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Disney Former CEO Bob Iger Invests in Alternative Protein

Disney Former CEO Bob Iger Invests in Alternative Protein

Walt Disney Co. Executive Chairman Bob Iger has invested in food technology company Perfect Day Inc., branching out after relinquishing Disney’s CEO title earlier this year.

Iger will also join the board of Perfect Day, which aims to make dairy products without using animals in an effort to create a more sustainable product, cutting out factory farming, lactose, hormones and antibiotics.

Disney Former CEO Bob Iger Invests in Alternative Protein

Perfect Day has “enormous potential,” Iger told the Financial Times.

The company is one of many investing in plant-based and alternative proteins. Meat and dairy alternatives have been gaining in popularity, and companies like Oatly AB, Beyond Meat Inc. and Impossible Foods Inc. have continued to expand.

“We look forward to learning from his decades of visionary leadership experience as we navigate our next stage of growth and create a new category of animal-free dairy,” Perfect Day co-founders Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi said in an emailed statement.

Meanwhile, Disney is facing perhaps its greatest crisis, with fans still reluctant to go out to the movies and theme parks. Last month, the company laid off a quarter of its U.S. theme park workers.

Iger, who became executive chairman of Disney in February with the appointment of Bob Chapek as CEO, is expected to stay on until December 2021, serving in a creative role and overseeing movie and TV content. He’s been active during the pandemic, helping negotiate the National Basketball Association’s return to play at a Disney facility in Orlando, Florida; pushing the filmed version of “Hamilton” to an early release on the Disney+ streaming service, and serving until this month on a California task force on reopening the state’s economy.

Iger served on the board of Apple Inc. for eight years while CEO of Disney and remains on the board of Bloomberg Philanthropies.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.