Press kit
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Bob Chapek spent nearly 30 years at The Walt Disney Company, leading its home entertainment, consumer products and parks businesses before serving as Chief Executive Officer from February 2020 to November 2022. He is a graduate of Indiana University and holds an MBA from Michigan State University. He splits his time between the Florida Keys and Ventura County, CA.
Robert A. Chapek grew up in Robertsdale, in Hammond, Indiana, the son of a refinery machinist and an office manager. He studied microbiology at Indiana University, then spent a decade in packaged goods and advertising before joining Disney in 1993 as a marketing director in the home video division, an era when the product shipped on cassette.
He went on to lead Buena Vista Home Entertainment through the move to DVD and Blu-ray. Disney Consumer Products came next, where he folded Star Wars into the company's licensing engine after the Lucasfilm acquisition, making Disney the largest licensor of intellectual property in the world. As chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts he opened Shanghai Disneyland, led Pandora and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and invested more than $24 billion in parks, attractions, hotels and ships.
He became CEO on February 25, 2020, days before the pandemic closed the company's parks and cruise lines. He oversaw the reopening of every site worldwide and the launch of Disney+ as its own business. He left the company in November 2022, and has spent the years since consulting and advising.
Cover art: Gallery Books and Simon & Schuster, reproduced to identify the work. On-stage photograph: Walt Disney Television, CC BY-ND 2.0, used unmodified at D23 Expo, July 2017. The photographer credit must travel with the image.
Publishing enquiries are handled by Gallery Books publicity at Simon & Schuster.