Dana Walden might defy critics and make historical past

In 1994, a captain of the media and leisure business noticed one thing in Dana Walden that made him assume she was able to a much bigger function.

Thirty years later, that will occur once more.

That first time, the manager was Peter Chernin, then president of twentieth Century Fox Filmed Leisure and later president and chief working officer of Rupert Murdoch’s Information Corp. Chernin plucked Walden from Fox’s company communications division and gave her a job in TV.

In 2024, the manager is Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, and the place he is contemplating Walden for is that of his successor, in response to folks acquainted with the method. The appointment would make Walden the primary feminine CEO of the Walt Disney Co. in its 100-year historical past.

Only a 12 months into her early profession at twentieth Century Fox, working in publicity, Walden delivered a presentation at an organization retreat in Santa Barbara, California. She was decided to depart a long-lasting impression on Chernin, now chairman and CEO of funding agency The Chernin Group, after a number of encounters by which he’d by no means remembered her.

To get his consideration, Walden determined to be daring. She advised Fox executives, together with Chernin, that they weren’t being aggressive sufficient to safe high expertise. Fox wanted to take larger swings to generate relationships and land exhibits that would make it to syndication, Walden argued. A spokesperson for Walden confirmed the small print of the presentation.

When the retreat ended, Chernin referred to as Peter Roth, then president of twentieth Century Fox Tv, who later ran Warner Bros.’ TV division.

“The subsequent day she was in my workplace, and we gave her a job in programming,” Roth stated in an interview.

That set Walden on a profession course correction that is led her to the doorstep of turning into Iger’s successor.

Walden, co-chair of Disney Leisure, is competing internally with Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro, and Alan Bergman, who’s Leisure co-chair with Walden, to be named the subsequent CEO of Disney, stated the folks acquainted, who requested to not be named as a result of the discussions are non-public.

Iger plans to call a successor after which stick round at Disney to show that individual the job earlier than departing on the finish of 2026, CNBC reported in September. He is preventing to take care of management of Disney’s future towards a risk from Trian Companions’ Nelson Peltz.

Peltz has argued he ought to assist spearhead a successor search, contemplating Iger has pushed again his retirement 5 occasions and returned to the job after Bob Chapek, named CEO in 2020, was fired in 2022. Peltz has claimed the Disney board cannot be trusted to deal with succession. Disney shareholders will vote on Peltz’s candidacy to the board at its annual assembly Wednesday.

A number of executives at Disney privately advised CNBC they imagine Walden, 59, is the favourite to land the highest job, although they don’t have any inside information of the method, and their proximity to Walden might skew their notion. Her relationship with Iger (she lives simply blocks from his home in Brentwood, California), her observe report of success as a TV govt, her belief amongst Disney board members, and the symbolism about what it could imply to have a feminine govt all work in her favor.

“She’s the one finest expertise exec to come back out of TV within the final 20 years,” Chernin stated in an interview.

“She could be an impressive CEO,” Roth added. “Completely excellent.”

Walden declined to remark for this story. Greater than 20 colleagues and buddies spoke with CNBC about her strengths, faults and the perceived probability she is going to take over for Iger.

Allies of Walden’s advised CNBC she will not even focus on succession with them (although many stated they tease her about it), selecting to deal with the job of working Disney Leisure with Bergman that she’s tasked with right this moment.

She faces stiff competitors within the different Disney division heads. Walden has spent the final three many years targeted on producing TV hits. She hasn’t had the identical vary of obligations as Pitaro, who has run the corporate’s sports activities media empire since 2018. And he or she has no expertise working parks and resorts, which Iger and the board might resolve is extra important to Disney’s future than a TV enterprise with hazy monetary prospects within the streaming period.

Six former colleagues — all of whom labored intently with Walden — privately questioned her enterprise acumen in interviews with CNBC.

“There are folks which can be in inventive positions that rise to a degree of administration who determine what a P&L [profit and loss] assertion is, what a stability sheet is, what quarterly earnings are,” stated one of many folks, who requested to stay nameless to talk candidly. “Dana would not actually hassle with any of that.”

