Bob Iger's Successor Search: James Gorman Appointed Chair of Disney's Succession Planning Committee

Aug 22, 2024 in "The Walt Disney Company"

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Posted: Thursday August 22, 2024 7:20am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Walt Disney Company has announced the appointment of James P. Gorman as the new Chair of its Succession Planning Committee. Gorman, a Disney Board member since earlier this year and Executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley, brings extensive experience in leadership transitions, having recently overseen the succession process at Morgan Stanley, where he previously served as Chairman and CEO.

Walt Disney Company headquarters in Burbank, California

Mark Parker, Chairman of Disney's Board, commented on the appointment: "James is a highly respected leader, and we've asked him to serve as the new Chair of the Succession Planning Committee given his deep succession planning experience and long-term strategic mentality. Succession planning is a top priority of the Board, and I am eager to continue collaborating with James on the Committee as we advance the important work we have already been doing to identify and prepare the next CEO of The Walt Disney Company."

In addition to Gorman, the Succession Planning Committee includes directors Mary Barra and Calvin McDonald, both of whom bring significant experience in CEO and senior leadership succession planning for Fortune 500 companies. The Committee has been actively engaged in the process of identifying and preparing potential successors to Disney's current CEO, Bob Iger.

Background on Disney's Succession Planning

The formation of the Succession Planning Committee in January 2023 marked a significant step in Disney's approach to CEO succession, a process that became increasingly critical after Bob Iger's return as CEO in late 2022. Iger, who originally stepped down as CEO in February 2020, returned to the role following the departure of his successor, Bob Chapek, amid a period of strategic challenges and leadership turbulence within the company.

Iger's return was seen as a stabilizing move for Disney, a company he had successfully led for 15 years, during which he oversaw the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 21st Century Fox, significantly expanding Disney's content portfolio. However, his return also came with the clear objective of setting the stage for a more permanent leadership transition.

Since his return, Iger has made it clear that his tenure is temporary, with a primary focus on guiding the company through a smooth succession process. The Succession Planning Committee, under the guidance of the Board, has been working to evaluate both internal and external candidates for the CEO role.

James Gorman's Leadership Experience

James Gorman's appointment as Chair of the Succession Planning Committee is a strategic choice given his extensive experience in leadership transitions. Gorman, who will be stepping down as Executive Chairman of Morgan Stanley in December 2024, served as the company's CEO from 2010 to 2023 and as Chairman from 2012 to 2023. His leadership was pivotal in navigating Morgan Stanley through periods of significant change and growth.

Before his tenure at Morgan Stanley, Gorman held executive roles at Merrill Lynch and was a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. His deep understanding of corporate strategy and governance, combined with his recent experience in succession planning at Morgan Stanley, positions him well to lead Disney's efforts in identifying and preparing its next CEO.

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Comped1 day ago

Most divestures from the Fox purchase were forced by the EU or other governments to allow the deal to go through in the first place (except for A&E Europe which was a bad move on the EU's part IMO, as it was a rather useless divestiture). I'm sure Disney would have rather kept the lot (at least for a while). Disney owning Sky likely would have had very interesting ramifications for ESPN stateside (PL rights would have been nearly certain), but would have put a good amount of strain on Disney's profit margin.

HauntedPirate1 day ago

Of course it is! Just ask Bob, he'll tell you so.

