Disney CEO Bob Iger scored a win on Wednesday when the company’s shareholders voted decisively to approve Iger’s slate of nominees for the Disney Board of Directors. An alternative slate of directors championed by Nelson Peltz was rejected, putting an end to the influence campaign by the activist investor.
Peltz and his supporters had mounted a very public effort to have shareholders appoint himself and a handful of like-minded execs to the board, giving a mandate for change in the company’s direction. However, the result of the vote was not as close as some had expected, with Peltz’s side receiving only 31% of the votes.
Many pointed to the controversy surrounding a recent interview Peltz gave to the Financial Times as one reason for a cold reception by shareholders. In the FT interview, Peltz criticized Disney for becoming “too woke,” claiming that it was a mistake to have an all-black cast for BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER and a mostly female cast for THE MARVELS. “Why do I have to have a Marvel [movie] that’s all women? Why can’t I have Marvels that are both? Why do I need an all-black cast?” Those comments soured some shareholders on Peltz and may have been fatal to his effort.
While Iger was able to emerge victorious from the vote, several of Peltz’s key complaints about Disney had some support. One such item was Peltz’s rant about Disney having bungled its succession plan when Iger turned Disney’s CEO role over in 2020 to his hand-picked successor Bob Chapek. Chapek’s tenure was viewed as so alarming that Disney’s board decided to fire Chapek after only two years on the job, bringing Iger back out of retirement to make a course correction.
In an interview with Deadline after the vote, Iger acknowledged the importance of having a better plan for his succession this time around. A committee has been formed to identify the next Disney chief executive before Iger’s current contract ends in 2026. Thus far, the committee has identified four potential candidates, but some are worried about a relative lack of experience from some of those whose names have been floated.
