On February 2020, Bob Iger stepped down as the CEO of media giant, The Disney Company.
He led the media giant through massive acquisitions, the launch of Disney+, and directed the conglomerate’s creative endeavors until December 31, 2021.
The New York businessman started life making “$150 a week” at ABC back in 1974 as a studio supervisor aged 23.
He has come a long way since then and has amassed an eye-watering $690 million personal fortune.
That is almost six times what Disney heiress, Abigail Disney, estimates her own fortune at.
Iger is married to television journalist, author and former model Willow Bay, and the couple have two sons.
Iger also has two daughters from his first marriage to Kathleen Susan.
Iger rose through the ranks at ABC in New York through sports, then he took a job as head of ABC Entertainment in 1986 according to Business Insider.
In 1993 he became head of the Capital Cities/ABC network, which was then bought by Disney for $19 billion in 1996.
Three years later he became president of Disney International, then chief operating officer under CEO Michael Eisner.
When Eisner stepped down following tensions with Roy E Disney in 2005, Iger took the top spot.
Under Iger’s leadership Disney’s stock has risen five fold in 15 years.
It went from $24 a share and has grown to up to $144 per share (July 2019).
He repaired relationships with Pixar, then acquired them in 2006 and linking them with Steve Jobs, who had the majority sharehold in Pixar.
Iger was on the board of Apple between 2011 and 2019.
Disney has been smashing the box office too, with acquisition and production of movie franchises like The Avengers (Marvel) and Star Wars (Lucasfilm).
The company acquired 21st Century Fox in March 2019, gaining the controlling stake in Hulu at the same time.
The company has grown too, creating more than 70,000 jobs.
His personal fortune has grown alongside that of Disney’s.
Upon becoming the top dog at Disney in 2005 Iger made $22million along with an additional $2.9million in stock.
His wage has come a long way since then.
As CEO of Disney, Iger made $65.6million in 2018 – $39.3m in salary and $26.3m in stock – according to Forbes.
This was boosted by his closure of the $71.3billion Fox merger in March 2019.
This made him the third highest-paid CEO in 2019, with combined earnings at 1,424 times that of the average Disney employee.
Disney is replacing “King of Hollywood” Iger with Bob Chapek, who runs its parks and products.
Bob Iger was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from 2005 to 2020, he relinquished the position to Bob Chapek.
Despite stepping down as CEO, Iger stayed on as a chairperson until December 31, 2021.
While speaking with CNBC, he detailed his reasons for giving up the position.
Iger told the outlet, “Over time, I started listening less and maybe with a little less tolerance of other people’s opinions, maybe because of getting a little bit more overconfident in my own, which is sometimes what happens when you get built up.”
He continued: “I became a little bit more dismissive of other people’s opinions than I should have been.”
“That was an early sign that it was time. It wasn’t the reason I left, but it was a contributing factor,” Iger concluded.
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552.
