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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: After a three year search, Disney's board and his chairman,

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Speaker 2: James Gorman, have named a CEO successor. Josh Tomorrow, will

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Speaker 2: be promoted for being Parks chief to succeed Bobby IgA

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Speaker 2: in March of this year. Mister Gorman joins us. Now,

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Speaker 2: good morning, miss Gorman, thank you for your time. I mean,

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Speaker 2: let's start with the simple question, why James Tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's Josh Tomorrow Tomorrow. Good morning, ed.

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Speaker 3: He's listen. He's the He's a fantastic executive. He's strategic.

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Speaker 3: He's run a huge operations, with one which Disney is

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Speaker 3: now investing sixty billion dollars of capital into.

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Speaker 1: He has great creative instincts.

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Speaker 3: He has what Bob Iger calls exceptional taste. He's a

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Speaker 3: leader who's operated all the globe, including the recent expansion

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Speaker 3: that's going to happen in the UAE, which he did

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Speaker 3: with Bob. He's the purpose person for this time. So

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Speaker 3: Josh is just a standout executive. We looked all over

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Speaker 3: the world, as you could imagine, we wanted to do

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Speaker 3: this right. We want to make sure that whoever got

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Speaker 3: the job beat all comers and he beat all comers.

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Speaker 1: So we're through.

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Speaker 2: Mister Gorman, what mandatory goals performance targets did you set

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Speaker 2: mister Demorrow over the term of his contract.

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Speaker 3: Well, we haven't set goals in terms of his contract.

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Speaker 3: He hasn't started. He'll be taking over as CEO at

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Speaker 3: the annual meeting, which is March eighteen. Bob will be

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Speaker 3: working with him through twenty twenty six, gaiding and mentoring and.

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Speaker 1: Helping further develop him.

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Speaker 3: Obviously, he laid out a vision for the board in

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Speaker 3: the various discussions we had, which we had numerous ones,

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Speaker 3: we really got to know Josh and all the other

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Speaker 3: top executives Dana Walden, Alan Bergman, Jimmy Pittaro, just a

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Speaker 3: tremendous group of four executives we had to consider in

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Speaker 3: this process. And you know, over time we'll work with

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Speaker 3: him as he settles into the job to lay out

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Speaker 3: what the right strategic moves will be and how we're

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Speaker 3: going to measure ourselves against those. So I'm highly confident

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Speaker 3: in Josh and the team working with him.

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Speaker 2: Mister Gorman, there was reporting that mister Eiger confided in

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Speaker 2: those close to him that he wanted to leave Disney

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Speaker 2: before the end of his contracted term. To what extent

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Speaker 2: did that that pushed the board to move up its

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Speaker 2: succession timeline.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think firstly, let's just talk about Bob. I mean,

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Speaker 3: he's had effectively two careers at Disney. The first was

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Speaker 3: an amazing fifteen year run where he did deals that

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Speaker 3: you know, nobody else on the planet could have done. Frankly,

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Speaker 3: he worked with Steve Jobs, with George Lucas, with Rupert

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Speaker 3: Murdoch to buy a bunch of studios which we now

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Speaker 3: oversee seven studios which Alan Bergman has been overseen by

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Speaker 3: the way produced Allen's leadership and working with Dana and

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Speaker 3: has produced over six billion dollar movies in the last

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Speaker 3: two years.

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Speaker 1: But Bob did a phenomenal job.

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Speaker 3: When the company got in trouble, and it was before

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Speaker 3: I joined the board, they invited.

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Speaker 1: Bob to come back. And really there were two mandates

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Speaker 1: for him.

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Speaker 3: What was to get us through the very difficult post

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Speaker 3: COVID period and the changes taking place in the linear

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Speaker 3: space with what was going on in streaming and now

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Speaker 3: what is going on in AI. He did that. He

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Speaker 3: really got the company fit for purpose. The second was

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Speaker 3: to make sure if we were to go internal that

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Speaker 3: the lead executives, and we had four of them to consider,

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Speaker 3: would be ready for prime time if and.

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Speaker 1: When we went in that direction. We ultimately did. So.

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Speaker 1: Bob came to us a little while ago and said,

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Speaker 1: they're ready. I mean, Josh is ready. He's ready to

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Speaker 1: take over if the board's will is to move on this.

