targeted at between $38.5 million and $44.7 million. That figure that includes a potential cash bonus valued at 250% of his $2.5 million salary plus a one-time stock grant worth $9.705 million for his promotion to CEO; he also will receive annually a long-term incentive stock grant with a target value of $26.25 million. By comparison, Iger’s total compensation was $45.8 million in 2025.
D’Amaro earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University, graduating in 1993. He originally had a different career path in mind: He studied art at New York’s Skidmore College. However, by the end of his sophomore year he began to question whether he could support a family on an artist’s wages. “In my head, I was going to be an artist — I was painting, sculpting and studying art with a bit of business on the side,” D’Amaro said, speaking at an April 2025 event at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, per The Hoya student newspaper. “I loved it, but I realized I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do when I got out. That’s when I came to Georgetown to study business and marketing.”
D’Amaro, who grew up in Medfield, Mass., married his high school sweetheart, Susan. The couple, who have two children, live in Coto de Caza, Calif., in Orange County.
RELATED: As Disney CEO Bob Iger Steps Aside, a Look at His Tenure as a Dynamic, Transformative Leader — With an Asterisk or Two
D’Amaro, 55, will officially assume the role as the ninth chief executive in Disney’s nearly 103-year history on Wednesday, March 18, coinciding with the company’s 2026 annual shareholders meeting.
Here are five things to know about D’Amaro:
D’Amaro has a politician’s ability to make anyone he encounters feel seen and heard, as documented in Variety‘s Feb. 25 cover story on the exec. “He’s so relatable,” said Joe Gavigan, a friend of D’Amaro who worked in Disney’s parks division for 25 years. “He looks people in the eye. He’s extremely confident but not cocky.” He’s a minor celebrity among diehard fans of Disney’s parks and is said to be broadly popular among the company’s rank-and-file. At Disneyland in Anaheim, D’Amaro “is constantly accosted by guests who want to hug him and take pictures with him. I’ve walked the park with dozens of Disney execs over the years, and this mobbing has never happened before,” said Marcus Buckingham, a leadership expert who shadowed D’Amaro for his upcoming book, “Design Love In: How to Unleash the Most Powerful Force in Business.”
D’Amaro doesn’t have a deep background in Hollywood — and he has made it clear he will lean on the expertise and connections of Dana Walden, newly promoted to chief creative officer (and who was in the running for the CEO spot). “Dana has so much experience in Hollywood, in television, and in creativity,” he said at a Disney town hall the day after his CEO appointment was officially announced. He predicted that the two execs’ “partnership is only going to grow stronger.”
As Spencer Neumann, a former Disney executive who now is Netflix’s CFO, put it, “Josh is not afraid to surround himself with people who know more about something than he does.”
At the same time, D’Amaro is super detail-oriented. At Disneyland, for example, he has “a reputation for being obsessed with everything from the color of the trash cans to the taste of the popcorn,” per Variety‘s cover story. In 2022, shortly after Mattel announced a deal to make Disney Princess and “Frozen” dolls and other products, D’Amaro drove himself to the toy maker’s headquarters in El Segundo — unaccompanied by any PR handlers or assistants. “Josh wanted to meet the people who actually do the work, the product designers and developers,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, also a former Disney exec, said. “That was very telling about his approach: It was about the people and the work.”
D’Amaro, at the Disney town hall, said he got “choked up” when Iger and chairman James Gorman informed him (on Feb. 2) that he was being named the next CEO. “To be invited into a room two days ago and have Bob and James Gorman on the other side of the door asking me to be CEO, it’s surreal. A lot goes through your head in that moment,” D’Amaro said. “I got a little embarrassed. I got a little choked up when they let me know, because it’s a big responsibility.”
Disney hasn’t disclosed D’Amaro’s compensation for past years; SEC rules requires public companies to disclose compensation for its CEO, CFO and the three other most highly compensated executive officers. That implies that D’Amaro’s pay package as head of Disney Experiences in 2025 was less than the $6.2 million in total compensation granted to Kristina Schake, Disney’s outgoing chief communications officer.
As CEO of Disney, D’Amaro’s annual compensation in his first year is targeted at between $38.5 million and $44.7 million. That figure that includes a potential cash bonus valued at 250% of his $2.5 million salary plus a one-time stock grant worth $9.705 million for his promotion to CEO; he also will receive annually a long-term incentive stock grant with a target value of $26.25 million. By comparison, Iger’s total compensation was $45.8 million in 2025.
D’Amaro earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University, graduating in 1993. He originally had a different career path in mind: He studied art at New York’s Skidmore College. However, by the end of his sophomore year he began to question whether he could support a family on an artist’s wages. “In my head, I was going to be an artist — I was painting, sculpting and studying art with a bit of business on the side,” D’Amaro said, speaking at an April 2025 event at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, per The Hoya student newspaper. “I loved it, but I realized I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do when I got out. That’s when I came to Georgetown to study business and marketing.”
D’Amaro, who grew up in Medfield, Mass., married his high school sweetheart, Susan. The couple, who have two children, live in Coto de Caza, Calif., in Orange County.
RELATED: As Disney CEO Bob Iger Steps Aside, a Look at His Tenure as a Dynamic, Transformative Leader — With an Asterisk or Two