Business
Disney names theme parks head Josh D’Amaro as new CEO
Walt Disney Co. selected theme parks chief Josh D’Amaro to be the company’s next chief executive, culminating the most closely watched succession drama in Hollywood.
D’Amaro, who has run the company’s pivotal parks and experiences division for six years, will be charged with steering the Burbank entertainment giant through increasingly turbulent times.
He officially becomes chief executive at the company’s March 18 shareholder meeting — replacing Chief Executive Bob Iger, who will hand over the reins after two decades in the top job revitalizing the company.
Iger will stay on as a senior advisor and board member until his retirement from the company when his contract expires in December.
Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney Entertainment, was named the company’s president and chief creative officer, becoming the first woman to serve as president at the 102-year-old company. She will report to D’Amaro.
“Josh D’Amaro is an exceptional leader and the right person to become our next CEO,” Iger said in a statement. “He has an instinctive appreciation of the Disney brand, and a deep understanding of what resonates with our audiences, paired with the rigor and attention to detail required to deliver some of our most ambitious projects.”
D’Amaro, who turns 55 this month, is respected on Wall Street and has long been a favorite among legions of Disney superfans who view him as a charismatic cheerleader for Mickey Mouse, Buzz Lightyear and other inhabitants of the Magic Kingdom.
Within Disney, D’Amaro is known for his consensus-building style, his mastery of Disney’s distinct culture and for safeguarding its beloved brands.
D’Amaro, a native of Massachusetts, joined Disney 28 years ago in Anaheim’s Disneyland accounting department and will become the ninth person to lead the company. He steadily rose through the ranks, working in finance, business strategy and marketing and eventually leading Disneyland and then the larger Disney World Resort in Florida.
A big promotion came in early 2020 when he was entrusted with all of the company’s theme parks, cruise lines and its creative cadre of Imagineers.
His portfolio includes video games and consumer products. He’s overseen numerous high-profile construction projects, including Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the Marvel-themed Avengers Campus at Disneyland as well as the current $60-billion expansion of cruise lines and theme parks, which includes plans for a new venture in Abu Dhabi.
In a statement, Disney’s board noted that D’Amaro currently leads Disney’s largest division, which produced $36 billion in the last fiscal year.
He will oversee all of Disney and its workforce of 230,000 as the entertainment colossus tries to soar in the streaming age amid the erosion of the company’s once-mighty legacy cable TV business and a punishing theatrical business climate.
He also must balance the promise of artificial intelligence without allowing it to destroy the value of Disney’s characters and movie franchises. A further challenge is to help Disney navigate the nation’s divisive political landscape.
Succession planning stretched more than two years.
“All of the directors became very comfortable with Josh’s skills, aptitude and readiness,” Disney board Chair James Gorman said in an interview. “Readiness was key, and that’s why we moved at this time. We were ready, Bob was ready to step aside, and he felt like Josh was ready as well as Dana and the whole team.”
Disney noted the board, in a meeting Monday, unanimously selected D’Amaro as CEO.
“D’Amaro’s most immediate priorities will be managing the Parks business through what continues to be a bumpy economic environment, particularly for non-wealthy consumers,” TD Cowen media analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a research report. He will also be tasked with “maintaining creative momentum in the Studios, both at the box office and on Disney+.”
While D’Amaro “lacks experience on the creative side of the business,” Creutz wrote, the promotion of Walden, who is respected in Hollywood, should fill that gap.
“It will however be critical for the two executives to be able to forge a strong partnership,” Creutz said.
Gorman, in the interview, said having a chief creative officer is new for Disney (Iger has largely filled that role without the title). The elevation expands Walden’s purview over Disney’s movie studios and all streaming service content.
“Dana is a strong leader. She’s decisive. She’s got great creative chops and she’s worked well with Alan Bergman as co-chair of entertainment,” Gorman said. “The idea is to ensure we bring creativity to all parts of the company in all corners of the world.”
