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Fortune

Geoff Colvin

Promoting your CEO to executive chair can be a big mistake. So why are so many companies doing it?

Bob Iger Bob Chapek Disney John Foley Spencer Stuart Peter Cappelli

Disney CEO Bob Chapek and executive chairman Bob Iger (Credit: Gerardo Mora—Getty Images)

Hollywood was shocked when Disney CEO Bob Iger abruptly announced in February 2020 that he was handing the top job to parks chief Bob Chapek, effective immediately. Iger had scheduled and then postponed his retirement four times since 2013. Now, in a Friday afternoon press release, he was suddenly, finally stepping down. The business press responded with dozens of sweeping recaps of Iger’s 48-year career, listing his achievements and speculating about what he would do now that he was finished running Disney.

Except he wasn’t finished running Disney.

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