Bob Chapek comments publicly about his time as CEO of Disney

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Bob Chapek

Posted: Wednesday September 6, 2023 10:52am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In one of the most in-depth retellings of the turmoil surrounding the CEO role at Disney, CNBC shares in great detail the events that led to the firing of Bob Chapek, and the return of Bob Iger as Disney's CEO.

Bob Iger (left), Bob Chapek (right)

The inside story is based on conversations with more than two dozen people who worked closely with Iger and Chapek between 2020 and 2022.

Most of the key players declined to comment on the report, but Chapek did add to the account via a brief comment made by a spokesperson.

"Bob is proud of the work he did in the course of his 30-year career at Disney, particularly during his nearly three-year run as CEO, steering the company through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, and setting the course for business transformation as he and his team took the disruptive yet necessary steps for business revitalization and long-term growth."

Bob Chapek

The CNBC story by Alex Sherman also suggests that in Chapek's final weeks as CEO, board members had set up discussions with Disney division heads, including Parks boss Josh D'Amaro, who all told board members that they no longer supported Chapek as CEO.

Read the full story "Disney's wildest ride: Iger, Chapek and the making of an epic succession mess" at CNBC.

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Andrew CFeb 05, 2026

A nice feel-good letter.

Andrew CFeb 05, 2026

US recession odds have fallen over the last 4 months. And are way off April's high.

DCBakerFeb 05, 2026

A note from Bob Iger to D23 Members:

Disney IrishFeb 03, 2026

To add to that, if it was really about all that he would be leaving immediately and not next month, and then wouldn't be sticking around in an advisory role for the next 10 months.

DranthFeb 03, 2026

The only mention in those files according to the summary on google was from a disgruntled investor who, in exchange for "information", wanted a favor from the DoJ involving going after Disney to settle a grudge (100% wild guess, but I am going with Peltz or Perlmutter). Other than that, nothing. Who knows though, there certainly are a lot of people who protested and denied a good bit that turned out to be full of it and even more that few would have pegged as being in there directly and yet they were. Anyway, just my guess, but I think a big part of this is him looking at the politics you have to play as a business to avoid a target on your back and just didn't want to deal with it. Combine that with the increasing risk of a recession, and he likely thought it was just a good time to get out.

djkidkazFeb 03, 2026

I think Josh will be great for the parks. He definitely has some level of knowing what the theme park fan community wants. It’s not coincidence that we are getting a villain’s land and a monsters inc door coaster which had been talked about for like 20 years.

wannabeBelleFeb 03, 2026

Quite possibly. The basically jist of the discussion was that Bob knows something is up and he wants out like NOW. Marie

LSLSFeb 03, 2026

Eh, disagree there. He retired like that day out of the blue when all that stuff was hitting. If we are going into reasons outside of just wanting to be done, I do think the idea that the summer is not looking good makes a lot of sense. Or real conspiracy, could be this quarter is looking really bad and he wants out before those numbers hit.

Tom P.Feb 03, 2026

So Bob knows we're about to have another pandemic?

wannabeBelleFeb 03, 2026

I was watching a podcast that was speculating as to why the rush for Bob to leave now. One thought was that there is something in some files that were recently released that may have been not so favorable to Bob and the company would prefer he was gone. The other thought was that this has happened before when Covid hit and closed down everything. Bob had retired about a month or so before and the podcaster was saying this feels very similar. The two could be linked as well. We shall see....... Marie

MR.DisFeb 03, 2026

If I was to guess, Disney BOD wanted him to stay to steady nerves on Wall Street to keep the stock price from full free fall.

HMFFeb 03, 2026

That will likely be it's downfall.

el_superFeb 03, 2026

Nothing is going to change their desire to make money. People still want to retire someday and that requires turning a little sum of money into a larger sum of money.

Andrew CFeb 03, 2026

Was it normal the last time this played out for them? For optics sake, and to grow confidence in the ranks that Josh is the right person, he just needs to go.