After Disney’s March meeting, D’Amaro will join the company’s board.
His pay package will be about $38.5 million, consisting of a $2.5-million base salary, a $26.3-million long-term incentive each fiscal year subject to adjustment for performance or economic conditions and a one-time long-term incentive award of $9.7 million. He’s also eligible for an annual performance-based bonus worth 250% of his base pay, which could work out to about $6.3 million.
“Throughout this search process, Josh has demonstrated a strong vision for the company’s future and a deep understanding of the creative spirit that makes Disney unique in an ever-changing marketplace,” Gorman said. “The Board believes he is exceptionally well prepared to guide this global company forward to serve our consumers around the world and create long-term value for shareholders.”
Disney shares recovered slightly from an earlier slump Tuesday, closing at $104.22. Investors had been rooting for D’Amaro to succeed Iger. He bested three other senior executives for the job: Walden; movie studio head Alan Bergman; and ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro.
Bergman and Pitaro will continue in their “critical leadership roles” and work with D’Amaro and Walden, the company said Tuesday.
D’Amaro’s elevation comes six years after Disney’s disastrous CEO handoff to then-parks chief Bob Chapek, who was D’Amaro’s boss for many years. Chapek was sacked after less than three years in the job — a chaotic period marked by COVID-19 pandemic closures and battles with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, actor Scarlett Johansson and senior Disney executives.
Iger returned in November 2022 to quell concerns among investors and Disney staff. He has spent the last three years putting the Mouse House back in order, cutting costs with thousands of layoffs and planning for Disney’s future. The changes included transitioning ESPN into a stand-alone streaming app, laying the groundwork for the parks expansion, making a $1.5-billion investment in “Fortnite” developer Epic Games to bolster Disney’s video games and preparing for this week’s long-anticipated succession.
“We have done a lot of fixing, but we’ve also put in place a number of opportunities … to essentially expand at every location that we do business and on the high seas,” Iger said on a Monday earnings call with Wall Street analysts.
CEO of Disney Bob Iger arrives for a conference in 2023 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
(Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images)
Succession has been a top priority for Disney’s board since Gorman, former chair and chief executive of investment bank Morgan Stanley, took over in early 2025 as chair of Disney’s board.
Seeking to avoid another blunder, board members formalized the succession planning, establishing a committee led by Gorman, who instituted a more rigorous evaluation. Gorman and other committee members spent time with the CEO candidates to learn their strengths, weaknesses and visions for the future.
The board’s succession committee comprised Gorman, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, Lululemon Athletica CEO Calvin McDonald and Sir Jeremy Darroch, the former head of Sky broadcasting in Britain.
Iger spent hours mentoring the various candidates, including during Disney’s crisis last September when ABC briefly suspended late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel over remarks in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing.
Iger helped navigate the conflict amid outrage from political conservatives, President Trump and the chair of the Federal Communications Commission. On the other side, free-speech advocates were furious that Disney appeared to be ready to cut ties with Kimmel to appease the Trump administration.
Instead, Kimmel extended his stay through May 2027.
For D’Amaro, part of the challenge will be living up to the standards set by Iger, who helped the company prosper during his long career.
“Iger was really the visionary deal maker and the global brand quarterback,” said Bill Campbell, head of research for Paragon Intel in Connecticut. “D’Amaro is really the builder-operator who can protect the magic and make the machine more predictable.”
But Iger himself noted that D’Amaro would have to chart a new path.
“In the world that changes as much as it does, in some form or another trying to preserve the status quo is a mistake,” he said in the Monday earnings call. “I’m certain that my successor will not do that.”
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Politicians in Washington and the reporters who cover them have an often adversarial relationship.
But on the last Saturday in April, they gather for an irreverent celebration of press freedom and the First Amendment at the Washington Hilton Hotel: The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Hosted by the association, an organization that helps ensure access for media outlets covering the presidency, the dinner attracts Hollywood stars; politicians from both parties; and representatives of more than 100 networks, newspapers, magazines and wire services.
