{"id":2332085,"date":"2026-03-16T21:47:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2332085"},"modified":"2026-03-16T21:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T21:47:15","slug":"dana-walden-unveils-her-disney-entertainment-leadership-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/dana-walden-unveils-her-disney-entertainment-leadership-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana Walden Unveils Her Disney Entertainment Leadership Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tDana Walden<\/a>, incoming President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney<\/a> Company as of Wednesday, has revealed the new leadership structure of Disney Entertainment. She laid out the changes in a memo, which you can read below. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to television, which she oversaw, film, which she took over in her new role, and direct-to-consumer, which she co-ran with Disney\u2019s film chief Alan Bergman<\/a><\/strong>, Walden\u2019s purview will now include Games and Digital Entertainment, previously under incoming Disney CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro, which will become part of Disney Entertainment, with Sean Shoptaw<\/strong> now reporting to Walden.<\/p>\n

\n\tBergman and Shoptaw are members of Walden\u2019s new leadership team of direct reports that also includes Debra OConnell<\/a><\/strong>, John Landgraf<\/a><\/strong>, Joe Earley<\/a><\/strong> & Adam Smith<\/strong>, and Asad Ayaz<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere had been questions whether Bergman would stay on as Chairman of Disney Entertainment, Studios, under Walden. He will, as the two are said to be getting along great, and he will also continue to share oversight of Direct To Consumer (Disney+ and Hulu) with her.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Walden expanding her turf as CCO, there also had been a lot of speculation whether she would elevate one of her senior executives on the TV side to streamline the operation and reduce the number of her direct reports. She has, and that is Debra OConnell<\/strong>, previously President, ABC News Group & Disney Entertainment Networks, who has been named to the newly created role of chairman of Disney Entertainment Television.<\/p>\n

\n\tOConnell will now be in charge of the television brands, including ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Hulu Originals, National Geographic Content and creative for 20th Television and 20th Television Animation, in addition to her current duties overseeing ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer promotion only slightly impacts John Landgraf<\/strong>,\u00a0who remains Chairman of FX and will continue reporting directly to Walden and maintains oversight of Onyx Collective. He will no longer oversee Nat Geo, a brand that joined his portfolio in 2023. The network over the last couple of years pulled out of original scripted programming, Landgraf and his team\u2019s top area of expertise.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere will be a change for Eric Schrier<\/a><\/strong>, President of Disney Television Studios, who will now report to Joe Earley<\/strong> having previously reported to Walden.<\/p>\n

\n\tDTC President Earley will now serve as Co-President of the division with Adam Smith<\/strong> as both report to Walden. Earley heads content strategy for DTC, which explains Schrier\u2019s alignment with him. Schrier serves as Head of Global Original Television Strategy, overseeing the development and production of international shows for Disney+. <\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Smith will continue in his current role as Chief Product and Technology Officer for Disney Entertainment and for ESPN, where he will continue to report to ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. Putting him and Earley on equal footing is an indication of tech\u2019s crucial role in streaming.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is no mention in Walden\u2019s memo of another former direct report of hers, Craig Erwich<\/strong>, President of Disney Television Group. Given OConnell\u2019s new responsibilities, Erwich may be reporting to her; that has not been confirmed.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsad Ayaz<\/strong>\u00a0remains Disney\u2019s Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, reporting to Walden.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe strength of Disney has always been the emotional connection between our stories and the people who love them,\u201d Walden said. \u201cAs fans engage with Disney across more formats and platforms than ever before, we are bringing together the full power of our creative businesses to build an even more connected experience for audiences. I\u2019m very fortunate to work alongside such a passionate and talented group of leaders who are driven by the joy of storytelling, and I\u2019m especially excited to work with our new CEO Josh D\u2019Amaro as we enter this next chapter together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHere is her company email on the restructuring: <\/p>\n

\n

Team,
This is a momentous week for the company, as Josh becomes our new CEO, and I want to thank Bob for his remarkable leadership and the strong foundation he leaves for all of us. I\u2019m incredibly excited to work with Josh and an extraordinary group of leaders to build on all our recent success as we begin this new chapter together.<\/p>\n

As I step into my new role, I\u2019m pleased to share the new structure of Disney Entertainment, which integrates our games business together with our streaming, film, and television teams, aligning Disney\u2019s world-class creative engines and platforms. Fans today want to engage with Disney\u2019s storytelling and characters in a multitude of ways \u2014 whether on Disney+, in theaters, or through the digital games they love to play. With this unified approach, Disney can deliver the world\u2019s most beloved entertainment to fans across the many ways they choose to enjoy it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My leadership team for Disney Entertainment is as follows:<\/p>\n

