Anne Sweeney Reveals Ben Sherwood as Her Disney-ABC TV Presidential Successor

Earlier this month Disney exec Anne Sweeney revealed that she will leave her position as co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney-ABC Television Group to learn the art of directing. In an email to ABC staff on Monday afternoon, Sweeney revealed that her replacement will be current ABC News president Ben Sherwood.

Full email below:

Team:

I wanted to let you know some exciting news that Bob Iger just announced to his senior team, and that will be going out to the media shortly (full release attached).

Bob has tapped our very own Ben Sherwood, President, ABC News, to assume responsibility for the Disney/ABC Television Group in the New Year after I depart the Company. As has been discussed, we’ll be taking the remainder of this year to transition Ben into this new role, and during that time he’ll serve as Co-President of Disney/ABC and will also oversee ABC News until his successor is named.

It was Ben’s intense passion and incredible insight that made us confident he’d do great things as President of ABC News. Over the past few years, he has moved from success-to-success, and helped create a more vibrant, collaborative and powerful News division that embraces innovation and risk-taking. Ben’s now set to bring those same attributes to bear for the larger Group, and I could not be more thrilled. This announcement simply highlights the fact that our talent and succession planning process works.

Please join me in congratulating Ben on his new opportunity.

Warmly,

Anne

Sherman has been ABC News president since December 2010, when he replaced outgoing chief David Westin.