A second former coworker stated Walden’s profile merely would not translate to turning into the Disney CEO — a job that includes shut investor interplay, geopolitical offers for parks and resorts, and strategic pondering round acquisition and funding.

“She’ll be eaten up by actual buyers,” stated the individual, who likewise requested anonymity. “Does she have the mandatory depth of enterprise information? She will be taught, however you possibly can’t have somebody educate you many years of finance, enterprise and ways in a 12 months or two.”

Walden supporters dismissed these considerations as both merely incorrect or an instance of persistent stereotypes towards feminine executives. Walden has met with many institutional buyers by her years at Disney, in response to folks acquainted with the matter.

“There’s one thing about feminine execs the place questions are requested that might by no means be requested of males,” stated Jennifer Salke, the pinnacle of Amazon Studios and a former colleague of Walden’s. “Can they scale? Can a inventive individual be a enterprise chief? I discover that to be an enormous bugaboo. She’s in control of billions of {dollars} of property, however she’s not able to being a enterprise chief?”

Walden defenders brush off criticism from ex-Disney colleagues because the remnants of a grudge towards Fox workers who came visiting as a part of Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of Fox’s leisure property in 2019, or maybe as a part of an ulterior motive to decrease her CEO prospects in favor of their very own most well-liked candidates.

“Sooner or later, everybody working something was one thing earlier than that,” Chernin stated. “Anyone they select can have by no means been the Disney CEO previous to that.”

Chernin and Walden each started their careers in public relations, making them two of a small membership of TV executives who began that method — former HBO head Richard Plepler is one other exception. Chernin noticed Walden’s background as a energy, quite than a weak spot.

“She is aware of nothing is extra essential to a studio than expertise relationships,” stated Craig Hunegs, who labored intently with Walden when he was president of Disney TV Studios from 2019 to 2021.

Walden’s whole life has ties to Hollywood. She grew up modestly in Studio Metropolis, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, and attended the non-public Westlake College for Women (a predecessor of the student Harvard-Westlake College), the place she grew to become pleasant with Carol Burnett’s daughter Carrie Hamilton.

Walden’s mother and father made connections within the leisure business from their time dwelling in Las Vegas, the place her mom was a background dancer who carried out with George Burns, amongst different artists. Her father grew to become a member of The Friars Membership, well-known for its Dean Martin superstar roasts, and established friendships with entertainers together with Martin and Buddy Hackett. Walden spent her childhood years with celebrities as household buddies, attending dinner events and infrequently celebrating holidays at their properties. She went on to marry a member of the leisure business, producer Matt Walden, in 1995; they’ve two daughters, now of their 20s.

After graduating from the College of Southern California, Walden took a job working for public relations agency Bender, Goldman & Helper, beginning out as a receptionist and an assistant. Inside 4 years, she’d change into a vice chairman.

At Bender, she represented “The Arsenio Corridor Present” on behalf of her consumer Paramount. The present poached Walden to come back work as head of selling for Corridor’s manufacturing firm. Lower than a 12 months later, Lucie Sulhany, president of Paramount Home Tv, took a job as a high-ranking Fox TV govt. She requested Walden to come back alongside and work in publicity, and Walden joined her with an eye fixed towards finally making TV exhibits.

At Fox, Walden and fellow TV govt Gary Newman collectively started working the studio enterprise — the engine of the corporate that makes sequence each for itself and different networks. Beginning in 1999, they saved that place for the subsequent 15 years till they had been promoted to run all of Fox Broadcasting in 2014.

A former legal professional, Newman started his partnership with Walden dealing with lots of the enterprise points, whereas Walden developed a fame for profitable over inventive expertise and having impeccable style for each dramas and comedies.

“Folks used to joke we had been work spouses,” Newman stated in an interview. “She was excellent on the job in a short time. It is only a mixture of being sensible, being actually quick, being curious, being fearless.”