Alan Bergman,<\/strong>\u00a0as Chairman of Disney Entertainment, Studios, will continue overseeing all aspects of our industry-leading film studios including production, marketing, and distribution. Together with Bob, Alan has played a central role in the success of our film business, which produced three billion-dollar films in the last year alone and has led the global box office for nine out of the past 10 years. Alan\u2019s steady and visionary leadership will continue to guide these efforts going forward.<\/p>\n

Alan and I will maintain oversight of Disney+ and Hulu, which will be led by\u00a0Joe Earley\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Adam Smith<\/strong>\u00a0as Co-Presidents of Direct to Consumer. Joe and Adam will share responsibility for strategy and financial performance across Disney+ and Hulu, enabling a more unified approach to content and partnership strategy, product, and technology. Joe, who also will serve as Head of Content Strategy for DTC, and Adam, who continues as Chief Product and Technology Officer for Disney Entertainment and ESPN, have done an exceptional job helping to shape and grow our streaming business, and they bring a powerful combination of creative, strategic, and technological expertise to this next phase for Disney+ and Hulu.\u00a0Eric Schrier,<\/strong>\u00a0who has done terrific work building out our local originals slate, will now report to Joe. This puts our international local originals, which are exclusive to Disney+, inside our DTC organization, enabling a more effective international content strategy. Eric will also oversee the strategy for alternative forms of content and maintain oversight of television Business Affairs, Production, and Labor Relations.<\/p>\n

Debra OConnell<\/strong>\u00a0has been named Chairman of Disney Entertainment Television. I\u2019m thrilled that Debra will be taking on this newly created role, overseeing our television brands, including ABC Entertainment, Disney Branded Television, Hulu Originals, National Geographic Content, and the creative strategy for 20th Television and 20th Television Animation. She will also continue to oversee ABC News and the ABC Owned Television Stations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John Landgraf,<\/strong>\u00a0Chairman of FX, will continue reporting directly to me, and maintain oversight of Onyx Collective. Under John\u2019s leadership, FX has become one of the industry\u2019s most prestigious and critically acclaimed brands, delivering shows that consistently shape the cultural conversation \u2014 most recently with the breakout success of\u00a0Love Story<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Sean Shoptaw,<\/strong>\u00a0EVP, Games and Digital Entertainment, and his organization are moving from Disney Experiences to Disney Entertainment. This is an important, strategic shift that aligns our games business more closely with Disney+ and Hulu, enabling us to expand the ways fans can engage with our stories, characters, and worlds. I\u2019ve been very impressed with Sean. He has strong command of the tremendous opportunities ahead, including our collaboration with Epic Games, developing a Disney universe connected to Fortnite \u2014 and I\u2019m looking forward to this exciting new partnership.
\\
Asad Ayaz,<\/strong>\u00a0Disney\u2019s Chief Marketing and Brand Officer, will be instrumental in all this work. Asad leads the unparalleled marketing teams across the company\u2019s business segments. He and his teams have a stellar track record of creating bold, inventive campaigns \u2014 most recently with the launch of\u00a0Hoppers<\/em>\u00a0and looking ahead to\u00a0The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 that continue to set the bar for marketing across the globe. Asad will report to Josh and me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through all of this, our focus is on empowering great creators to tell the next generation of Disney stories and bringing our powerful IP to fans wherever they are \u2014 whether through streaming, film, television, games, or immersive experiences. This new structure is designed to strengthen collaboration, foster an even more seamless environment for our creative partners, and build on our rich legacy as the best storytelling company in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m extremely confident in this team and in the remarkable talent across this organization. As I\u2019ve said before, this is truly a dream job for me and I\u2019m grateful to be doing this work with all of you. Your creativity, commitment, and passion are what make this company so special. Thank you for all you do.
Dana<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source deadline.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dana Walden, incoming President and Chief Creative Officer of The Walt Disney Company as of Wednesday, has revealed the new leadership structure of Disney Entertainment. She laid out the changes in a memo, which you can read below. In addition to television, which she oversaw, film, which she took over in her new role, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2332086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[330713,309887,451928,23301,451929,451923,379769],"class_list":["post-2332085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-alan-bergman","tag-dana-walden","tag-debra-oconnell","tag-disney","tag-eric-schrier","tag-joe-earley","tag-john-landgraf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Dana-Walden-Unveils-Her-Disney-Entertainment-Leadership-Team.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2332085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2332087,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2332085\/revisions\/2332087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2332086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2332085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2332085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2332085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}