Habemus CEO

"Hi. I'm Josh."

Disney watchers knew the succession was coming. They had been camped out in a virtual version of Vatican City for months. Team Dana. Team Josh. Yesterday, we knew the outcome of the vote. Josh D’amaro—currently head of Disney Experiences—will be the next CEO of the Walt Disney Company.

The news broke right before I went to teach my first class at 9 a.m. By the time I returned to my office at noon, the Internet had already made the religion comparisons for me:

“We have white smoke. A new Disney CEO has been announced,” I read.

Over on Facebook, in the Rope Drop Humor group, the photoshopped “white smoke over the chapel” was rising over Cinderella castle instead of over Disney headquarters:

The other top candidate, Dana Walden, was promoted to President and Chief Creative Officer. (Disney has never had a woman CEO, which is a longer post for a different day.) My quick take here is that Disney is hoping for a two-person Dream Team at the top—similar to the Eisner-Wells model of the late 1980s, or the original Walt and Roy Disney pairing.

The posts comparing a new Disney executive to the Pope are jokes, but we should also take them seriously. D’amaro will be the company’s 9th CEO. Yet of those previous leaders, three are iconic: outgoing CEO Bob Iger, who purchased Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm, 21st Century Fox, and more; legendary CEO Michael Eisner (1984-2005), who oversaw an animation renaissance and unprecedented tourism expansions; and the OG, the founder, Walt Disney, who died in 1966—roughly half of the company’s lifetime ago.

D’amaro is like all three of these men: he is earnest. (Yes, watch videos of early Eisner. He started out earnest—and he was the CEO who wore the most Mickey Mouse merchandise). He speaks to the fans, he speaks to the cast members. He radiates “Welcome.” Until just a few days ago, if you checked into a hotel on the Walt Disney World property, he even welcomed you in a video on your television: “Hello, I’m Josh,” it begins. “I hope that you’re enjoying your Disney adventure.”

Like Michael Eisner and Walt Disney, he speaks right to the guest. He already had a social media following and was frequently besieged by fans in the parks. After the announcement, they started posted their old selfies with the soon-to-be-CEO.

Walt Disney was known for having a similar approach to Disneyland—walking the park, signing autographs, posting for photos, until he received so many requests he started to hand out cards instead.

People like a leader they can access. They like a Pope with a baseball team.

A few days ago, I was listening to the Disney Dish, where Jim Hill and Len Testa reported that Disney World guests noticed Josh’s video was no longer on the TV—further feeding most (ok, many) fans’ suspicions about the imminent announcement.

At this point, you are probably asking—why all this fuss over the CEO of an entertainment company? Of all the dumpster fire years of the 2020s (and the late 2010s), 2026 has definitely … started out …poorly. Just look at the 2016 trend. Everyone seems to want their Before Times to be at least ten years ago. It’s been almost a decade without Prince AND David Bowie. Now we have no Rob Reiner or Catherine O’Hara, either. (Those of us in Gen X are particularly not ok right now).

More seriously, several US cities are coated in ice, both literally and the other kind.

But if the past decade has taught us anything, it is that corporations now matter more, not less. That’s not a value judgment. It is a fact, at least in the world in which we currently live.

And storytelling companies have extra power.

The night of the announcement, on ABC news—owned by Disney— Iger and D’amaro sat down for an interview with David Muir.

“Disney’s not just another company,” said Iger. “Disney really is a cultural institution that has touched hundreds of millions of people.”

D’amaro, I think, gets it. Disney is about the people. He also seems to understand the creatives on the parks side of things. Reports are that the Imagineers, the team that builds the parks and cruise ships and anything else you can visit, like him a lot.

No, capitalism is not, in its drive for profit, about people. That’s always the problem.

But the world that runs on capitalism is still inhabited by them.

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I’ve never met Josh D’amaro. I have no selfie. But I have been in the same room with him.

Sort of.

Twice, at the biennial D23 fan convention, I have been there when he presents at the Parks and Experiences showcase. In 2022, there were about 7,000 people there, in a hall in the Anaheim Convention Center. In 2024, it was 12,000 in a star-studded even at the Honda Center Arena. Pop stars like Rita Ora performed.

What struck me most about D’amaro, both times, was his mix of self-deprecating humor put together with that earnestness. Obviously, a large writing staff helped. The 2024 event was really something to behold (at one point, it featured Deadpool pitching park ideas to Josh and singing the “veggie fruit” song from Kitchen Kabaret).

D’amaro often tells a story about the generations of his family on rides in Disneyland. His father telling him, the first time they boarded Peter Pan’s Flight, “it really feels like you’re flying.” Josh telling his children the same thing when they board Soarin’ years later. “From generation to generation” is how he began the 2024 talk.

“There are 12,000 Disney stories here tonight,” he told the crowd at the Honda Center.

This is why the fans keep returning—to Disney, and to places like it. If they can’t go to the parks—and most people can’t—they stream the stories online.

Sometimes the stories help them imagine flying.

Sometimes, at least, they make them laugh. (See: Deadpool/veggie-fruit, above).

May we all get through more of 2026 with the ability to laugh still somehow present.

Good luck, Josh!

p.s. THE MUPPETS ARE BACK. I REPEAT, THE MUPPETS ARE BACK. TAKE HEART, GEN X. THE MUPPETS ARE BACK.