Behind the Castle Walls

My Thirty Years at the Happiest Place on Earth
For the first time ever, Bob Chapek breaks his silence on his tenure as the Walt Disney Company’s CEO, offering a behind-the-scenes account of the challenges he faced—from getting the job just weeks before a worldwide pandemic, to the shifting political landscape, to his ousting given Bob Iger’s apparent desire to return.

In 1993, Bob Chapek began his career at the Walt Disney Company as the marketing director for home video. After twenty-seven years of hard work, climbing the corporate ladder, and garnering respect across the wide variety of businesses that Disney has, he earned the most coveted (and scrutinized) position of all: In 2020, he was named CEO of the Walt Disney Company.

Born and raised in small-town Indiana by a World War II–veteran father, Chapek learned early in life that grit, resilience, and curiosity can take you far. These values are what got him to Disney. However, within weeks of starting at the top, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down parks, resorts, cruise ships, live sporting events, and film and television production, forcing Chapek to steer the billion-dollar empire through unprecedented times. The stakes were high, the decisions unforgiving, and the backlash often inordinate, leaving him wondering whether he had become the corporate scapegoat of it all. In 2022, he got his answer—Chapek was out, Iger was back in.

Was he really given a fair shot or was he set up to fail? What drove his ousting and Bob Iger’s return? What happened behind the scenes at Disney during COVID, and how did those decisions impact what we see today? Four years later, after reflection and healing, Chapek is ready to tell his story, sharing what he hopes will be his true legacy.

Even now, after everything, he’s still a lifelong fan, and wants the magic of Disney to endure for generations.

Behind the Castle Walls is a revealing and thrilling memoir of ambition, power, and corporate intrigue in the happiest company on earth.

Contributor: Don Yaeger (With)

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