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It 's hard to overstate what a surprise Iger's early impact as Disney's CEO has been. A hard-working and likable hand who had been in the media business for more than three decades, Iger had no big claim to fame when he took the top job, having dwelled largely in the shadow of his boss, Michael Eisner.
Eisner's run as Disney CEO is an oft-told tale: In the 1980s and early '90s he was credited with reviving an American icon, and in the mid-'90s he smartly acquired Capital Cities/ABC, tacking ESPN and a broadcast TV network onto the company's film and theme park businesses. But his later years saw a feud with board members, management chaos, and an unwanted takeover bid from Comcast.
Eisner ran hot and cold on his top people, so it was unclear to anyone - even to Iger - what the succession plan would be. But when Eisner resigned, he did recommend Iger and the board eventually agreed - news that was received coolly by some investors. "There were many naysayers," recalls one. "People would call him 'mini-Eisner,' his yes man."
Iger says the criticism didn't get to him. "I don't know that I was necessarily on a mission to prove people wrong," he says. "But I wanted very much to exceed expectations."
Iger grew up middle-class in a housing development on Long Island, N.Y., where his father, a jazz trumpeter, worked in advertising and publishing, and his mother tended to Bob and a younger sister. He remembers watching the "Mickey Mouse Club" and wearing his coonskin cap from Disney's "Davy Crockett"show. "A couple of years ago I downloaded the Davy Crockett theme song onto my iPod and thought, 'Wow, have I come a long way,' " he says.
Graduating from Ithaca College, he aspired to be a news anchor and worked briefly as a weatherman, but in 1974 he joined ABC as a low-level production supervisor. He earned his stripes working under ABC Sports legend Roone Arledge and rose quickly through the company's ranks. As its entertainment chief, he greenlighted the longest-running program on ABC to this day - "America's Funniest Home Videos."
In 1994, Iger's career took a turn that might shed light on his quiet readiness for his current job: He was named president of Cap Cities/ABC by its longtime leader, Thomas Murphy. Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway was the largest investor in the company, once called Murphy "the top manager in the U.S.," and Iger was his protégé.
In naming him president, Murphy informed Iger that he planned to retire, and that Iger, then 44, would succeed him. "That would have been the plan," recalls Murphy. But before that could happen, Eisner made a $19 billion offer for the company that it could not resist. Iger says he was philosophical about the sale to Disney and is grateful for the decade he worked under Eisner, but he adds, "It's a lot more fun being CEO."