While The Times will have two reporters in the ballroom covering the event, the company no longer buys seats at the party, said Richard W. Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief. The decision goes back almost two decades; the last dinner The Times attended as an organization was in 2007.
“We made a judgment back then that the event had become too celebrity-focused and was undercutting our need to demonstrate to readers that we always seek to maintain a proper distance from the people we cover, many of whom attend as guests,” he said.
It’s a decision, he added, that “we have stuck by through both Republican and Democratic administrations, although we support the work of the White House Correspondents’ Association.”
Susan Wessling, The Times’s Standards editor, said the policy is a product of the organization’s desire to maintain editorial independence.
“We don’t want to leave readers with any questions about our independence and credibility by seeming to be overly friendly with people whose words and actions we need to report on,” she said.
The celebrity mentalist Oz Pearlman is headlining the evening, in lieu of the usual comedy set by the likes of Stephen Colbert and Hasan Minhaj, but all eyes will be on President Trump, who will make his first appearance at the dinner as president.
Mr. Trump has boycotted the event since 2011, when he was the butt of punchlines delivered by President Barack Obama and the talk show host Seth Meyers mocking his hair, his reality TV show and his preoccupation with the “birther” movement.
Last month, though, Mr. Trump, who has a contentious relationship with the media, announced his intention to attend this year’s dinner, where he will speak to a room full of the same reporters he often derides as “enemies of the people.”
Times reporters will be there to document the highs, the lows and the reactions in the room. A reporter for the Styles desk has also been assigned to cover the robust roster of after-parties around Washington.
Some off-duty reporters from The Times will also be present at this late-night circuit, though everyone remains cognizant of their roles, said Patrick Healy, The Times’s assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust.
“If they’re reporting, there’s a notebook or recorder out as usual,” he said. “If they’re not, they’re pros who know they’re always identifiable as Times journalists.”
For most of The Times’s reporters and editors, though, the evening will be experienced from home.
“The rest of us will be able to follow the coverage,” Mr. Stevenson said, “without having to don our tuxes or gowns.”
A former female staffer who worked for Beast Industries, the media venture behind the popular YouTube channel MrBeast, is suing the company, alleging she was sexually harassed and fired shortly after she returned from maternity leave.
The employee, Lorrayne Mavromatis, a Brazilian-born social media professional, alleges in a lawsuit she was subjected to sexual harassment by the company’s management and demoted after she complained about her treatment. She said she was urged to join a conference call while in labor and expected to work during her maternity leave in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act, according to the federal complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
“This clout-chasing complaint is built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements, and we have the receipts to prove it. There is extensive evidence — including Slack and WhatsApp messages, company documents, and witness testimony — that unequivocally refutes her claims. We will not submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us,” Gaude Paez, a Beast Industries spokesperson, said in a statement.
Jimmy Donaldson, 27, began MrBeast as a teen gaming channel that soon exploded into a media company worth an estimated $5 billion, with 500 employees and 450 million subscribers who watch its games, stunts and giveaways.
Mavromatis, who was hired in 2022 as its head of Instagram, described a pervasive climate of discrimination and harassment, according to the lawsuit.
In her complaint, she alleges the company’s former CEO James Warren made her meet him at his home for one-on-one meetings while he commented on her looks and dismissed her complaints about a male client’s unwanted advances, telling her “she should be honored that the client was hitting on her.”
When Mavromatis asked Warren why MrBeast, Donaldson, would not work with her, she was told that “she is a beautiful woman and her appearance had a certain sexual effect on Jimmy,” and, “Let’s just say that when you’re around and he goes to the restroom, he’s not actually using the restroom.”
Paez refuted the claim.
“That’s ridiculous. This is an allegation fabricated for the sole purpose of sparking headlines,” Paez said.
