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Former Apple COO Jeff Williams Joining Disney's Board of Directors

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Former Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams may soon join Disney's board of directors. The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors nominated Williams to be a new independent director, and he will stand for election at the 2026 annual shareholders meeting.

Apple-Event-Jeff-Williams.jpg

Williams was Apple's chief operating officer from December 2015 to November 2025, when he retired from Apple. Williams was in charge of Apple's worldwide operations, customer service, and support. He also led the Apple Watch engineering and health initiatives, and headed up the design team from 2023 until his retirement.

In a statement, Williams said that he looks forward to contributing to Disney's growth.
"I have long admired Disney's legacy of pairing imagination with innovation--leveraging new technologies in bold, creative ways to bring to life timeless stories and entertain its guests," said Williams. "It is an honor to be nominated to the board of this storied company. I look forward to working with Disney's talented leadership team and contributing to the company's ongoing journey of creativity and excellence."
Click to expand...
Disney's board will expand to 11 members with Williams, and he is set to join Bob Iger, GM CEO Mary Barra, former Morgan Stanley Executive Chairman James Gorman, former Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch, Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald, and others.

Article Link: Former Apple COO Jeff Williams Joining Disney's Board of Directors
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/12/09/jeff-williams-disney-board/
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Now that he has more influence within Disney, one feature that would be awesome for Jeff to advocate for would be to potentially incorporate future seamless integration between Apple hardware & Disney’s park infrastructure

Some possible ideas I have would be a (guest-opt-in) option for a user to add a (secure) Wi-Fi profile to their iPhone that would not only greatly enhance their security (over existing captive-portal networks) but also simultaneously allow for seamless, customer input/friction-free high-speed connections - allowing guests of remove the time consuming & unwanted distraction of continuously reconfiguring Wi-Fi when traversing various parks

Another potential feature would be the ability for users to use their AirPods when using headphones 🎧 is needed on rides or tours - With the potential technological integration built upon the that when flying on a ✈️

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MacFan782040 said:
If the Netflix deal goes through, what are the chances Apple buys Disney?
Click to expand...
Very low unless they completely split up the way Warner Brothers did.
I can see Apple managing that historic library of content, I cannot see them wanting to take on the challenges of all of Disney’s side projects.
 
Justin Cymbal said:
Now that he has more influence within Disney, one feature that would be awesome for Jeff to advocate for would be to potentially incorporate future seamless integration between Apple hardware & Disney’s park infrastructure

Some possible ideas I have would be a (guest-opt-in) option for a user to add a (secure) Wi-Fi profile to their iPhone that would not only greatly enhance their security (over existing captive-portal networks) but also simultaneously allow for seamless, customer input/friction-free high-speed connections - allowing guests of remove the time consuming & unwanted distraction of continuously reconfiguring Wi-Fi when traversing various parks

Another potential feature would be the ability for users to use their AirPods when using headphones 🎧 is needed on rides or tours - With the potential technological integration built upon the that when flying on a ✈️

www.macrumors.com

Twelve South Debuts New 'AirFly' Wireless Transmitter for Using AirPods With In-Flight Entertainment Systems

Twelve South today announced the launch of the AirFly, a new adapter accessory that's designed to let you use your AirPods or other Bluetooth...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com

www.theverge.com

How to use your AirPods with an in-flight entertainment system

It’s possible to use your AirPods with an in-flight entertainment system. Here’s how.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
Click to expand...
Um, not to rain on your parade but Apple markets and sells products to every corner of the world where people can afford to buy their products. There are wealthy enough people in lots of poorer countries with iPhone pros, MacBook Pros and AirPod pros.

Disney have at most two and a half profitable theme parks on the planet. The two profitable ones are in the USA.

With all due respect, your perspective is a bit skewed.

The option you’re imagining would be valid if it was marketed as an opinion to all site of tourist interested, big or small, worldwide.
 
These people always make me feel lazy. According to Google, Jeff Williams has a net worth of $259 million. Honestly, if I had a quarter of a billion dollars, I can’t imagine spending 200–300 hours a year serving as a Disney board member.

