How Josh D’Amaro Built the Irresistible Case to Lead Disney as Next CEO

Disney is set to announce the next CEO of the company, who will succeed Bob Iger, sometime in early 2026. While the race is not decided and anything could happen at the last minute, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro has emerged as a prominent contender in the succession process led by board chair James Gorman.

In preparation for a decision, I wanted to dig into Josh D’Amaro’s key attributes and strategic moves that set him up to be considered the frontrunner for the CEO position. In research for this article, I spoke with multiple people who worked for Josh D’Amaro and combed through hours of his speeches and appearances to deliver this analysis. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including info on queue policies and major new ride construction milestones.

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How Josh D’Amaro Became a Top Disney CEO Contender

To colleagues and students at his alma mater, Georgetown, Josh D’Amaro frames his success as being based on his willingness to “raise his hand” for new opportunities even if they meant he crisscrossed the globe and stepped into roles that he felt a bit uncomfortable in.

While he had an early interest in becoming an artist with a focus on sculpting or painting, his side interest in business eventually became his focus at Georgetown. After working at the Gillette Company in Finance, he took a job at Disneyland in his mid-20s in 1998 as a senior business planner. He has been at Disney ever since. Over that period of time, he has moved from business planning to leadership positions in operations, sales, marketing, and commercial strategy and in different locations, including Anaheim, Hong Kong, Burbank, and Orlando. Several former direct reports told me that D’Amaro remains the best leader they have ever had.

Josh D’Amaro made his way up the Disney corporate ladder, distinguishing himself from the over 180,000 other cast members and employees who work in the Disney Experiences division. Then, in 2018, D’Amaro pivoted from a behind-the-scenes operator who was appreciated by his teams to an ambassador of the Disney brand for fans, frontline cast members, and the broader business community.

I have compiled the following themes to illustrate why D’Amaro is poised to get the Disney CEO job and to provide more context for understanding where he came from.

Real and perceived frontline presence –

Josh D’Amaro has a real care for the people in and around Disney. He spends time with frontline cast members and talks with guests in the theme parks. He exhibits a passion for understanding the human experience. People close to Josh share that he spent an entire career as a down-to-earth guy who listens. He relied on hearing from guests and cast members to get helpful feedback long before those interactions brought him fame. These interactions on their own have long-term echoes of goodwill.

Somewhere during that tenure, he recognized that he could bring magnification to these efforts by leaning into social media. When he arrived at Disneyland in 2018 as president, he and his communications and marketing teams rolled out his Instagram as a digital presence to reflect his man-of-the-people approach.

Here’s a look at the oldest photo that Josh has shared on his Instagram. There was a concerted plan to grow the account, whether through features on the official Disney accounts or promotion on the owned Disney Parks Blog. For instance, the photo used as a featured image at the top of this article was a tease for the Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway attraction before it opened. The push built Josh into a positive face and celebrity for cast members and fans.

Within a year at Disneyland, Josh D’Amaro was called one of Orange County’s “greatest business leaders” and was mobbed by fans for selfies when he was in the park. No one inside Disney, save for Bob Iger, whose awareness came from nearly 15 years as CEO, received that kind of response in the parks.

D’Amaro had successfully grasped that personalities and people matter in the age of social media and leaned into the platforms available to him to further the business and elevate his public profile. This strategy worked to improve Disneyland’s relationship with cast members, fans, labor, and business leaders, and made Josh D’Amaro a rising star. By the time that he was promoted to Walt Disney World President and then quickly after to head of all of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, he was a figure known broadly by the Disney fan community.

CEO Presence

Not only did he judge social media correctly, he has the right poise and presence to take advantage of that expanded reach. When in action, Josh has the always-on politician’s skillset where he can lock in on one person and make them feel like the most important person in the world. It works in small scale one-to-one and more broadly in speaking engagements and on video.

There is a certain amount of showmanship and swagger that is required to successfully lead The Walt Disney Company. Since CEOs don’t get to directly interact with so many who eventually report up to them, their exuberance and emotion on stage, in videos, and in short interactions has to be enough to indicate where the company is headed and motivate those employees.

Disney CEO Bob Iger has this in spades. This was one of the qualities that Bob Chapek, who was made CEO when Bob Iger decided to retire in 2020, was not the strongest in. Josh D’Amaro has that quality. It’s a mix of being a celebrity and presidential candidate. As the CEO of Disney, you’re running the most iconic entertainment company on earth.

As an aside, while mentioning Chapek, it’s important to dispel the notion for Wall Street and Hollywood that because Josh D’Amaro is the current Chairman of Disney Experiences he is the same as Bob Chapek. Chapek rose through the ranks in film distribution and home video. He revolutionized that business with the vault strategy and brought financial discipline and strategy to Disney Consumer Products. He was promoted from that role to the head of the theme parks, experiences, and products. Before that job, he had never run a theme park before.

