Business2 min
Bob Iger steps down as Disney CEO, handing the reins to Josh D'Amaro
After two stints and nearly 18 years in charge, the man who bought Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox leaves the top job on March 18, 2026.
Bob Iger is no longer running Disney. The 75-year-old executive handed the CEO job to Josh D'Amaro on March 18, 2026, ending a second term that began in November 2022 and closing a leadership run that spans nearly 18 years in total.
His first stretch as chief executive started in October 2005 and ran until 2020. He returned in late 2022 for another turn. Across both, Iger built Disney into what the source material calls the world's most powerful entertainment company, largely through four big purchases: Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox.
Why does that matter to you? If you have watched a superhero blockbuster, a Star Wars story or a Pixar film, you have seen the results of those deals. They put some of the planet's most recognisable franchises under one roof, and that shaped what plays in cinemas and on streaming screens.
The path there was not glamorous. Born on February 10, 1951, in New York City, Iger grew up in Oceanside, Long Island. His father, Joseph, worked in advertising and struggled with mental illness, something Iger has written about openly. He links that experience to the empathy and calm that became hallmarks of his leadership style.
Iger studied television and radio at Ithaca College, graduating magna cum laude in 1973. A year later he joined ABC in a studio operations job, a ground-floor role that taught him how broadcasts actually get made. He climbed over more than two decades to become President of ABC Entertainment, overseeing the network's primetime programming.
Disney's 1995 purchase of Capital Cities/ABC pulled him into the company. He became President of Walt Disney International, then President and Chief Operating Officer by 2000, making him the obvious heir to then-CEO Michael Eisner. Years watching television fragment into cable and satellite, the source notes, gave him a comfort with disruption that proved useful later.
Now the spotlight turns to D'Amaro, who inherits a company shaped by Iger's dealmaking. Source details on the handover are brief, so how he steers Disney next remains the open question. Read the original profile for more on Iger's background: Bob Iger: Media Executive Titan, Business Leader, and Former CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
