According to CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Chapek and former CEO Bob Iger have fallen out and are no longer in close contact. The spat occurred around the time Iger stepped down as CEO of The Walt Disney Company.
Iger stepped down as CEO in 2020, just weeks before all Disney parks closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Iger named Bob Chapek as his successor. “I can’t imagine a better person to replace me in this position,” Iger said the day before Disney began closing its parks. “I’ve been watching Bob [Iger] led this company to amazing new heights and I have learned a lot from the experience,” Capek said.
New York Times columnist Ben Smith published the article about a month after contacting Bob Iger via email. Iger told Smith that he was not going to leave Czapek to deal with this new COVID-19 crisis on his own and would stay to help him run the company.
In his email, Iger said: “A crisis of this magnitude and its impact on Disney will definitely lead me to actively help Bob. [Chapek] and the company is struggling with it, especially since I have been running the company for 15 years!”
Čapek was reportedly furious when he saw the story and declared that he did not need help running the company. A person who witnessed Čapek’s reaction said, “It was a turning point.”
Since then, Aiger and Capek have been unable (or unwilling) to mend their relationship.
Image Source: CNBC
Aiger and Čapek have had many opportunities to work together, but the two executives barely talk to each other.
“Anyone who replaces Iger, who has been CEO of Disney since 2005, will have a hard time taking his place. Iger was generally loved in Hollywood and highly respected as a CEO, especially after orchestrating a series of intellectual property acquisitions—Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm—that are likely to go down in media history as the three smartest deals ever. Iger, 71, even tried to run for president of the United States.
Meanwhile, Čapek has a tougher exterior and at times, according to colleagues, struggles with emotional intelligence, which is Eiger’s forte.” — CNN BBC
An example of a lack of emotional intelligence is how Chapek handled the criticism the Walt Disney Company faced for funding backers of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Initially, Chapek sent out an email to members of the Disney Cast simply acknowledging the situation and received huge backlash for doing so. A couple of days later, he sent out an additional email apologizing for the lack of a response from the company, finally condemning the bill and promising to donate funds to LGBTQ+ rights.
Iger reportedly regrets how the change in management of The Walt Disney Company came about. But he is not interested in returning to the company. In an interview with the New York Times, Iger said, “I was a CEO for a long time. You can’t come home again. I’m gone.”
It will take some time for Disney fans and actors to trust Chapek with the ideas and goals he has set for the company. Every anonymous source interviewed for this article said that Čapek may not be an outgoing person, but he is “an experienced and driven operator”.
Chapek’s contract as CEO of The Walt Disney Company expires in February 2023.
Source: CNNBC.
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