Incoming Disney President Dana Walden Sets Leadership Team for Expanded Disney Entertainment Segment

Dana Walden, incoming president and chief creative officer of The Walt Disney Company, has announced a new leadership structure for Disney Entertainment.

What's Happening:

• The restructuring brings together the company’s streaming, film, and television businesses under one unified division.
• Disney’s growing games and digital entertainment operations will also be included in the new structure.
• The move reflects how consumers increasingly engage with Disney storytelling and characters across multiple platforms.
• Fans now experience Disney content through services like Disney+, in movie theaters, and through digital games.
• The unified approach aims to better deliver Disney’s entertainment and franchises to audiences wherever and however they choose to watch or play.
• These changes come as Walden prepares to take on her new role alongside Josh D'Amaro as CEO, beginning this Wednesday, March 18.

Walden’s new senior leadership team is as follows:

• Alan Bergman, chairman of Disney Entertainment, Studios, will continue overseeing all aspects of the company’s world-class film studios including production, marketing and distribution, and maintaining shared oversight of Direct to Consumer alongside Walden.
• Joe Earley and Adam Smith will become co-presidents of Direct to Consumer, sharing responsibility for strategy and financial performance across Disney+ and Hulu, reporting to Walden and Bergman. Earley will also serve as head of content strategy for Direct to Consumer, while Smith continues as chief product and technology officer for Disney Entertainment, and for ESPN, where he will continue to report to ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
• Debra OConnell will assume the newly created role of chairman of Disney Entertainment Television, overseeing the television brands, including ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Hulu Originals, National Geographic Content and creative for 20th Television and 20th Television Animation. She will also continue to oversee ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations.
  • Oconnell's direct reports include Craig Erwich, Ayo Davis, Courteney Monroe, Rita Ferro and Jimmy Zasowski.
  • Erwich has added oversight of 20th Television and 20th Television Animation.
• Sean Shoptaw, EVP, Games and Digital Entertainment, along with his organization, will now join Disney Entertainment, reporting to Walden. Shoptaw oversees the company’s Games business and its collaboration with Epic Games, developing a Disney universe connected to Fortnite, and brings deep insight into the central role that games play in today’s entertainment landscape. By combining the power of its creative engines and games, Disney can bring immersive new ways to tell stories to audiences across platforms in even more engaging ways.
• John Landgraf, Chairman of FX, will continue to report directly to Walden.
• Asad Ayaz, Disney’s Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, leads teams across the company’s business segments. Ayaz will report to incoming Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and Walden.