On the other hand, Josh D’Amaro has spent his entire career as a theme park leader with an understanding of the moving parts to drive attendance and create a long-term plan, while also balancing those with guest requests and feedback. If D’Amaro becomes CEO, he will be the first person to run Disney who rose all the way from a role at Disneyland to the very top of the company.

Josh D’Amaro is one of the most adept Disney leaders that I have seen speak to fans and understand how to weave together what they care about with where the company is actually going.

In 2022, D’Amaro knew that they didn’t have enough to wow fans at the D23 Expo and took a risk with a Blue Sky presentation that teased the projects that would turn out to now be the addition of villains, Cars, Encanto, and Indiana Jones to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. Though the presentation initially invited speculation about what had been actually announced that day, D’Amaro’s instinct to push to reveal more to fans successfully demonstrated a long-term vision. Through his insistence on remaining close to guests, he has kept his finger on the pulse of the fandom and understands where he and the company need to be.

Internally this is also true. A Disneyland leader shared with me that during one of D’Amaro’s first appearances in front of his senior leadership at Disneyland, he spoke for over an hour about critical topics for the future of the business with no notes. He motivated the group and moved them towards a successful year. That anecdote is very similar to one shared by Bob Iger in his book The Ride of a Lifetime about memorizing ratings numbers and speaking articulately.

Management style –

Josh D’Amaro’s leadership style fits a role with a wide-ranging purview. He has spoken about how he approaches every new job with the statement of “‘I don’t know.’ But I know you do, and I know I can help.”

One leader of a non-profit where he serves on the board said she was “struck by his amazing optimism and vision, but also his essential pragmatism. That is one of the things that makes a great leader.”

D’Amaro is known for trusting his specific resort leaders and Imagineers around the world with key decisions as they know their businesses best. This is a trait that Bob Iger has also been known for internally.

This is the mindset that a leader has to have to succeed as they move on to the next rung. Josh D’Amaro has never produced a movie or television show and Dana Walden, the other discussed internal candidate, has never developed the strategy for a theme park. Either internal candidate would be taking over half the business (well really everything besides parks is 40% of the business, even less if you are counting based on number of people in their reporting structure) that they don’t know. If D’Amaro is able to maintain the delegation leadership style that elevates capable leaders, then he will be able to successfully lead the film studio, TV studio, streaming, and ESPN.

This contrasts with decisions made during the Chapek era, when P&L control was centralized away from creative executives. We have already seen Josh D’Amaro work to demonstrate he is capable in the area of talent relationships.

Relationships with Disney leaders and talent-

Over the past two years, we have seen Josh D’Amaro audition for the new role in many instances. One of the key areas he worked to demonstrate is that he is capable of managing creative leaders and that he has a relationship with the creative powerhouses that drive real value at Disney.

Last year, he appeared at SXSW in Austin, Texas in a panel dedicated to how Disney brings stories to life in their theme parks. In what to me seemed like an implicit endorsement, Disney Studios Chairman Alan Bergman was a co-presenter on the panel, but largely played a supporting role in the presentation that focused largely on the translation of Disney stories into theme parks. The presentation put a deep emphasis on D’Amaro’s abilities to bridge the gap between the studio and theme parks and work hand in hand with film creatives and Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative heart of the Disney theme parks.

During that presentation, they were also joined by Pete Docter, chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios; Bruce Vaughn, president and chief creative officer of Walt Disney Imagineering; world-renowned actor Robert Downey Jr.; Jon Favreau, director and producer of “The Mandalorian and Grogu”; and Kevin Feige, producer and president of Marvel Studios.

We’ve also seen him appear with some of these creative leaders in other settings both on stage and wandering the parks. He has made a strong effort to demonstrate that he has these connections and understands their value.

Success of Disney Theme Parks Business Currently and Expected Future Growth –

In fiscal 2025, the Disney Experiences segment delivered a record $10 billion in operating income. Disney overall reported $17.6 billion, meaning that the Disney Experiences division accounted for 57% of the overall operating income in 2025.

This can’t be overlooked. Disney Experiences is the growing part of the Disney business. Plans are under way for new rides at Disneyland and Disney World as part of the $60 billion investment in theme parks and cruise lines to turbocharge the offering.

Add to this the new theme park coming in Abu Dhabi and the plans for an expanded partnership with Epic Games in Fortnite which is also managed by Josh D’Amaro within the Experiences group.

Frankly, anyone leading the Disney Experiences segment today who is delivering these financial results while maintaining a positive relationship with the fan community would be highly considered for the role.

With more than half of Disney’s operating income now coming from Experiences, the division has become the company’s financial growth engine.

At the end of the day, it is the continued growth of the Disney Experiences segment and the fact that this is the differentiating aspect of The Walt Disney Company that pushes D’Amaro over the edge to become CEO. As theme park fans, it is easy to say this, but you don’t have to look deeply into the rest of the business to understand that Experiences is the most differentiated and long-lasting asset that Disney has. The Walt Disney Company’s future and legacy are tied to the success of the theme parks.

For media: If you are working on a story about Josh D’Amaro becoming CEO, please reach out to me via email at gavin @ mickeyvisit.com.

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