Then again, maybe that’s exactly why I don’t have a quarter of a billion dollars. 🤷‍♂️
 
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CalMin said:
These people always make me feel lazy. According to Google, Jeff Williams has a net worth of $259 million. Honestly, if I had a quarter of a billion dollars, I can’t imagine spending 200–300 hours a year serving as a Disney board member.

Then again, maybe that’s exactly why I don’t have a quarter of a billion dollars. 🤷‍♂️
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Their gross worth is share value, not cash. To maintain share value, they have to put in the hours to maintain share value. Share value is not referred to as “golden handcuffs” because handcuffs are a fashion accessory.
 
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Lounge vibes 05 said:
Very low unless they completely split up the way Warner Brothers did.
I can see Apple managing that historic library of content, I cannot see them wanting to take on the challenges of all of Disney’s side projects.
Click to expand...
I could see them wanting IP library, parks, Hulu, and ESPN. Everything else (ABC, linear networks) spin off.
 
when top execs begin to leave, a reason must be…
Lack of vision and leadership are now a fact at Apple. So sad… but every company who stops innovating has the same ending.
Apple has an extedended life because the Chinese brand is not allowed to compete …
 
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Netflix would be terrible for Warner. And Warner would be terrible for Netflix, too. Both are losing viewership and Warner is also losing READERSHIP in its failing print businesses.

But trying to keep all those Warner properties...no, I think it would be a debacle similar to other huge acquisitions over the years, such as AOL's acquisition of Time Warner, Sears buying K-Mart (or was it the other way around? Either way, it was terrible for both), or the famous "merger of equals" Daimler and Chrysler.

All of those deals, and dozens more, were real stinkers that hurt consumers, the companies, the employees, and the taxpayers who always seem to be footing some guilded deal or another.

MacFan782040 said:
If the Netflix deal goes through, what are the chances Apple buys Disney?
Click to expand...
I thought Paramount was going to make its own offer directly to the Warner stockholders. And it sounded like Paramount wanted to offer more than Netflix would have.

Disney, for its part, isn't fit for purchase by anybody....at least not in its current form. There are too many issues of toxic nature that have chased the customer base away from all of its properties, whether they are media or theme park related.

And don't forget, we are in the middle of a population crash throughout North America, the UK, and Europe. This will impact Disney for the worse because it has so much supposedly kid-centric IP throughout the enterprise. For anybody to want to buy Disney, they'd probably need to unload underperforming properties and IP, either right before or soon after any acquisition or merger involving Disney. Unless Disney can turn things around in the core businesses. But there's no evidence that leadership is either interested in or capable of doing the hard work of turning that battleship away from the fast-approaching sandbar.
 
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Octavius8 said:
when top execs begin to leave, a reason must be…
Lack of vision and leadership are now a fact at Apple. So sad… but every company who stops innovating has the same ending.
Apple has an extedended life because the Chinese brand is not allowed to compete …
Click to expand...
Or, respectfully, it can be a bunch of men and women hired in their twenties, thirties, and forties, are now in their sixties and are worth millions of dollars and don't need to work sixty hours or more per week under high pressure.
 
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MacFan782040 said:
If the Netflix deal goes through, what are the chances Apple buys Disney?
Click to expand...
Apple TV shows are quite niche and refined, Netflix on the contrary, are scattershot. Apple take each show preciously, while Netflix made a whole bunch of shows, wishing some of them became a hit.
 
Happy_John said:
Um, not to rain on your parade but Apple markets and sells products to every corner of the world where people can afford to buy their products. There are wealthy enough people in lots of poorer countries with iPhone pros, MacBook Pros and AirPod pros.

Disney have at most two and a half profitable theme parks on the planet. The two profitable ones are in the USA.

With all due respect, your perspective is a bit skewed.

The option you’re imagining would be valid if it was marketed as an opinion to all site of tourist interested, big or small, worldwide.
Click to expand...
Disney parks are massively profitable to the company. In fact, it has pretty much ALWAYS been their largest profit sector by a large margin. Linear TV is still 2nd I believe but that business is moving to streaming which has been siphoning off billions in loses for years - that’s why company-wide profit (overall) has been lackluster in recent years

To put it this way, if you’re not profitable charging $200+ in entrance fees (per-person) than I think you’re doing something wrong 😳

No 😅 Disney Parks are very profitable my friend:

 
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