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.
Disney this week announced Josh D’Amaro, its parks chief, as the winner of its very public race to be its next CEO; he’ll take over for outgoing chief executive Bob Iger in March. But along with the glory of the CEO crown and the monumental task of running the complex entertainment giant, D’Amaro faces a tricky personnel challenge: becoming the boss of his former peer. Dana Walden, Disney’s TV and entertainment chief, was reportedly a fellow CEO contender he beat out for the job.
The Fortune 500 is littered with examples of wanna-be CEOs who left their companies after being passed over for the top job.
... But in Disney’s case, Walden seems likely to stick around, at least for a while. In announcing D’Amaro as CEO, Disney also promoted Walden, a respected Hollywood insider, to president and chief creative officer. She’s the first to hold that title in the company’s 102-year history, and it gives her oversight of all of Disney’s movies and streaming series. Along with praising Walden’s creative and storytelling bonafides, the Disney press release notes that she “will report directly to D’Amaro,” the guy who beat her out for the CEO job.
And there’s the rub. Even for the most self-assured executives, that dynamic could prove awkward. The CEO runner-up has to nurse a dented ego while answering to the succession race’s ultimate winner. The incoming CEO, meanwhile, has to manage a team that includes someone who wanted their job.
On paper, at least, Disney has set up D’Amaro and Walden to navigate the many pitfalls such a scenario poses by giving the new CEO and chief creative officer roles that are distinct and complementary.
“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.