monothingie1 day ago

They raised the bid by $3.2B. That's a big difference from the $20B that Comcast drove up the price for Disney to purchase 21CF. You seem to gloss over the $20B premium paid on top of the original deal as it was insignificant. I'm not sure how you get $40B from divestitures when it seemed to only total $15B with the majority of that coming from the sale of the Fox RSNs. This is misleading. The "General Audience" (Adult) programing is what Hulu brought to table and D+ was never intended to go down that route. You keep going back to the timeline developed at launch that D+ would be profitable by 2024 but there is so much context missing from that assessment. 1. There was never consideration of relying on an ad supported model. 2. There was never consideration of complete HULU integration. 3. The expected profits were going to be many times what is being realized now or even being forecast. 4. There was no expectation that the losses would have been so large. (They were basically blowing up a fleet of DCL cruise ships a year at the height of their losses.) D+ main challenge is going to be user churn and loss of retail subscribers via the constant price increases. If Bob's hot mic comment about ad-tier subscribers is accurate, then they are apparently underperforming in this subscriber segment. The "success" of DTC for Disney has not come from putting out a good product with good content, but rather through acquisitions, price increases, password crackdowns, and introducing an ad-supported tier. Like the experiences segment which showed growth mostly through price increases, is that truly a sustainable path?

MisterPenguin1 day ago

Comcast did drive up the cost of Fox. But Disney returned the favor and bid up the cost of Sky, which Comcast bought. And now that Sky was overpriced, Disney sold their share of the overpriced Sky to Comcast. In the end, after buying Fox, Disney got $40M out of divestitures, drastically reducing the cost of Fox. Disney kept Fox out of competitors' hands. And transformed D+ content from "family" to "general audience" allowing them to set a new sub target after blowing through the first target in a manner of months. And Disney met their goal of when D+ would be profitable. In a competitive market, you're not going to have fantastical win after win. Even Netflix, the front runner, had a live-action streaming debacle. But that's not going to sink Netflix. And Disney isn't going to sink with several minor setbacks.

Brian1 day ago

Two years ago tonight, Iger was abruptly reinstated as CEO and Chapek was relegated to the Disney archives.

BrianLo1 day ago

There was immediate divestments of 30.5 billion dollars for the bigger ticket items. Many of them contingent and occurred with the purchase. Sky before. Hotstar most recently. I cannot find accessible numbers for True(X), Fox Next, TeleColombia, FoxSports Mexico, A&E Europe, Argentinian FoxSports. So in essence Disney is saddled with a 30-35B end price. Not 71. Hulu is worth 8.9 (at least). As for the other 20-25B, that’s the rub. FX, Searchlight, 20th century are the main keynotes. Along with their back catalogues and IP. They basically bought a general entertainment catalogue and production arm; which is not nothing. It’s actually a fairly strong general entertainment based arm. I’m not disagreeing that Bob was about to get an actual good deal and Roberts drove it up.

coffeefan1 day ago

Since we're about to enter a new era of M&A Disney should consider buying SquareEnix. It would be such a great fit.

BrianLo1 day ago

That’s what I’m referring to. Comcast bid Disney up 18B and then subsequently bought out Sky from them and paid at least 8.5B too much for it in the process. It’s kind of a wash for who overpaid more when they split the difference, but Roberts certainly doesn’t come off smart, with the better asset, nor laughing.

monothingie1 day ago

So that Bob could overpay by $20B. This was personal for Bob and he was not going to let Brian steal the largest deal of his career. Brian knew that and played Bob to over pay. Other than the 1/3 of Hulu from Fox can you let me know what they got that is currently profitable for them and justified the $71B spent?

Stripes1 day ago

Didn’t Comcast bid $65 billion? So you’re saying Comcast would have overpaid by $14 billion? I think, in the end, Disney has gotten their money’s worth out of 21CF. And due to the strength of those assets they are uniquely well positioned in the future.

Stripes1 day ago

ARPU went up by 2.66% for domestic Disney+ in FY24. Rupert got a lot more Disney stock and became Disney’s 2nd largest shareholder which could very well come in handy over the next 4 years.

monothingie1 day ago

This dates back to before the Hulu buyout. This was during the bidding war for 21CF where Disney overpaid by close to $20+B.

monothingie1 day ago

The carriage deal with Charter resulted in a higher number of subscribers to D+. (6M) Albeit as wholesale subscriber accounts with a much lower ARPU. How much more did Rupert get for 21CF because Brian played Iger’s ego?