Disney Prepares For New CEO Shuffle With Theme Parks Executive Change

The Disney Experiences division, the official segment of The Walt Disney Company that manages the Disney theme parks, just made a move within its executive leadership. Taken at face value, the move could be written off as corporate shuffling, but read in a broader context, looking at what is happening at Disney in the coming months, it is more notable.

I'll dive into the executive move and provide more context on how it likely fits into the upcoming Disney CEO succession process. At Mickey Visit, we cover the latest Disney news at the theme parks and how it will impact Disney more broadly.

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Disney Moves Executive to CFO Position

Today, Disney announced that Michael Moriarty would become Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Disney Experiences, succeeding Kevin Lansberry. Lansberry will be retiring in February 2026 after an extraordinary 39-year career with Disney that included a breadth of roles across Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts in Finance, Business Development, Alliances and Operations, as well as an interim role as CFO for The Walt Disney Company in 2023.

Moriarty brings nearly two decades of Disney leadership experience, including his time as former CFO at Walt Disney Imagineering and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, and finance leadership roles at Walt Disney World Resort. For the past five years, he has served as President and Managing Director of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. Under Moriarty’s leadership, the resort expanded with the successful opening of World of Frozen — contributing to a record-breaking year in 2024 — and launched a year-long celebration of its 20th anniversary that is currently underway.

“Michael Moriarty brings a deep understanding of our long-term strategy to broaden the reach and impact of Disney Experiences,” said D’Amaro. “His global perspective and leadership will help guide us through an exciting chapter of growth, reaching new fans in new places and on new platforms.”

“Kevin has shaped the financial and operational landscape of our businesses around the globe, helping us navigate and surmount the challenges of a global pandemic… recover faster than anyone predicted… and pave the way for a future filled with more new projects in development than any other time in our history” D'Amaro added on LinkedIn.

An announcement regarding Moriarty’s successor at Hong Kong Disneyland will be made at a later date.

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How This Impacts Disney Experiences and Disney More Broadly

Before we get into the broader impact of the move, it's important to understand that the CFO position of Disney Experiences is an important role from a financial perspective, but also a master planning perspective. Their team oversees the Global Business Development functionality, which works closely with Walt Disney Imagineering, Disney corporate, and the Chairman to chart the course for all investment in the division. Think of big projects like the new Disney theme park resort coming to Abu Dhabi or investments in multiple new cruise ships.

CFO of Disney Experiences is a big job that impacts everything from pricing, analytics, and product offerings at the existing resorts to the big picture definition of the future of the business. Putting Michael Moriarty in this role is a big vote of confidence from Josh D'Amaro, the current head of the Disney theme parks.

Turning to the bigger picture impacts, Disney has shared that they will announce a new CEO of The Walt Disney Company in early 2026. Josh D'Amaro is the top contender for this role. He has been widely reported as the frontrunner in publications including Bloomberg. We anticipate that he will get the job. If he doesn't get the job, we doubt that he will end up staying at Disney based on past precedent, though it would be positive if this weren't the case. So, either way, there will likely be a new head of the Disney Experiences headed into the role this time next year.

One part of being promoted to the next job is demonstrating that you have a bench of talent who can step into your current role. These shifts in Josh D'Amaro's leadership team demonstrate some of how he is thinking about the future talent who will lead Disney Experiences.

Back in January of this year, we reported on a Disney Parks executive shift that brought Thomas Mazloum to Disneyland as the new president of the resort. At the time, I remarked that it made him an even more likely candidate to succeed D'Amaro in the position. Mazloum has a great track record of helping to reopen Walt Disney World after the pandemic closure and the artful management of the Disney Cruise Line expansion.

Since then, I've spent more time with Thomas at Disneyland and have been extremely impressed by his understanding of the brand and interest in the guest experience. He told me that when he started at Disneyland, he immediately understood that the role was even more important because it was the original Disney theme park. It's true. You're both running a business and the mayor of a small town in the Disneyland President role.

I also commented on another leader last January as a potential successor. I suggested that Natacha Rafalski, the current President of Disneyland Paris, has continued to demonstrate impressive leadership of that resort. She has delivered wonderful celebrations and impressive vision at a time of transformation. I'll never forget her telling me that the best part of the job was getting to see rehearsals for the newest theme park entertainment. While she may still be in the running for the Chairman role, the fact that she wasn't promoted to lead Walt Disney World or even into this CFO role today makes me think it is less likely that her next stop will be Chairman.

Rafalski also has a deep background in finance positions at Disney and was CFO of Disney's China operations for multiple years. I wonder if she was considered for this jump into the CFO position. She is a real talent who may be headed to another key position if we are so lucky.

Now that Michael Moriarty was promoted to CFO, he is in a role that would be acceptable to be promoted to Chairman of Disney Experiences if that is his next stop. That may have been the reasoning for the shuffle. It could also have just been that Kevin Lansberry was ready to retire, and Michael Moriarty was the right person for the job. I also wonder if they had discussed this shift earlier in the year with the other leadership changes, but decided to have Michael finish out the launch of the 20th Anniversary at Hong Kong Disneyland before a promotion.

I met Michael briefly at Hong Kong Disneyland this summer while I was there covering the 20th anniversary of the theme park. He was gracious and laughed when I asked him about bigger career aspirations within Disney. I specifically brought up likely corporate shifts based on CEO planning, and he just smiled and said he was thrilled to be leading Hong Kong Disneyland. I wonder if he already knew about this promotion at that time. Michael has a long history with Disney, and it is in his blood. His father helped open Walt Disney World and was a leader there for 20 years, helping to open Disney Village, which became Disney Springs and then eventually overseeing all resorts. It's nice to know that Michael has a close connection to Disney history. Congrats on the success, Michael!

Either way, the race for the next Chairman of Disney Experiences might be down to Michael Moriarty and Thomas Mazloum. Both seem to be outstanding Disney leaders from what we can see from the outside. Based on what I know about both of them, it would be fantastic to have both on the executive team if Mazloum was promoted to Chairman and Michael remained in his new impactful position as CFO.

Wrapping up, I'll offer my quick predictions on executive shuffling simply because I enjoy the parlor game of it and because the people at the top do matter in deciding what new rides at Disneyland and new rides at Walt Disney World we'll end up getting and where investment in the division will be in the future.

In this moment in time, my predictions for key positions come a year from now if/when Josh D'Amaro becomes CEO: Thomas Mazloum becomes Parks Chairman, Michael Moriarty remains CFO, Natacha Rafalski becomes President of Disneyland in California (this would be great news!), and Jeff Vahle retires at Walt Disney World eventually, and a leader from inside the resort is promoted. What do you think?

I'll be covering the executive shifts closely in the coming months as we work our way towards the early 2026 Disney CEO race conclusion.

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