The results of Disney’s bake-off are here. Today, the $94 billion-in-revenue entertainment giant chose its next CEO: Josh D’Amaro, who had led Disney’s theme parks and cruise ships. He won the long-sought role over Dana Walden, who led television as co-chair of Disney Entertainment.
This was a a more than year-long process, with Disney’s board of directors (which includes GM chief Mary Barra and former Facebook exec Carolyn Everson) eager to get the choice right after the failure of Bob Iger’s first CEO handoff to Bob Chapek in 2020. Iger has been mentoring candidates for the role, Disney said in its press release this morning. Board chairman James Gorman said D’Amaro is the “right person” to become Disney’s ninth-ever leader in 102 years.
For those keeping tabs, this is the second major CEO job in recent months that hasn’t gone to the leading female contender. (The first was Walmart’s choice of a new CEO.). But while Walmart exec Kath McLay left the company shortly after the retail giant chose another candidate for CEO, it seems Disney is making an effort to keep Walden around.
Walden will become Disney’s president and chief creative officer, a new role. Disney called the appointment a “historic first for the enterprise.” She will report directly to D’Amaro and be tasked with ensuring that “storytelling and creative expression across every audience touchpoint consistently reflect the brand, engage audiences at scale, and advance core business objectives.” She will still oversee streaming, along with movies and more—making her “one of Hollywood’s most powerful content executives.” She was already No. 22 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list last year.
Walden called the new role a “dream job” in an Instagram post today. In the CEO search, Walden’s strengths were her relationships with creative talent—at the core of everything Disney does (even theme parks!). In recent months, she had both shepherded the debut of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour documentary on Disney+ and gotten Disney through its politically-charged Jimmy Kimmel suspension. Iger called her “an excellent leader who commands tremendous respect from the creative community.” It was a complementary skill set to D’Amaro’s, who ran Disney’s largest business and had been at the company for almost three decades. Walden arrived through Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Disney’s choice came down to which skill set the business needed at the helm at this moment in time.
So, no, one of the most culturally important companies in the Fortune 500 didn’t get a female CEO. But Walden did get a major promotion—one that was created for her and leans into her strengths.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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