This article's "Career" section contains promotional content .(February 2024) |
Kareem Daniel | |
---|---|
Born | 1974 |
Education | Stanford University (BS) Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA) |
Occupation | American business executive |
Employer | The Walt Disney Company (2006–2022) |
Title | Chairman, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (2020–2022) |
Board member of | McDonald's |
Kareem Daniel is an American businessman and former media executive at The Walt Disney Company. During his tenure at Disney, he held executive roles in charge of film and television, sports, streaming, theme parks, and consumer products. [1] [2] Prior to Disney, Daniel worked in equity research and investment banking at Goldman Sachs, having begun his career as an electrical engineer. He is also on the board of directors for McDonald's.
Kareem Daniel grew up in Chicago. [3] He attended Morgan Park Academy and went on to earn both a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and an MBA from Stanford University. [4]
After working as a computer programmer during the dot-com boom, [5] Daniel enrolled in business school. [3] His interest in film led him to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, [6] and he interned at The Walt Disney Company while in business school. [7] Upon graduation, he took a full-time position at Disney. [3] He then worked in equity research and investment banking at Goldman Sachs from 2004 to 2007. [8]
After returning to Disney in 2007, he held executive roles in Disney Corporate Strategy, Walt Disney Studios, and Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. [9] He played a key role in various business initiatives, as well as mergers and acquisitions like the 2009 acquisition of Marvel, [10] and the 2012 Lucasfilm acquisition. [4] [7]
In 2017, Daniel moved to Walt Disney Imagineering. [8] In 2019, he was promoted to President of Operations, [11] where he was responsible for the design and development of Disney's parks, attractions, resorts and cruises. [12] During his tenure, areas like Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, Toy Story Land, Pixar Pier, Avengers Campus and other themed areas were introduced or expanded. [13]
In May 2020, Daniel was named President of Consumer Products, Gaming and Publishing, [14] including the world's largest consumer licensing business, the Disney Store, and Disney's e-commerce shopDisney and videogame business. [15] [3]
In October 2020, Kareem Daniel was promoted to Chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution (DMED), a new division created to oversee Disney's media businesses. [16] The division combined the company's film, television, streaming, and advertising businesses under his leadership. [17] [13]
He managed Disney's advertising and traditional media businesses, including theatrical releases, home entertainment, and television networks such as ESPN, ABC, FX and National Geographic. [13] Daniel was tasked with growing Disney's streaming platforms, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+. [6] On November 14, 2021 Daniel inaugurated Disney+ Day, a virtual event intended to promote Disney's streaming services. [18] In August 2022, Disney's streaming platforms had 221 million subscribers. [19] [20] By November 2022, the number of total subscriptions had reached 235 million, exceeding those of rival streaming platform Netflix. [21] Under Daniel, Disney generated $55 billion in revenue from media and entertainment during the 2022 fiscal year. [22]
In October 2022, Daniel was elected to McDonald's board of directors. [23] He exited his role at Walt Disney in November 2022, during the return of Disney CEO Bob Iger. [24]
Daniel's role within Disney made him one of the most influential media executives, and the most senior Black executive, in Hollywood. [10] Several media publications dubbed him the "czar" of Disney's streaming business, [10] and was ranked among "the 10 most powerful people in Hollywood" in 2023. [25] In 2020 and 2021, Daniel was included on Variety's list of the 500 most influential leaders in global media. [8] He was a keynote speaker at Variety's entertainment and technology summit in 2022. [26]
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923, by brothers Walt Disney and Roy Oliver Disney as Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio; it also operated under the names Walt Disney Studio and Walt Disney Productions before changing it to its current name in 1986. In 1928, Disney established itself as a leader in the animation industry with the short film Steamboat Willie. The film used synchronized sound to become the first post-produced sound cartoon, and popularized Mickey Mouse, who became Disney's mascot and corporate icon.
Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California, and later moved to San Francisco in 2005. It has been a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios since 2012 and is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound, and computer animation for films.
Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attractions worldwide. The company also operates Disney Live Entertainment and The Muppets Studio and manages Disney's properties, from Walt Disney Studios in Burbank to New Amsterdam Theatre and Times Square Studios Ltd. in New York City. Founded by Walt Disney to oversee the production of Disneyland, it was originally known as Walt Disney, Inc., then WED Enterprises, from the initials meaning "Walter Elias Disney", the company co-founder's full name. Headquartered in Glendale, California, Imagineering is composed of "Imagineers", who are illustrators, architects, engineers, lighting designers, show writers and graphic designers.
The Walt Disney Studios is a major division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of The Walt Disney Company best known for housing its multifaceted film studio divisions. Founded on October 16, 1923, and based mainly at the namesake studio lot in Burbank, California, it is the seventh-oldest global film studio and the fifth-oldest in the United States, a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and one of the "Big Five" major film studios.
Disney Experiences, commonly known as Disney Parks, is one of the three major divisions of The Walt Disney Company. It was founded on April 1, 1971, exactly six months before the opening of Walt Disney World.
Robert Alan Iger is an American media executive who is chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company. He previously was the president of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) between 1994 and 1995 and president and chief operating officer (COO) of Capital Cities/ABC, from 1995 until its acquisition by Disney in 1996. Iger was named president of Disney in 2000 and succeeded Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005, until his contract expired in 2020. He then was executive chairman until his formal retirement from the company on December 31, 2021. After his exit from the company, Iger continued as an advisor to his successor.
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Disney Platform Distribution, Inc. is a business unit within Disney Entertainment that manages all third-party media sales efforts for distribution, affiliate marketing and affiliate-related business operations for all of the company's direct-to-consumer services and linear media networks; content sales agreements for Disney Entertainment and ESPN.
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Disney Consumer Products, Inc. is the retailing and licensing subsidiary of the Disney Experiences segment of The Walt Disney Company. Previously, Consumer Products was a segment of Disney until 2016, then a unit of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media (2016–2018).
Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution (DMED), formerly Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International (DTCI), was a business segment of the Walt Disney Company that operated from March 14, 2018 until the establishment of its successor, Disney Entertainment on February 8, 2023. It consisted of Disney Streaming and Disney International Operations. Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution's fate was a success as of to when Disney-ABC Domestic Television still held up business
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