Bob Iger Calls Chapek’s Promotion One of His ‘Worst Business Decisions’

Ever since Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger left Disney in February 2020 and his co-worker Bob Chapek became Disney’s new CEO, Disney fans have become more and more disgruntled — so much so that a petition against Chapek’s leadership is still going strong with over 115,000 thousand digital signatures. Bob Iger recently spoke to Business Insider about what actually happened during the shift from one CEO to the other, and the former Disney executive made his dissatisfaction clear.

Journalist Claire Atkinson, who apparently worked on this particular story for months, specifically called the CEO handover (in which former Disney CEO Bob Iger stepped down and current Disney CEO Bob Chapek took his place as the leader of the Walt Disney Company) a “messy” process.

EXCLUSIVE: The Inside story of the messy CEO transition at Disney, battles with the board over who was in charge (and a surprise call from Paul McCartney.) $DIS https://t.co/sIne7qbEAC via @businessinsider

— Claire Atkinson ??????? (@claireatki) July 14, 2022

Bob Iger seems to provide further evidence that the change in leadership was indeed “messy” in the Business Insider interview, when he reportedly called his exit as CEO and Bob Chapek’s entrance as CEO “one of his worst business decisions“.

I spent months reporting out this story. Many surprising revelations…@RobertIger would not have stepped down in February 2020 had he known COVID would create the biggest crisis in Disney history just months later. $DIS

— Claire Atkinson ??????? (@claireatki) July 14, 2022

There are “many surprising revelations” in the interview, according to Claire Atkinson, but one of the biggest revelations seems to be that (according to the journalist) Robert Iger “would not have stepped down in February 2020 had he known COVID would create the biggest crisis in Disney history just months later”.

This statement seems to imply that Bob Iger’s declaration about his bad business decision is one that refers to his stepping down right before a pandemic, not necessarily the promotion of Bob Chapek. The former CEO did stick around the Walt Disney Company during the pandemic to some degree, wanting to help and reportedly only irritating the new CEO Bob Chapek in the process.

Iger might have stepped on Chapek’s toes in the throes of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the former CEO remained fairly positive when it came to Chapek in the interview.  “He’s still figuring it out,” the former Disney exec said, adding that Chapek will be all right because “he’s got plenty of money [and] he’s got great skills. I expect him to do great things. I don’t think he has to be in a rush.”

Bob Iger might not think that CEO Bob Chapek needs to be in a rush to bring the Walt Disney Company back from some difficult times, but the frustrated Disney Guests and Disney stockholders who have been openly criticizing Chapek’s leadership might disagree! Where do you stand on CEO Bob Chapek and the current state of the Walt Disney Company — and whose leadership did you prefer: that of former CEO Michael Eisner, former CEO Bob Iger, or current CEO Bob Chapek?