To Infinity and Beyond | Farient Briefings
February 12, 2026
To Infinity and Beyond
Leadership transitions at The Walt Disney Co. tend to be as consequential as they are closely scrutinized, and Bob Iger’s impending retirement is no exception.
Next month, after two decades defining the company’s strategic direction—and a brief return to stabilize operations after a failed succession—Iger will hand the reins to Josh D’Amaro, a longtime Disney insider whose rise reflects a deliberate reset of the storied company’s leadership pipeline and shows how its board is thinking about continuity, incentives, and long‑term value creation.
Notably, the transition is not accompanied by the kind of headline‑grabbing compensation packages that have characterized recent CEO appointments elsewhere in corporate America.
Disney’s approach to executive pay is comparatively restrained, emphasizing performance‑based incentives, equity alignment and succession planning over outsized guarantees. The structure suggests a board focused less on rewarding legacy or signaling disruption, and more on maintaining operational discipline during a period of strategic execution.
The Board Mindset on the Return of a CEO
Boards reinstall former CEOs when succession fails and time runs out. The decision is tactical, not aspirational. A “boomerang” CEO in the short term offers immediate familiarity, investor reassurance, and reduced execution risk. There is no learning curve and no credibility gap. That is the upside.
The downside is structural. Evidence shows second‑tenure CEOs, on average, underperform peers and rarely recreate first‑term results.
The appointment often reflects weaknesses the board would prefer not to surface—thin internal pipelines, optimistic succession assumptions, or an overreliance on a single legacy leader.
As a result, most boomerang appointments function best as containment strategies, not turnarounds: Such a tactic does not, by itself, resolve the underlying failure that made the return necessary.
The leadership transition now underway at Disney will surely offer a world-class case study on how a board righted its wrongs.
Read moreICYMI
Global CEO Pay: U.S. Leads, Tech Titans Surge, Performance Equity Prevails
How much do CEOs really earn—and why? A GECN Group preliminary report reveals that U.S. chief executives continue to command the highest pay globally, while also delivering outsized shareholder returns.
Dive into fresh insights on how CEO compensation is advancing, or not, around the world, by sector, and incentive structures. Discover what’s driving global pay trends, why performance-based equity rules, and what boards must consider amid greater global competition for executive talent.
Read the report on the Harvard Law School Corporate Governance blog or download a full PDF below.
Download PDF
Where to Find Us
Leading Minds of Governance
Farient Partner R.J. Bannister joins Directors Kelly Barrett and Anil Cheriyan, and Control Risks’ Partner Matthew Hinton, to provide expert insights at this signature NACD event. Digital oversight, emerging risks in board governance, and the alignment of compensation strategies with organizational goals are among the timely topics to be covered.
Atlanta
March 11, 2026
10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. ET
For more information about this event, please contact info@farient.com.
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About Farient Advisors
Farient Advisors LLC, a GECN Group company, is an independent premier executive compensation, performance, and corporate governance consultancy. Farient provides a full array of services linking business and talent strategy to compensation through a tailored, analytically rigorous, and collaborative approach. Farient has locations in Los Angeles, Newport Beach, New York, Louisville, and London and works with clients globally through its partnership in the Global Governance and Executive Compensation (GECN) Group. Farient is a certified diverse company and is recognized by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council.
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