![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Disney-DAmaro-Walden.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Disney this week announced Josh D\u2019Amaro, its parks chief, as the winner of its very public race to be its next CEO; he\u2019ll take over for outgoing chief executive Bob Iger in March. But along with the glory of the CEO crown and the monumental task of running the complex entertainment giant, D\u2019Amaro faces a tricky personnel challenge: becoming the boss of his former peer. Dana Walden, Disney\u2019s TV and entertainment chief, was reportedly a fellow CEO contender he beat out for the job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Fortune 500 is littered with examples of wanna-be CEOs who left their companies after being passed over for the top job. And leaving can be a natural response to such a snub. Famously, when GE named Jeff Immelt CEO in 2001, the three other internal candidates eventually departed the company for top jobs elsewhere. Former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson left to become CEO at J.C. Penney when the tech giant named Tim Cook CEO in 2011. Just last month, Walmart announced that its international CEO Kathryn McLay, considered a CEO contender, was leaving the company following the appointment of John Furner as the retail giant\u2019s next chief.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But in Disney\u2019s case, Walden seems likely to stick around, at least for a while. In announcing D\u2019Amaro as CEO, Disney also promoted Walden, a respected Hollywood insider, to president and chief creative officer. She\u2019s the first to hold that title in the company\u2019s 102-year history, and it gives her oversight of all of Disney\u2019s movies and streaming series. Along with praising Walden\u2019s creative and storytelling bonafides, the Disney press release notes that she \u201cwill report directly to D\u2019Amaro,\u201d the guy who beat her out for the CEO job.<\/p>\n
And there\u2019s the rub. Even for the most self-assured executives, that dynamic could prove awkward. The CEO runner-up has to nurse a dented ego while answering to the succession race\u2019s ultimate winner. The incoming CEO, meanwhile, has to manage a team that includes someone who wanted their job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On paper, at least, Disney has set up D\u2019Amaro and Walden to navigate the many pitfalls such a scenario poses by giving the new CEO and chief creative officer roles that are distinct and complementary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s on the creative side, whereas D\u2019Amaro is more on the financial and parks side,\u201d says Susan Sandlund, a managing director at Pearl Meyer who leads the firm\u2019s leadership consulting practice. Walden \u201cbrings value in a whole different way than D\u2019Amaro does,\u201d she says. \u201cIn combination, it\u2019s a pretty powerful team.\u201d<\/p>\n
It could be argued that Disney\u2019s new double-barreled leadership arrangement, which draws on the executives\u2019 strengths, is akin to a co-CEO structure but better, Sandlund says. \u201cYou have one reporting to the other,\u201d she says. \u201cThe minute you have equal CEOs, you are begging for ambiguity and potential conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, distinct titles and designated realms of influence won\u2019t guarantee a smooth partnership. The onus is on D\u2019Amaro to settle on a common, shared goal that he can rally his new team around and to delegate meaningful tasks to Walden, says Emma Zhao, an assistant professor of commerce at UVA\u2019s McIntire School of Commerce. \u201cThat helps put aside some of those individual concerns and motivations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A wildcard in all of this, for course, is Walden\u2019s personal feelings about the situation\u2014her ambition and whether she\u2019s determined to one day be a CEO. If that\u2019s the case, her new position and a one-time award with a target value of $5.26 million may only keep her at Disney for so long.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sandlund, who has counseled executives in Walden\u2019s position before, suggests her best strategy is to sit tight. \u201cMy advice is don\u2019t make any rash moves right now. A lot of people will be calling you for other CEO roles, which you could jump at immediately,\u201d she says. \u201cBut if an executive really likes where they are, they love the culture, they\u2019ve been there a long time, then they often want to see, what can the company do that would make it worth sticking around?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Youve #vanquished #rival #CEO #succession #race #lead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Disney this week announced Jos… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[529,624,508,1737,7110,2510,12147,2361],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}