Managing Director Susan Sandlund, PhD, was quoted in the Feb. 7, 2026, Fortune article, “You’ve Vanquished Your Rival in a CEO Succession Race. Now, How Do You Lead Them?”, excerpted below.
“She’s on the creative side, whereas D’Amaro is more on the financial and parks side,” says Susan Sandlund, a managing director at Pearl Meyer who leads the firm’s leadership consulting practice. Walden “brings value in a whole different way than D’Amaro does,” she says. “In combination, it’s a pretty powerful team.”
It could be argued that Disney’s new double-barreled leadership arrangement, which draws on the executives’ strengths, is akin to a co-CEO structure but better, Sandlund says. “You have one reporting to the other,” she says. “The minute you have equal CEOs, you are begging for ambiguity and potential conflict.”
The full Fortune article is available to subscribers.