Mavromatis said she endured a slate of other indignities such as being told by Donaldson that she “would only participate in her video shoot if she brought him a beer.”
“In this male-centric workplace, Plaintiff, one of the few women in a high-level role, was excluded from otherwise all-male meetings, demeaned in front of colleagues, harassed, and suffered from males be given preferential treatment in employment decisions,” states the complaint.
When Mavromatis raised a question during a staff meeting with her team, she said a male colleague told her to “shut up” or “stop talking.”
At MrBeast headquarters in Greenville, N.C., she said male executives mocked female contestants participating in BeastGames, “who complained they did not have access to feminine hygiene products and clean underwear while participating in the show.”
In November 2023, Mavromatis formally complained about “the sexually inappropriate encounters and harassment, and demeaning and hostile work environment she and other female employees had been living and experiencing working at MrBeast,” to the company’s then head of human resources, Sue Parisher, who is also Donaldson’s mother, according to the suit.
In her complaint, Mavromatis said Beast Industries did not have a method or process for employees to report such issues either anonymously or to a third party, rather employees were expected to follow the company’s handbook, “How to Succeed In MrBeast Production.”
In it, employees were instructed that, “It’s okay for the boys to be childish,” “if talent wants to draw a dick on the white board in the video or do something stupid, let them” and “No does not mean no,” according to the complaint.
Mavromatis alleges that she was demoted and then fired.
Paez said that Mavromatis’s role was eliminated as part of a reorganization of an underperforming group within Beast Industries and that she was made aware of this.
Lululemon, the yoga pants and athletic clothing company, has hired a former executive from a rival, Nike, as its new chief executive.
Heidi O’Neill, who spent more than 25 years at Nike, will take the reins and join Lululemon’s board of directors on Sept. 8, the company announced on Wednesday.
The leadership change is happening during a tumultuous time for Lululemon, which had grown to $11 billion in revenue by persuading shoppers to ditch their jeans and slacks for stretchy leggings. But lately, sales have declined in North America amid intense competition and shifting fashion trends, with consumers favoring looser styles rather than the form-fitting silhouettes for which Lululemon is best known.
“As I step into the C.E.O. role in September, my job will be to build on that foundation — to accelerate product breakthroughs, deepen the brand’s cultural relevance, and unlock growth in markets around the world,” Ms. O’Neill, 61, said in a statement.
Lululemon, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has also been entangled in a corporate power struggle over the company’s future. Its billionaire founder, Chip Wilson, has feuded with the board, nominated independent directors and criticized executives.
Lululemon’s previous chief executive, Calvin McDonald, stepped down at the end of January as pressure mounted from Mr. Wilson and some investors. One activist investor, Elliott Investment Management, had pushed its own chief executive candidate, who was not selected.
The interim co-chiefs, Meghan Frank and André Maestrini, will lead the company until Ms. O’Neill’s arrival, when they are expected to return to other senior roles. The pair had outlined a plan to revive sales at Lululemon, promising to invest in stores, save more money and speed up product development.
“We start the year with a real plan, with real strategies,” Mr. Maestrini said in an interview this year. “We make sure decisions are made fast.”
Lululemon said last month that it would add Chip Bergh, the former chief executive of Levi Strauss, to its board to replace David Mussafer, the chairman of the private equity firm Advent International, whom Mr. Wilson had sought to remove.
Ms. O’Neill climbed the organizational chart at Nike for decades, working across divisions including consumer sports, product innovation and brand marketing, and was most recently its president of consumer, product and brand. She left Nike last year amid a shake-up of senior management that led to the elimination of her role.
Analysts said Ms. O’Neill would be expected to find ways to energize Lululemon’s business and reset the company’s culture in order to improve performance.
“O’Neill is her own person who will come with an agenda of change,” said Neil Saunders, the managing director of GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company. “The task ahead is a significant one, but it can be undertaken from a position of relative stability.”
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