Excuse Me? Did Disney Just Quietly Announce Co-CEOs?

The Walt Disney Company just made some HUGE announcements.

In addition to learning that Josh D’Amaro will take over as Disney CEO in March, we also found out that the current Co-Chairman of Disney Entertainment, Dana Walden, has been named President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company — a historic first for the House of Mouse.

Walden will begin this new role on March 18th, 2026, and will report directly to D’Amaro.

Disney has never had a Chief Creative Officer before. Still, in the announcement, they stated that she will “ensure that storytelling and creative expression across every audience touchpoint consistently reflect the brand, engage audiences at scale, and advance core business objectives, while driving enterprise-wide initiatives and translating vision into action.”

Essentially, it sounds like she will be spearheading the creative aspects of the company, whether it be in the entertainment sector or the parks sector.

“Dana Walden is an excellent leader who commands tremendous respect from the creative community,” said current CEO Bob Iger. “Given that creativity is at the heart of everything Disney does, she is a wonderful choice to serve in this new leadership role. In the years since Dana joined Disney, she has accumulated great knowledge about the many facets of our businesses and brands, and is very well prepared to be President and Chief Creative Officer.”

Walden came to Disney in 2019 after the company acquired most of 21st Century Fox, where she was CEO of Fox Television Group. Under her tenure at Disney, ABC has become the no. 1 entertainment network for the past four years. She has been responsible for shepherding popular series like Abbot Elementary and Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.

At one point, it was reported that Disney might have been considering co-CEOs back in October — with both D’Amaro and Walden sharing the title — but ultimately didn’t think it was a good idea. That hasn’t stopped Disney fans from suggesting that Josh D’Amaro and Dana Walden run the company together, considering D’Amaro’s expertise in running the parks and Walden’s expertise with the TV shows and movies business.

While Disney chose not to go in the direction of a co-CEO pairing, it’s not entirely unheard of these days — especially in the entertainment world. Notably, Netflix, Spotify, and Comcast have adopted the structure.

It sounds like this new Chief Creative Officer role will offer similar benefits to Disney, as Walden will be able to still spearhead much of the entertainment side of things, while D’Amaro can use his experience as Parks Chairman to continue to steer the company in the right direction as a whole.

The search for Iger’s replacement has been a focus of the Board since Iger’s return. Disney has created a committee focused on finding the next CEO. Iger was brought back with the directive to work with the Board to find the next CEO. Disney has previously said that the next CEO would be named in early 2026, but we weren’t expecting this new role for Walden — or for the transition to happen so soon.

We’ll be on the lookout for more news about The Walt Disney Company and beyond. In the meantime, make sure you stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Disney news and more.

What do you think of this news? Let us know in the comments below.

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