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Speaker 3: I want to step aside and I want to work

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Speaker 3: with Josh as a senior advisor, stay on the board

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Speaker 3: through the end of the year. It's not about the

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Speaker 3: length of the contract that he was under. It's about

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Speaker 3: his role as CEO and then as mentor for the

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Speaker 3: next CEO. So hats after Bob. It was very selfless

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Speaker 3: and frankly, it's what's great for the company.

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Speaker 2: Did you consider Bob Iger continuing on in a co

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Speaker 2: chairman capacity or a chairman emeritus type role.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate that.

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Speaker 2: You know there is an advisor agreement here, but does

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Speaker 2: that have a definitive end.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Bob, Bob war says, an employee, advisor and board

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Speaker 3: member until the end of twenty twenty six, and then

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Speaker 3: he'll step off the board.

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Speaker 1: He won't be an employee.

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Speaker 3: He'll continue to consult to the company consistent with what

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Speaker 3: former executives do. I'm doing that at my former institution,

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Speaker 3: Morgan Stanley. But no, we were not. You know, Bob

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Speaker 3: was not interested in remaining as a chair or co chair.

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Speaker 3: We needed a completely clean start here, which is what

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Speaker 3: we're having. He'll be there to support a mentor and

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Speaker 3: we have the right structure for the future.

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Speaker 1: So we're thrilled.

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Speaker 3: And you know, you look at what's going on now

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Speaker 3: that we've appointed Dana also as president and a new role,

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Speaker 3: Chief Creative Officer.

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Speaker 1: That's to ensure that the leadership team.

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Speaker 3: At the heart of this company is creativity and storytelling,

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Speaker 3: and it's to ensure the leadership team brings their absolute

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Speaker 3: best every day, leveraging our IP telling stories across all

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Speaker 3: of our properties, whether it's cruises or parks, TV, our

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Speaker 3: ESPN platform, and obviously the studios. So we're really set.

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Speaker 3: We're set for the next decade. I'm very excited about it.

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Speaker 1: Mister woman.

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Speaker 2: Ultimately, you went with Josh Tomorrow for the seer role

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Speaker 2: in promoting Dana Walden to the CEO president hybrid role,

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Speaker 2: how conscious were you of keeping her, you know, giving

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Speaker 2: her that title to ensure she stays at Disney long term.

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Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, if you don't want to keep talented executives,

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Speaker 3: there's something wrong with you. You know, we had an

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Speaker 3: embarrassed and of riches we have. You know, as I said,

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Speaker 3: Jimmy Peto who's run a ESPN as a fabulous executive,

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Speaker 3: Alan Bergman, who's run around studios businesses at seven Studios,

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Speaker 3: has done unbelievable job. Dana obviously incredible executive of the

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Speaker 3: long history in Hollywood, in the industry, and Josh.

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Speaker 1: We wanted to keep all of them, and I believe

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Speaker 1: we will.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think this is a win win for everybody,

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Speaker 3: and I'm just I couldn't be more excited about it.

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Speaker 3: So yeah, absolutely, if you have talent, you want to

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Speaker 3: keep them. Finding talent, developing talent is really hard. So

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Speaker 3: when you got it, you do what you can to

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Speaker 3: retain it.

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Speaker 2: Well, mister Gormant, it seemed like a four way playoff,

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Speaker 2: right of internal candidates in that vein. How concerned or

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Speaker 2: otherwise were you about keeping Jimmy Pittarro and Alan Bergman

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Speaker 2: at Disney long term two?

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Speaker 1: Well, it was more than four ways.

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Speaker 3: We really approached this and when I say we the board,

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Speaker 3: we had a succession Planning Committee, and I was honored

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Speaker 3: to serve with Calvin McDonald, so Jeremy Daryl and Mary Barrow,

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Speaker 3: who were the succession Planning Committee. Then we quickly moved

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Speaker 3: to full board engagement, and each of the other directors

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Speaker 3: played a meaningful role in this, and I couldn't be

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Speaker 3: more grateful.

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Speaker 1: For what they did.

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Speaker 3: But you know, we decided early on we wanted to

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Speaker 3: look at all comers. We had a list, my goodness,

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Speaker 3: it must have been over one hundred people initially that

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Speaker 3: we thought about. We considered, we evaluated. We ended up

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Speaker 3: talking to several executives outside the company because I wanted

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Speaker 3: to be sure.