Over time, Walden mastered the enterprise aspect of TV, in response to Newman and others who’ve labored together with her.

“The distinction between Dana to start with of our partnership, when she leaned on her inventive background, and the place she was a number of years later was night time and day,” Newman stated. “She picked up what she wanted to select up about enterprise. I had a surgical procedure at one level — the duty fell on Dana to be in there for me. That included being in control of the enterprise aspect of issues.”

Newman recounted one troublesome negotiation over a Fox-produced present with CBS. It was the day earlier than CBS would announce its fall schedule, and it wasn’t clear if the printed community would choose up the sequence. CBS gave Newman and Walden a midnight deadline to revise a deal on its phrases or it could cancel the present. Walden advised Newman that CBS was bluffing, realizing the present was the linchpin for different programming that day. She persuaded Fox to easily ignore the deadline. The subsequent day, CBS included the sequence, proving Walden proper.

“I do not know if she performs poker, however she’d be an awesome poker participant,” Newman stated.

Fox’s studio started churning out hits, together with “24,” “Homeland,” “How I Met Your Mom,” “The Massive Bang Principle,” “Two and a Half Males,” “Fashionable Household,” “That is Us,” “New Lady,” “Bob’s Burgers,” and mini-empires created by Seth MacFarlane (“Household Man,” “American Dad,” “The Cleveland Present”) and Ryan Murphy (“Nip/Tuck,” “Glee,” “American Horror Story,” “9-1-1”).

Walden started making lasting relationships with TV showrunners and producers who’ve repeatedly labored together with her, together with MacFarlane, Murphy, “Fashionable Household” co-creator Steve Levitan and “That is Us” creator Dan Fogelman. She earned a fame for her inventive notes on scripts, notably on shaping “24,” an unusually constructed drama that ran from 2001 to 2014 and earned vital reward for its storytelling strategies, in response to Rick Rosen, a companion and head of TV of the expertise company WME .

“Folks felt her notes and constructive criticisms helped transfer that present ahead,” recounted Rosen, who represented Howard Gordon, at one time the “24” showrunner. “She helped get it unstuck.”

Walden’s style, her self-discipline round getting expertise to ship on price range, and her honesty about what’s working and what is not have set her aside from different executives, in response to Levitan.

“Hollywood is a enterprise of relationships,” Levitan stated. “What you possibly can’t educate anyone is easy methods to encourage folks. She is whip sensible. If there’s a topic that she must take a deep dive on, she’s going to be an skilled in that topic earlier than it.”

Disney’s acquisition of Fox moved Walden to a brand new firm with a brand new tradition. Iger referred to as Walden on the day of the deal’s announcement in December 2017 to let her know he wished her to come back to Disney, in response to folks acquainted with the matter. Newman deliberate to remain at Fox; he in the end exited the corporate in 2018.

Walden hoped she’d run Disney’s TV unit as a direct report back to Iger, in response to folks acquainted with her pondering on the time. However Iger wished Peter Rice, Walden’s boss at Fox, for the highest job. Handed over, Walden thought of strolling away from each Disney and the studio she helped construct for different alternatives, the folks stated.

Nonetheless, she had a powerful relationship with Rice, who in the end persuaded her to remain regardless of her disappointment. Walden finally took Rice’s job when Disney fired him in 2022 after Chapek and a few members of the Disney board concluded he wasn’t a staff participant, particularly noting that he’d privately criticized the corporate’s messaging round Florida’s controversial “Do not Say Homosexual” laws, in response to folks acquainted with the matter. Chapek advised Rice he wasn’t a tradition match regardless of years of Rice receiving constructive suggestions, the folks stated. A Disney spokesman and Rice declined to remark.

“The conversations round promoting a sequence — licensing charges, revenue participation, residuals — or discussions about budgets, and what number of visitor stars we will signal, or which platform a sequence ought to air on … all of that I’ve completed immediately with Dana,” stated Wealthy Appel, the manager producer and co-showrunner of “Household Man.” “No disrespect to Gary [Newman], however for the previous few years, it is solely been Dana.”

