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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:37]
B
A three year search, Disney's board and its chairman, James Gorman have named a CEO successor. Josh Tomorrow will be promoted for being Park's chief to succeed Bob Iger in March of this year. Mr. Gorman joins us now. Good morning, Mr. Gorman. Thank you for your time. I mean, let's start with the simple question, well, why James DeMara?
- [01:01]
C
Well, it's Josh. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Good morning, Ed. He's, listen, he's the, he's a fantastic executive. He's strategic. He's run a huge operations, one which Disney is now investing $60 billion of capital into. He has great creative instincts. He has what Bob Iger calls exceptional taste. He's a leader who's oper all over the globe, including the recent expansion that's going to happen in the uae, which he did with Bob. He's, he's, he's the person for this time. So Josh is just a standout executive. We looked all over the world, as you could imagine. We want to do this right. We want to make sure that whoever got the job beat all comers and he beat all comers. So we're thrilled.
- [01:51]
B
Mr. Gorman, what mandatory goals, performance targets did you set Mr. D' Mauro over, over the term of his contract?
- [02:01]
C
Well, we haven't set goals in terms of his contract. He hasn't started. He'll be taking over as CEO at the annual meeting, which is March 18th. Bob will be working with him through 2026, guiding and mentoring and helping further develop him. Obviously, he laid out a vision for the board in the various discussions we had, which we had numerous ones, we really got to know Josh and all the other top executives. Walden, Alan Bergman, Jimmy Pitaro, just a tremendous group of four executives we had to consider in this process. And you know, over time we'll work with him as he settles into the job to lay out what the right strategic moves will be and how we're going to measure ourselves against those. So I'm highly confident in Josh and the team working with him.
- [02:49]
B
Mr. Gorman there was reporting that Mr. Iger confided in those close to him that he wanted to leave Disney before the end of his his contracted term. To what ext did that that push the board to move up its succession timeline?
- [03:05]
C
Yeah, I think firstly, let's just talk about Bob. I mean he's had effectively two careers at Disney. The first was an amazing 15 year run where he did deals that, you know, nobody else on the planet could have done, frankly. He worked with Steve Jobs, with George Lucas, with Rupert Murdoch to buy a bunch of studios which we now oversee. Seven studios which Alan Bergman has been overseeing by the way, produced under Alan SL leadership and working with Dana and has produced over $6 billion movies in the last two years. But Bob did a phenomenal job. When the company got in trouble, and it was before I joined the board, they invited Bob to come back and really there were two mandates for him. One was to get us through the very difficult post Covid period and the changes taking place in the linear space with what was going on in streaming and now what is going on in AI. He did that. He really got the company fit for purpose. The second was to make sure if we were to go intern that the lead executives and we had four of them to consider would be ready for prime time. If and when we went in that direction, we ultimately did. So Bob came to us a little while ago and said they're ready. I mean Josh is ready, he's ready to take over. If the board's will is to move on this. I want to step aside and I want to work with Josh as a senior adviser, stay on the board through the end of the year. It's not about the length of the contract that he was under. It's about his role as CEO and then as mentor for the next CEO. So hats off to Bob. It was very selfless and frankly it's what's great for the company.
- [04:40]
B
Did you consider Bob Iger continuing on in a co chairman capacity or a chairman emeritus type role? I appreciate that. You know, there is an advisor agreement here, but it. Does that have a definitive end?
- [04:55]
C
Yeah, but Bob will say as an employee adviser and board member until the end of 2026 and then he'll step off the board. He won't be an employee. He'll continue to consult to the company consistent with what former executives do. I'm doing that at my former institution, Morgan Stanley. But no, we were not, you know, Bob was not interested in remaining as a chair or co chair. We Needed a completely clean start here, which is what we're having. He'll be there to support a mentor and we have the right structure for the future. So we're thrilled. And you know, you look at what, what's going on now that we've appointed Dana also as president and a new role, Chief Creative Officer. That's to ensure that the leadership team at the heart of this company is creativity and storytelling. And it's to ensure the leadership team brings their absolute best every day. Leveraging our ip, telling stories across all of our properties, whether it's cruises or Parks tv, our ESPN platform, and obviously the studios. So we really set, we're set for the next decade and very excited about it.
- [06:04]
B
Mr. Gorman, ultimately you went with Josh tomorrow for the Seer role in promoting Dana Walden to the CCO president hybrid role. How conscious were you of keeping her, you know, giving her that title to ensure she stays at Disney long term?