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Speaker 1: We all wanted to be sure that.

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Speaker 3: Whoever got this job got it on their merits, they

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Speaker 3: had beaten anything that was presented from the marketplace, and

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Speaker 3: we had the best possible candidate. So that included external,

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Speaker 3: and included internal, and included the four that you talked about,

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Speaker 3: and I think all of them are very important to

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Speaker 3: this company and we're honored to have them in critical.

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Speaker 1: Roles, mister Gorman.

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Speaker 2: In May of twenty nineteen, I was sat opposite Bob

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Speaker 2: Chapek at the opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, right

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Speaker 2: and at that time the parks. By February of the

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Speaker 2: following year, he was CEO and it was all about IP,

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Speaker 2: his ability to take the growth in parks, the IP

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Speaker 2: in parks, grow it out. Star Wars is a good

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Speaker 2: case study. But to many, you know, and maybe investors

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Speaker 2: had a viewpoint on this, on a co CEO structure

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Speaker 2: or somebody coming from Parks to lead the wider business.

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Speaker 2: Josh Damara has a very similar background to mister Jpek.

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Speaker 2: How closely did you look at that those parallels in

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Speaker 2: that scenario.

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Speaker 3: Not especially we look at the individual. We don't look

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Speaker 3: at you know, just bios whatever. I mean, You've got

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Speaker 3: to look at what the individual has done. Josh is

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Speaker 3: incredibly innovative what he's done in the imagineering space for

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Speaker 3: those creative teams, building the IP into the parks, end

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Speaker 3: of the cruisers. I mean, this is this is not

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Speaker 3: an operations job. This is an operations and a creative job.

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Speaker 3: It's telling stories that create incredible experience for everybody who

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Speaker 3: goes through those gates or gets on one of the ships.

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Speaker 3: And he is incredibly capable of doing that. So I've

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Speaker 3: always said what you look for in CEOs is not

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Speaker 3: just what they've done that's important, but it's.

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Speaker 1: What they're capable of doing.

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Speaker 3: You know, I tell the story I ran Morgan Standing

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Speaker 3: for fourteen years. I'd never been a trader, I'd never

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Speaker 3: been a banker. You know, you take people for what

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Speaker 3: they can do, building on some of the things they've

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Speaker 3: learned in the process. And I you know, I look

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Speaker 3: at Josh as an individual, not as a comparison, and

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Speaker 3: I think he'll be a fabulous CEO.

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Speaker 1: He has all of the skills to lead Disney for

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Speaker 1: the next ten years.

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Speaker 2: Mister Gorman, you were brought in as chairman in part

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Speaker 2: to oversee this succession process. It's now over. You've reflected

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Speaker 2: on your time at Morgan Stanley. What's next for you?

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Speaker 2: Do you expect to remain longer term with Disney or

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Speaker 2: are you looking at perhaps a move back into the

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Speaker 2: financial industry or something.

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Speaker 1: Else suggesting I retire it.

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Speaker 2: Not at all so, but there is a great deal

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Speaker 2: of interest in what you will do. Maybe you'll let

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Speaker 2: us know.

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Speaker 1: Let us no, I'm not.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I work with General Landing, which is an

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Speaker 3: amazing firm in the financial space, but I'm not interested

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Speaker 3: in going back into the world the pure world of finance.

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Speaker 3: I want to help the Walt Disney Company and help

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Speaker 3: Josh and the new leadership team and work with Bob

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Speaker 3: on this transition, and help the board in making sure

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Speaker 3: we deliver what we can.

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Speaker 1: This company's trading fifteen times earnings. That's nuts.

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Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, there are very few companies that have

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Speaker 3: this quality of assets, this quality of bones, as I

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Speaker 3: call it, that what we have. There are tremendous motes

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Speaker 3: around the businesses. I'm excited about the prospect of what

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Speaker 3: we can see from Disney over the next several years.

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Speaker 3: So no, I'm very much saying put thank.

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Speaker 2: You James Gorman, chairman of the Walt Disney Company that

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Speaker 2: today has announced Josh Tomorrow as the next CEO, succeeding

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Speaker 2: Bob Iger in March.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much much, Thanks so much,