Thomas Owen Staggs (born 1961) is an American businessman. He is the co-founder and co-CEO of Candle Media as well as a Partner at Smash Capital. He formerly worked at

The Walt Disney Company 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 complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

for nearly 27 years, beginning in 1990, working in finance and later becoming the chief financial officer (CFO), then as chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide and finally as chief operating officer (COO). He also holds directorships on various company boards, including

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

Education and early life

Staggs was born in Illinois and grew up in Minnesota. He graduated from Minnetonka High School in 1978, and received a B.S. in business from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Career

Staggs began his career as an investment banker for Dain Bosworth, then Morgan Stanley before joining

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

in 1990.

Disney

After joining Disney in 1990, Staggs rose from his role as a manager of strategic planning to senior vice president of strategic planning and development in 1995. Staggs became executive vice president and chief financial officer in 1998, and became Senior Executive Vice President and CFO in January 2000. As CFO, Staggs was instrumental in purchasing Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006 as well as acquiring

Marvel Entertainment Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and Marvel Enterprises, Inc.) was an American entertainment company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, formed by the merger of #Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Ente ...

for $4 billion in 2009. On January 1, 2010, Staggs became Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, where he "more than doubled operating profits, to $2.66 billion", while overseeing the company's roughly 140,000 cast members, theme parks, two cruise lines, and hotel and resort businesses. Staggs led the development of the MyMagic Plus technology suite and the creation of an ''Avatar'' theme land in Disney's Animal Kingdom park. Disney CEO Bob Iger credited Staggs with leading "unprecedented growth and expansion, including the construction of Shanghai Disney", its $5.5 billion resort. On February 5, 2015, Staggs was named

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

of The Walt Disney Company. Despite "Disney’s rocky history of succession", Staggs was then widely reported as

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

to Bob Iger as the Disney CEO. On April 4, 2016, Disney announced that Staggs and the company had agreed to mutually part ways. Staggs stepped down as COO, effective May 6, 2016, remaining with the company as a "Special Advisor to the CEO" Bob Iger through the end of the fiscal year. Iger extended his contract as Disney's chairman and CEO to remain chairman through 2021. Following his departure from Disney, and prior to its August 2019 merger with Viacom, Staggs was in consideration to succeed Les Moonves as CEO of CBS. In July 2023, Staggs along with another previous executive Kevin Mayer, returned to Disney in an advisory role at the behest of CEO Bob Iger.

Forest Road

In October 2020, Staggs helped form

special-purpose acquisition company A special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a blank check company or a blind-pool stock offering, is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring (or merging with) a private company, thus taking ...

(SPAC) Forest Road Acquisition Corp as a director, teaming with former Disney colleague Kevin Mayer, and the Forest Road Company (FRC), of which he is an original investor and advisory board member. Other board members and advisors of Forest Road Acquisition Corp include FRC founder Zachary Tarica, Shaquille O'Neal, Mark Burg and Martin Luther King III. FRC is a "full-service provider" to the independent film industry, loaning funds against state film tax credits. FRC began public trading on November 25, 2020 (NYSE:FRX), and was reported that month to have raised more than $US300 million. In February 2021, an agreement for a three-way merger between Forest Road Acquisition Corp, Myx Fitness Holdings and Beachbody was entered into.

Candle Media

In 2021, Staggs and Kevin Mayer founded Candle Media, which was created from their previous SPAC. Candle Media has engaged in ten acquisitions, which includes

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Reese Witherspoon, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Aw ...

's company 'Hello Sunshine' and Moonbug Entertainment, which produces the popular children's television series Cocomelon.

Board memberships

Since leaving Disney, Staggs has been an active investor and advisor for various companies. He is also a member of the board of directors of

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Staggs, Thomas O 1961 births American chief operating officers American film studio executives American entertainment industry businesspeople American media executives Carlson School of Management alumni Date of birth missing (living people) Disney executives Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Stanford University alumni