- [06:23]
C
Oh my goodness. If you don't want to keep talented executives, there's something wrong with you. You know, we had an embarrassment of riches. We have. You know, as I said, Jimmy Pitaro, who's running espn is a fabulous executive. Alan Bergman, who's run our studios, businesses at seven Studios has done an unbelievable job. Dana obviously incredible executive with a long history in Hollywood in the industry. And Josh, we want to keep all of them and I believe we will. I mean, I think this is a win, win for everybody and I'm just, I couldn't be more excited about it. So yeah, absolutely. If you have talent, you want to keep them. Finding talent, developing talent is really hard. So when you got it, you do what you can to retain it.
- [07:05]
B
Well, Mr. Gorman, it seemed like a four way playoff, right. Of internal candidates. In that vein, how concerned or otherwise were you about keeping Jimmy Pitaro and Alan Bergman at Disney long term too?
- [07:18]
C
Well, it was more than four ways we really approached this. And when I say we, the board, we had a succession planning committee and I was honored to serve with Calvin MacDonald, Sir Jeremy Darrock and Mary Barra who were the succession planning committee. Then we quickly moved to full board engagement and each of the other directors played a meaningful role in this. And I couldn't be more grateful for, for what they did. But you know, we decided early on we wanted to look at all comers. We had a list, my goodness, it must have been over 100 people initially that we thought about, we considered, we evaluated. We ended up talking to several executives outside the company because I wanted to be sure we all wanted to be sure that whoever got this job got it on their merits. They had beaten anything that was presented from the marketplace and we had the best possible candidate. So that included external, it included internal, and included the four that you talked about. And I think all of them are very important to this company and we're honored to have them in critical roles.
- [08:21]
B
Mr. Gorman, in May of 2019, I was sat opposite Bob Chapek at the opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge. Right. And at that time, the park's chief. By February of the following year, he was CEO. And it was all about ip, his ability to take the growth in parks, the IP in parks, grow it out. Star wars is a good case study, but to many, you know, maybe investors had a viewpoint on this, on a co CEO structure or somebody coming from parks to lead the wider business. Josh tomorrow has a very similar background to Mr. Chapek. How closely did you look at that, those parallels in that scenario?
- [09:02]
C
Not, not especially. We look at the individual. We don't look at, you know, just buyers, whatever. I mean, you've got to look at what the individual has done. Josh is incredibly innovative. What he's done in the imagineering space with those creative teams building the IP into the parks, into the cruises. I mean, this is not, this is not an operations job. This is an operations and a creative job. It's telling stories that create incredible experiences for everybody who goes through those gates or gets on one of the ships. And, and he is, he is incredibly capable at doing that. So I've always said what you look for in CEOs is not just what they've done that's important, but it's what they're capable of doing. You know, I tell the story. I ran Morgan Stanley for 14 years. I'd never been a trader, I'd never been a banker. You know, you take people for what they can do, building on some of the things they've learned in the process. And you know, I look at Josh as an individual, not as a comparison. And I think he'll be a fabulous CEO. He has all of the skills to lead Disney for the next 10 years.
- [10:05]
B
Mr. Gorman, you were brought in as chairman in part to oversee this succession process. It's now over. You've reflected on your time at Morgan Stanley. What's next for you? Do you expect to remain longer term with Disney or are you looking at perhaps a move back into the financial industry or something else suggesting I retire it? Not at all. So. But there is a great deal of interest in what you will do. Maybe you'll let us know?
- [10:36]
C
No, I'm not. I'm not. I mean, I work with General Atlantic, which is an amazing firm in the financial space, but I'm not interested in going back into the world, the pure world of finance. I want to help the Walt Disney Company and help Josh and the new leadership team and work with Bob on this transition and help the board in making sure we deliver what we can. This company's trading at 15 times earnings. That's nuts. I mean, honestly, there are very few companies that have this quality of assets, this quality of bones, as I call it, than what we have. There are tremendous moats around the businesses. I'm excited about the prospect of what we can see from Disney over the next several years. So, no, I'm very much staying put.
- [11:18]
B
Thank you. James Gorman, chairman of the Walt Disney Company that today has announced Josh d' Amaro as the next CEO, succeeding Bob Iger in March. Thank you very much.
- [11:30]
C
Thanks so much.
- [11:32]
A
This message is brought to you by Apple Card. It's a great time to apply for an Apple Card. You'll love earning unlimited daily cash on every Purchase. That includes 3% daily cash when you buy the latest iPhone, AirPods and Apple. Watch at Apple through this special referral offer. When you get a new Apple Card, you can earn bonus daily cash. To qualify, you must apply at Apple co getdailycash Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City. Branch offer may not be available elsewhere. Terms and limitations apply.