At Disney, Walden has hit a number of dwelling runs, together with FX’s “The Bear,” Hulu’s “The Dropout” and “Solely Murderers within the Constructing,” and ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.” She has closely invested in advertising and marketing youngsters’s present “Bluey,” which in 2024 has frolicked because the most-watched present on all streaming providers. She has additionally targeted on increase Disney+’s household programming with originals together with “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” “Spidey and His Wonderful Buddies” and “Goosebumps.”

Nonetheless, critics say it is easy to cherry-pick the successes and ignore the failures. One Disney insider stated that grading Walden’s efficiency actually would require a sturdy evaluation of all of the exhibits she’s greenlit.

The final time Iger selected a successor, it did not go properly. As outlined by CNBC in 2023, the connection between Chapek and Iger, who remained Disney’s govt chairman till the top of 2021, fell aside, and the Disney board in the end fired Chapek and introduced Iger again lower than three years later.

Iger returned as CEO partially to proper the incorrect he believed he made by deciding on Chapek as his successor, in response to folks acquainted with his pondering. If he is searching for the anti-Chapek candidate, Walden suits the outline.

Chapek climbed the company ladder at Disney for 30 years by showcasing his enterprise and finance chops. He studied microbiology at Indiana College and received his MBA from Michigan State College. He developed experience within the minute particulars of Disney’s parks and resorts, similar to how particular lodge reductions might have an effect on park attendance and the worth elasticity of seasonal ticket charge changes.

However he had virtually no Hollywood relationships. And not using a basis of belief, “The City,” as Hollywood is understood, turned on Chapek. Brokers, producers and showrunners blamed him for Disney’s forceful public rebuke of A-list star Scarlett Johansson in a Covid pandemic-related contract dispute and for bungling the corporate’s response to “Do not Say Homosexual,” as CNBC reported in 2023.

Walden’s resume units her up as Chapek’s inverse: a Disney outsider whose Hollywood ties are among the many finest within the business. Within the latter months of Chapek’s tenure as CEO, as CNBC reported, Disney communications head Kristina Schake started establishing conferences for Chapek with Hollywood’s energy gamers — at Walden’s home.

A possible handover from Iger to Walden would additionally look very completely different from the Iger-Chapek transition, predicted United Expertise Company Vice Chairman Jay Sures, an in depth good friend of Walden’s. Chapek noticed Iger as a risk to his energy, in response to folks acquainted with his pondering on the time. Walden would keep near Iger for so long as potential, Sures stated.

“When Bob Chapek received the job, he could not look forward to Bob Iger to depart. If Dana ever received the job, she’s gonna dread the day Bob Iger leaves,” Sures stated. “She values the talent and management he brings. She is aware of factor when she sees it.”

If Walden had been appointed CEO, she could be the primary lady to run the century-old firm. Some near Iger say he would look fondly on being the individual to assist break the glass ceiling.

Amazon’s Salke stated she’s had a number of discussions through the years with Walden about easy methods to survive within the male-dominated leisure world. It requires a deftness of character and talent to keep away from enemies, stated Salke.

“I watched ‘Barbie,'” stated Salke, referencing the Greta Gerwig-created hit 2023 film that skewers parts of contemporary patriarchy. “That speech from America Ferrera’s character [Gloria], it is true. You must be likable however not too likable. For those who’re too likable, that is seen as threatening to males.”

Whereas Walden has crossed a bridge to change into shut buddies with numerous her skilled colleagues (she’s the godmother of Murphy’s youngsters), she is attuned to her picture in methods male executives haven’t got to fret about, in response to folks acquainted with her character.

Even when the eye is nonthreatening, Walden is conscious that her look could also be judged as readily as her enterprise efficiency, the folks stated.

“After I first met her, the writers would see Dana stroll by occasionally, and we used to name her ‘Why Miss Jones,'” Levitan stated. “As a result of she’d put on these glasses. So it was like in outdated Hollywood films, when an actress would take off her glasses and one of many characters would say, ‘Why, Miss Jones! You are lovely!'”

