Walt Disney Co. watchers speculating over who will succeed Bob Iger as chief executive officer may have fodder in the annual list of invitees to the Sun Valley Conference.
The annual confab, put on by the Allen & Co. investment bank and held in early July at the Sun Valley, Idaho, ski resort, is a meeting place for movers and shakers from the worlds of media, sports, technology and finance.
Iger, as usual, is on the invite list, according to a copy reviewed by Bloomberg News. So is Disney’s theme parks chief Josh D’Amaro, along with Dana Walden, who runs the company’s TV business, and Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy. Iger, who came back to run the company in November, has signed on for two years, during which he’s supposed to groom a successor.
Also making the list this year is Mike Cavanagh, Comcast Corp.’s president, who took over leadership of the company’s NBCUniversal subsidiary earlier this year after Jeff Shell was fired. Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Inc.’s founder, who didn’t attend last year, is back on the list. Elon Musk, an attendee in past years, is not.
As usual the conference is heavy with billionaires, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s Warren Buffett is on the list, as are two of his children, Susan and Howard. Apple Inc.’s CEO Tim Cook, another regular, is on the roster, along with Eddy Cue, the company’s senior vice president for services. A number of sports-industry figures are also attending, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and agent Casey Wasserman.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is also on the list. Allen & Co. is helping the PGA value its assets for its merger with Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf.
