Encyclopedia:
Robert Iger,
Talk:Robert Iger
Robert (Bob) A. Iger (born
February 10 1951 in
Oceanside, New York) is President and Chief Executive Officer of
The Walt Disney Company. He has been President since January 2000 and CEO since October 2005.
ABC
After finishing his undergraduate studies at
Ithaca College, Iger began his media career as a weatherman for a local television station (
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5442077). He joined the
American Broadcasting Company in 1974 and gradually rose through its ranks during the following decades. He served as President of the
ABC Network Television Group from 1993 to 1994, and then was named President and Chief Operating Officer of ABC's corporate parent,
Capital Cities/ABC.
In 1996,
The Walt Disney Company bought Capital Cities/ABC and renamed it
ABC, Inc., where Iger remained President and COO until 1999.
Disney
Second-in-command
On
February 25,
1999, Disney replaced Iger at the helm of ABC with Steve Bornstein, the head of ESPN at the time, and named Iger the President of Walt Disney International, the business unit that oversees Disney's international operations, as well as Chairman of the ABC Group. Disney called the change a promotion for Iger, but the company's insistence was initially viewed with skepticism, as some thought Iger was merely being removed from day-to-day authority at ABC, since ABC had been struggling recently (
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F60E1EFA3D580C768EDDA80894D8404482).
However, less than one year later, Disney promoted Iger yet again. On
January 25 2000, Disney named Iger President and Chief Operating Officer, making him the company's number two executive under Chairman and CEO
Michael Eisner. Eisner had been under pressure to name a potential successor, since Disney had had a president for only 16 months (when
Michael Ovitz served as President from 1995 to 1997) since
Frank Wells died in 1994.
As Disney CEO
For over five years, Iger served as Disney's number two executive, largely under Eisner's shadow. But on
March 13 2005, after over a year of public pressure from
Roy Disney's
SaveDisney campaign to oust Michael Eisner, Disney announced that Iger would replace Eisner as CEO. It had considered only one other possible replacement,
eBay CEO
Meg Whitman. Since Eisner had been under pressure to step down, many were skeptical of Iger, who was indeed Eisner's hand-picked successor, and suspected that Eisner might use him as a puppet after he had formally stepped down.
However, Iger immediately moved to show his independence from Eisner. Before he even formally assumed command of the company, he sacked one of Eisner's top lieutenants. On
March 26, Iger made his first move at the helm of Disney when he reassigned
Peter Murphy, the company's Chief Strategic Officer, and pledged to disband the company's
strategic planning division. The division, which Eisner had created, was charged by many inside and outside the company with stifling creativity under a superfluous layer of bureaucracy. Iger vowed to restore much of the decision-making authority that the division had assumed to the individual business units, such as
Parks and Resorts and
Studio Entertainment.
Iger also reacquired the rights to
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and resurrected negotiations with Disney's film production partner
Pixar Animation Studios, and reconciled the company's differences with former shareholders
Roy E. Disney and
Stanley Gold, who in July 2005 dropped their
SaveDisney campaign and agreed to work with Iger. Disney, Gold, and Pixar chairman
Steve Jobs had all been alienated by Iger's predecessor, Eisner.
On
October 1, the first official day of Iger's term at the helm of the
media conglomerate, Iger fired many senior staff at the
Muppets Holding Company, the subsidiary of Disney which controls
The Muppets http://www.jimhillmedia.com/article.php?id=1673. Eisner had personally hand-picked this staff himself when the Muppets became Disney property in April 2004. Many saw Iger's action as a sign that Disney is entering a new era with no baggage from Eisner. Iger also brought back
Roy E. Disney with the titles Director Emeritus and consultant.
Pixar merger
On
January 24 2006, in a move that would have been inconceivable a year earlier, Disney announced it would acquire
Pixar for US $7.4 billion in an all-stock transaction. The merger installed animator
John Lasseter as Chief Creative Officer of the Disney/Pixar animation studios and
Walt Disney Imagineering, the division that designs theme park attractions. It also made
Steve Jobs Disney's top shareholder with 7% of outstanding shares and gave him a new seat on Disney's board of directors.
Many Disney observers applauded Iger for bringing Lasseter, who is widely hailed as a creative genius, and Jobs, who is likewise seen as a technological visionary, to Disney. For example,
Roy E. Disney, who had been critical of Iger for his role as Eisner's deputy, issued this statement: "Animation has always been the heart and soul of the Walt Disney Company and it is wonderful to see Bob Iger and the company embrace that heritage by bringing the outstanding animation talent of the Pixar team back into the fold. This clearly solidifies the Walt Disney Company's position as the dominant leader in motion picture animation and we applaud and support Bob Iger's vision"
http://www.countingdown.com/movies/30929/news?item_id=3822596.
Miscellany
*Iger is married to journalist
Willow Bay, his second marriage. He has four children, two with Ms. Bay.
http://business.enotes.com/international-business-biography/iger-robert*Iger's great-uncle, cartoonist
Jerry Iger, was a business partner of cartoonist
Will Eisner (no relation to Michael Eisner).
* In May 2006 he appeared as a guest on Michael Eisner's CNBC talk show.
http://www.eisner.cnbc.com/guest.htmlstart
succession box | title=
Disney Presidents | before=vacant
(eventually
Michael Ovitz) | after=Incumbent | years=2000–
succession box | title=
Disney CEOs | before=
Michael Eisner | after=Incumbent | years=2005–
end
Iger, RobertIger, RobertIger, RobertIger, RobertIger, RobertIger, RobertIger, Robertfr:Robert Igerpl:Robert Igerfi:Roger Iger