Adam Smith Named Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer, Disney Entertainment

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 17, 2026--

Adam Smith has been named Chairman of Direct-to-Consumer for Disney Entertainment, it was announced today by Dana Walden, President and Chief Creative Officer, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). It was also announced that Joe Earley will assume the newly created role of President, Disney Entertainment Television Franchise and Content Strategy.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260917647515/en/

As Chairman, Smith will be responsible for the company’s global entertainment SVOD business, driving strategy, development, and continued innovation across the company’s streaming platforms, proprietary advertising technology, emerging technologies and more. In his expanded role, he will oversee Disney+ and Hulu including product, engineering, advertising technology, programming strategy, viewer experience, partnerships, and data & analytics.

“Over the past two years, Adam has done an exceptional job building a world-class team of product and technology leaders and has significantly enhanced the Disney+ user experience globally,” said Dana Walden, President & Chief Creative Officer, The Walt Disney Company. “Alan Bergman and I are pleased to recognize the tremendous impact he has had on our direct-to-consumer business since he joined Disney, and we are confident that he is the right leader to meet the critical moment we’re in and take us to the next level.”

"Disney has the best storytellers and the most passionate fandom in the world, and I couldn't be prouder of what this team has built together," said Adam Smith, Chairman, Direct-to-Consumer, Disney Entertainment. "We've established real momentum, and our vision ahead is clear: make Disney+ the connection point for fans everywhere to engage with the full breadth and depth of the broader Disney ecosystem. I'm grateful for this team, energized by what's ahead, and excited for our next chapter."

In his new role as President, Disney Entertainment Television Franchise and Content Strategy, Earley will lead the strategic development of Disney Entertainment Television franchises, maximizing their value and creating new opportunities to engage audiences and drive the business forward. He will oversee all content and production for international originals, production, labor relations and creative talent development.

“Joe has been an exceptional leader for our direct-to-consumer business over the past four years, and I am deeply grateful for his partnership and meaningful contributions,” said Walden. “He is a talented executive with a rare combination of business acumen and creative instincts, and Debra OConnell and I could not be more excited to welcome him to the leadership team at Disney Entertainment Television.”

Smith joined Disney in 2024, and has played a central role in transforming the Company's direct-to-consumer business. He most recently served as Co-President, Direct-to-Consumer and Chief Product & Technology Officer for Disney Entertainment and ESPN. Previously, Smith spent more than 20 years at Google and YouTube, where he held executive roles across numerous divisions, throughout significant growth trajectories of both companies.

Earley joined Disney in 2019 to oversee global Disney+ marketing and operations in the leadup to its hugely successful launch, and was named President of Hulu in 2022, leading the platform’s suite of on-demand and live streaming businesses. He most recently served as Co-President, Direct-to-Consumer and head of content strategy. Previously, he was a long-tenured executive at Fox where he held a variety of roles across content, communications, marketing and operations.

About TWDC

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international entertainment and media enterprise that includes three business segments: Entertainment, Sports, and Experiences. Disney is a Dow 30 company and had annual revenue of $94.4 billion in its Fiscal Year 2025.

About Disney+

Disney+ is the dedicated streaming home for movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic, along with The Simpsons and outside the U.S., general entertainment brand Hulu. As the flagship direct-to-consumer streaming service from The Walt Disney Company, Disney+ serves as a connection point for audiences around the world with an unmatched collection of award-winning general entertainment, gold-standard family programming, the most trusted news, and global sports programming from ESPN. With unprecedented access to Disney’s long history of incredible film and television entertainment, it is also the exclusive streaming home for the newest releases from The Walt Disney Studios. Disney+ is available as a standalone streaming service or as part of bundle offerings in the U.S. whereby bundle subscribers can now stream Hulu and ESPN content directly in the Disney+ app. Subscriptions also include access to the Disney+ Perks loyalty program including special discounts, everyday savings, and early access to exclusive experiences that only Disney can offer. For more, visit disneyplus.com, or find the Disney+ app on most mobile and connected TV devices.

Joe Earley, The Walt Disney Company

Adam Smith, The Walt Disney Company

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Syrian military official convicted of torturing prisoners during the rule of former President Bashar Assad was sentenced Thursday to 60 years in a U.S. prison.

A jury in March found Samir Ousman Alsheikh guilty if one count of conspiracy to commit torture and three counts of torture while in charge of Syria's infamous Adra Prison from roughly 2005 to 2008.

“The conduct was heinous, unimaginably cruel, and almost unspeakably violent and brutal,” a federal judge in Los Angeles said before announcing the sentence.

Defense attorneys said they will appeal the sentence.

Human rights groups and United Nations officials have accused the Syrian government of widespread abuses in its detention facilities, including torture and arbitrary detention of thousands of people, in many cases without informing their families.

Prosecutors said Alsheikh, seeking to quash political dissent, sent certain prisoners to a wing of Adra where they were held in small isolation cells and tortured.

Alsheikh came to the U.S. in 2020 and applied for citizenship, but prosecutors say he concealed his involvement in torture. Federal authorities detained him at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2024.

In a three-hour hearing, the judge heard statements of support from Alsheikh’s son and daughter. There were also recorded statements from former inmates who described the brutality they suffered and witnessed at the prison.

During the trial, three victims recounted beatings while suspended from pipes on the ceiling and the use of a device that folded their bodies in half at the waist. One person testified that Alsheikh stomped on the device with his foot, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“Defendant knew that what he was doing was wrong,” DOJ prosecutors said in a sentencing memo filed this month. “Nonetheless he ordered and participated in the torture of his victims because he had the power to do so and because he thought he would never be held accountable.”

The memo included statements from several victims, one of whom, Nidal Shikhani, said he can “still hear the screams of others begging for mercy, repeating, ‘Leave me, leave me.’”

Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Hernan D. Vera for a minimum sentence of 80 years. Alsheikh's attorneys, Nina Marino and Collin Cate, called for a five-year sentence, noting that he is 74 years old and has “significant medical and cognitive conditions.” They also said he was willing to be deported to Syria, where a new government has sought to hold Assad-era security officials accountable.

“Whatever moral weight this case carries in the broader arc of history — however much the world, or the victims, or the public might wish the sentence to ‘send a message’ — that desire cannot be the foundation of a just sentence,” Marino and Cate wrote in their Sept. 3 memo.

Jurors also convicted Alsheikh in March of lying to U.S. immigration authorities and fraudulently obtaining a green card and attempting to naturalize as a U.S. citizen.

Assad was ousted in a lightning rebel offensive in December 2024, bringing a 14-year civil war to an end, but the country has continued to suffer from sporadic outbreaks of violence.

In March 2025, armed groups aligned with Assad ambushed the new government’s security forces on Syria’s coast. A government counteroffensive then spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks and the massacre of hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs.

On Thursday, three people were sentenced in the Syrian city of Aleppo in connection with the violence. Two members of the pro-Assad groups were sentenced to death and life in prison, while a member of the security forces who took part in the revenge attacks was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.

The exterior of the federal courthouse is seen March 27, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)