Last week’s appointment of Josh D’Amaro as the next CEO of The Walt Disney Company seemingly ends the succession drama and allows Bob Iger to turn his attention to something almost as important as running the company: securing his legacy.
Back in June of 2022, Deadline reported that a then-retired Iger was working on a follow up to his 2019 New York Times bestseller “The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company.” At the time, the follow up was described as “an essential new playbook on leading in times of crisis and disruption.” Five months later, of course, Iger was back at Disney after the debacle that was Bob Chapek’s failed attempt to replace Iger as CEO.
Over the past four years while running Disney, Iger’s untitled book project was put on hold, but over the past 12 months as his official departure became more of a reality, Iger renewed his focus on the project, Page Six Hollywood has learned.
Last Spring, Iger approached the Evergreen Strategy Group which is run by former Hillary Clinton speechwriters and communications experts Nick Merrill and Dan Schwerin, according to a knowledgeable source. Schwerin was the principal collaborator on two of Clinton’s bestselling memoirs and we are told he is writing the book with Iger. A rep for Iger declined to comment.
It’s not uncommon for an outgoing CEO to pen a memoir, just ask Iger whose “The Ride of a Lifetime” was a well-received account of his ascent at Disney and his remarkable 15-year run as CEO. But in the wake of the truncated and messy Chapek-era, Iger’s second stint as CEO was much bumpier than his first due to shifting market conditions, a global pandemic, the dual writers and actors’ strike and the emergence of Netflix as the victor in the streaming wars. The tension between Iger and Chapek and the role Iger played in undermining his successor was also the subject of several long-form exposes in The New York Times and CNBC. Iger, we are told, may feel the need to provide his version of what actually happened between the two men.
But he won’t be the only one telling this story. A rival project about Iger’s tenure running Disney is currently being penned by Wall Street Journal reporter Robbie Whelan and according to several sources Iger is so concerned about what Whelan has uncovered and plans to report, that he views the memoir he’s writing with Schwerin as a way to counter it.
Whelan declined to comment. Via email, a spokesperson for his publisher Harper Collins said there is no title or scheduled release date for Whelan’s book.
The same spokesperson did not reply when asked by P6H if any representatives for Iger had reached out to Harper Collins to inquire about Whelan’s project.