Levitan later grew to become shut buddies with Walden and praised her professionalism. Of word, he cited final 12 months’s cancellation of “Reboot,” a present he created for Hulu.

“I do not agree with the choice that was made there, and I do not agree that it received a good shake,” Levitan stated. “However Dana and I talked about it. She took me by her causes. And it is a real dialog. There is a cause persons are fairly effusive about the best way Dana handles herself. It is as a result of she genuinely goes out of her technique to deal with folks with decency.”

Walden and her staff have a fame for sending birthday presents to Hollywood’s movers and shakers and bottles of champagne to them when their exhibits premiere. Supporters view it as relationship-building. Critics stated her actions generally border on company largesse.

Walden herself has joked that she was “raised by wolves” at Fox, and that she’s needed to consciously modify to the extra toned-down Disney tradition over the past 5 years, in response to folks acquainted with her pondering.

She’s additionally needed to toe a line between stereotype and profitable govt. Of the 20 folks interviewed for this story, practically each one in every of them referred to as Walden “direct” and “demanding.”

“Sharp elbows, proper?” Salke stated, anticipating the hackneyed criticism of feminine leaders. “So many occasions Dana and I’ve been the one ladies within the room. Can she be demanding and maintain folks to a excessive bar? Sure. However males come on in, and the very first thing they do is hearth folks, and nobody bats an eye fixed.”

Walden’s champions famous that each profitable govt is demanding of excellence, and stated her directness is a significant energy that separates her from many different TV executives.

“She will be ‘enterprise’ powerful,” stated WME’s Rosen. “No one likes to ship dangerous information. A present is canceled, or it is over price range, or this challenge did not work. However she’s not harsh. You are feeling like she’s coming from a spot of optimism — let’s determine the place we go from right here.”

Whereas the Disney board can have the final word say on the corporate’s subsequent CEO, Iger will probably be the true decision-maker, given his historical past on the firm, standing amongst board members, and information of the job.

“The significance of the succession course of can’t be overstated, and because the Board continues to guage a extremely certified slate of inner and exterior candidates, I stay intensely targeted on a profitable transition,” Iger stated in an announcement in 2023 when he renewed his contract as CEO to the top of 2026.

Even when Iger agrees with a few of Walden’s critics about whether or not her strengths will particularly match the highest job at Disney, it is potential his recollection of his personal expertise being chosen as CEO in 2005 might affect his determination. 

“Return and have a look at the articles that had been written about Bob Iger,” Sures stated. “I used to be buddies with Bob then. It was a number of ’empty swimsuit’ — a handsome, tall man who by no means had any expertise within the film enterprise and by no means did something in M&A [mergers and acquisitions] earlier than in his life. Nineteen years later, he is one of many biggest, if not the best CEO the leisure enterprise has ever seen.”

“The identical issues are being stated about Dana now,” Sures stated.

Iger and the board’s choice for a successor might in the end come right down to the course they envision for Disney.

D’Amaro could possibly be the selection in the event that they resolve the parks are a very powerful a part of the corporate’s future. Pitaro appears logical if ESPN and its upcoming digital transformation are seen as a necessary a part of Disney’s future, versus its previous. Both Walden or Bergman could possibly be the selection if inventive style and relationships trump all, although Bergman’s current troubles with Disney’s movie division could also be a knock towards them.

Nonetheless, Chernin stated it is a mistake to view Disney so merely. The magic of the corporate is how all of the elements work together with one another, quite than emphasizing one unit over all others, he stated.

“The enterprise is altering so quickly. That firm goes to alter a lot,” Chernin stated. “Somebody goes to must think about what a media firm of the longer term appears to be like like. Bob [Iger] goes by that proper now. He is actively spending each day pondering that by. An important a part of that firm is ongoing relationships with clients.”

WATCH: Disney board member James Gorman talks succession, upcoming annual assembly vote