While Disney CEO Bob Iger has many priorities following his return to the company, there’s one single task that he views as the most important: getting his successor pick right this time around.
“I think it would be safe to assume that I think about this all the time. I could say that I’m obsessed with it would be probably an understatement and actually, the board and I established when I returned that that would be among our biggest, if not our biggest priority,” he told SiriusXM’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa” on Wednesday.
After serving as Disney CEO for 15 years from 2005 to 2020, Iger stepped away from the company in December 2021. He would name ex-parks chief Bob Chapek as his replacement, but that tenure would be short-lived, with the successor-turned -predecessor ousted less than a year later. Iger would step back into the CEO duties in November 2022.
The botched succession would become one of multiple factors that prompted activist investor Nelson Peltz to make another go for seats on the company’s board earlier this year, though he ultimately lost the board election.
“It’s actually something that I’m obviously very focused on, not just because of the past, but because I’d like to retire again and I’d like to leave the company in great hands, and that is my intention,” Iger added. “I’m now confident that not only will we do that, but we’ll do so on a timely basis that works for the company and hopefully works for me as well, but yes. It’s a huge priority.”
When it comes to the search for a successor, Disney is currently looking at four internal candidates: Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro, Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
When asked by Ripa if one of Iger’s sons would be interested in the top role, the executive replied: “No. My sons, interestingly enough, are both interested in parts of the business in a way, but no. It will not be.”
Iger’s contract is currently set to expire at the end of 2026.
He added that it was a “mistake” to tell CNBC in July 2023 that Disney’s linear TV assets “may not be core” to the company.
“I wasn’t wrong about my observation, but it wasn’t necessary for me to utter those words publicly, because it caused an incredible amount of anxiety,” Iger said “I should have been more sensitive to how those words would be not just interpreted, but how they would be felt by people who are really important to me, who are even Disney legends.”
“I was intent on communicating to Wall Street an open-mindedness in general about our business in the future, and I wanted them to know – this was after I came back to Disney – that my head was not in the sand,” he added.
Iger decided to say that “everything’s on the table” in an effort to show he was “a realist” and “not in denial.”
“That was a mistake, it turns out,” he added.
Shares of Disney are down 31% in the past five years, 16% in the past six months and 1% year to date, but have climbed 4% in the past year. Listen to Iger’s full interview with Ripa here.
