The entertainment company said on Thursday that Robert Iger would stay on as CEO and chairman until June 2018, two years later than his previously planned retirement date.
Disney plans next year to name a chief operating officer, who will likely be groomed as its next CEO, a person familiar with the situation said.
Iger has run Disney without a No. 2 executive since he took over in 2005.
Chief Financial Officer Jay Rasulo and Thomas Staggs, the parks and resorts chairman – both long viewed as the most likely internal successors to Iger – are widely considered within the company to be top candidates for the operating-chief post.
“The only thing that changes is the timetables when the next person would become CEO,” Iger said in a statement. “But it doesn’t mean we won’t promote someone to a position that would give them more experience and give the board a chance to evaluate them at a higher level. That could happen along the same timing it was going to.”
In 2011, Disney’s board extended Iger’s contract and said a new CEO would succeed him in March 2015, while he would serve as chairman until June of 2016.
“Disney has an incredibly strong management team and the board is confident in the leadership talent available for succession planning,” lead independent director Orin Smith said in a written statement.
The only major Disney business that has struggled recently is its ABC broadcast network.
Iger will maintain the same annual compensation terms as under his existing contract, although he will be eligible for what the company described as a performance-based retention bonus if certain financial goals over a five-year period through the fiscal year that ends in September 2018 are met. Iger’s compensation in Disney’s fiscal 2013 was $34.3 million.