Bob Iger

Bob Iger (born February 10, 1951) is an American media executive who served as chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company in two separate periods, from 2005 to 2020 and from November 2022 to March 2026. He succeeded Michael Eisner in his first term and Josh D'Amaro succeeded him in his second, with Iger remaining as a senior advisor and board member through December 31, 2026.

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Early life and education

Robert Alan Iger was born on February 10, 1951, in New York City and grew up in Oceanside, Long Island. He graduated from Ithaca College, where he studied television and radio, and after a brief start in local television he joined the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the mid-1970s, beginning a rise through television that would last for the rest of his career.

Career at ABC and Capital Cities

Iger spent more than two decades at ABC, working across sports, news and entertainment programming and rising through its management ranks. He was named president of ABC Entertainment in 1989, and in 1994 he became president of ABC itself. The following year he became president and chief operating officer of Capital Cities/ABC, the network's parent company.

Disney acquired Capital Cities/ABC in a deal announced in 1995 and completed in 1996, bringing Iger into Disney's senior management. He remained chairman of the ABC group, was given responsibility for Walt Disney International in 1999, and in January 2000 was named president and chief operating officer of the whole company, making him Michael Eisner's second in command.

First term as chief executive, 2005–2020

Iger succeeded Eisner as chief executive on October 1, 2005, and was later elected chairman in 2012. His first term is best remembered for a sequence of large acquisitions that reshaped Disney around owned franchises. Disney bought Pixar in 2006 for about $7.4 billion, Marvel Entertainment in 2009 for about $4 billion, and Lucasfilm in 2012 for about $4.06 billion, bringing Pixar animation, Marvel superheroes and Star Wars inside the company. In 2019 Disney completed its much larger purchase of the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox for about $71.3 billion.

In the parks business, his first term included the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in 2005 — in the final days of the Eisner era — and, most substantially, Shanghai Disney Resort in 2016, Disney's first resort in mainland China. Late in the term Disney also pivoted directly towards streaming, launching Disney+ in November 2019. Iger stepped down as chief executive on February 25, 2020, handing the job to Bob Chapek, and stayed on as executive chairman before leaving the company at the end of 2021. His memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime, was published in 2019.

Return and second term, 2022–2026

On November 20, 2022, Disney's board removed Chapek and brought Iger back as chief executive, initially on a two-year mandate to set a new strategic direction and help develop a successor. In July 2023 the board extended his contract through 2026. His second term was dominated by cost-cutting and restructuring in the entertainment businesses, the effort to make streaming profitable, and a long, publicly watched succession process.

On February 3, 2026, the board announced that Josh D'Amaro, the chairman of Disney Experiences, would succeed Iger effective at the annual meeting on March 18, 2026. Iger stepped down as chief executive that day and continued as a senior advisor and board member until his retirement from the company on December 31, 2026, closing a Disney career that had begun, via ABC, three decades earlier.

See also

• The Walt Disney Company
• Josh D'Amaro
• Michael Eisner
• Disney Experiences
• Walt Disney World