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Disney's environmental sustainability co-lead leaves company. Yalmaz Siddiqui, a 20-year veteran of the profession, joined Disney in June 2022 after previous roles with MGM International and Office Depot, among others. Yalmaz Siddiqui (R.) interviews business strategy consultant Andrew Winston (L.) on his fall 2026 road trip. Source: Yalmaz Siddiqui Key Takeaways: * Kelley Greenman remains at the media and entertainment company with the new title of vice president of global sustainability. * What's next: Siddiqui is interviewing fellow sustainability professionals for a video blog series that he plans to turn into a book. * His advice to mid-career professionals: Recognize this difficult moment, but remember that the world works in cycles. Yalmaz Siddiqui has exited his role as vice president of environmental sustainability at The Walt Disney as a result of a corporate reorganization, effective Oct. 17. His former co-lead, Kelley Greenman, remains at the media and entertainment company with the new title of vice president of global sustainability, reporting to Brent Olson, senior vice president of global public policy. "I was part of a recent restructuring and while it's disappointing to leave a place as fascinating as The Walt Disney Company, my main emotion is gratitude: for my team and time there, and for the space, creativity, and adventure this new change enables," Siddiqui said on LinkedIn. Disney did not respond to a request for comment. Siddiqui, a 20-year veteran of the profession, joined Disney in June 2022 after six years as vice president of corporate sustainability for hospitality company MGM Resorts International. Before that, he held various sustainability management roles at Office Depot, where he helped triple the retailer's sales of green product alternatives to more than $3 billion. Reflecting on his career, Siddiqui said that one of the most important lessons he learned is to advocate both the financial case for sustainability and the moral case. "We are whiplashing between extremes," he said. "We need to have a portfolio approach, and we need to think about both. Remember, companies are always and often investing in long-term things that don't deliver an immediate ROI but that are in the best interest of the long-term health of the company. We don't want to get stuck in the ROI cage." Siddiqui plans to spend the next few months taking a sabbatical and thinking broadly about his next phase. As of now he is traveling across America in an electric campervan interviewing fellow sustainability professionals for a video blog series. His interviews will become the foundation for a book proposal. He's exploring the next career stage with a wide lens that will likely include academia, adventure travel or returning to sustainability after a break. "I was part of a recent restructuring and while it's disappointing to leave a place as fascinating as The Walt Disney Company, my main emotion is gratitude: for my team and time there, and for the space, creativity, and adventure this new change enables," Siddiqui said on LinkedIn. His advice to mid-career professionals struggling with the tough climate for environmental sustainability initiatives: "Our jobs are difficult, but change in any context is difficult. Remember that a lot of young people still want to go into this profession. Hunker down, recognize the moment, but reflect that the world works in cycles and this time will also pass." Get real case studies, expert action steps and the latest sustainability trends in a concise morning email. Heather Clancy's articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.

Will 'VisionQuest' be a streaming hit? I just finished watching the first two episodes of VisionQuest, and I'm hooked. To be fair, WandaVision is one of my favorite shows, and I loved Agatha All Along, too. Let's just say that these Marvel shows are right in my wheelhouse. Even so, I think we're all aware of how much is riding on Marvel's latest Disney+ series. So, will VisionQuest be a hit? Let's talk about it and the Nielsen Streaming Ratings. The end of the road. Next year, Marvel will release the third season of Daredevil: Born Again. At that point, Disney+ will have completed its first content era. When the company announced Disney+, it promised tons of new Star Wars and Marvel content. Then, the people in charge of the fledgling streaming service realized a hard truth. Live-action Star Wars and Marvel content costs a fortune and may not justify the expense. At the moment, the only other upcoming Star Wars live-action series is the next season of Ahsoka. Disney has promised it'll create a Marvel series entitled Zodiac in 2028. Even if that happens, Disney+ will go about 18 months between Marvel live-action titles. For this reason, VisionQuest needs to succeed. It's the last of a dying breed. I say this because neither season of Daredevil: Born Again has performed well. We can safely say that its third and final season won't move the needle any. Similarly, Disney just canceled Wonder Man after previously promising a second season. The company holds high hopes for VisionQuest, though, as it's the final part of a trilogy. During the pandemic, WandaVision became a global sensation and a welcome respite. Agatha All Along never billed itself as a sequel, as that would have ruined the surprise. Those of you who have watched that series understand the connection, though. Agatha All Along also performed quite well, consistently appearing on the Nielsen streaming ratings. The show peaked at 744 million viewer minutes and averaged about 450 million viewer minutes. Those are the numbers Disney hopes to see for VisionQuest. Will the show get there? About 'VisionQuest' The early buzz about VisionQuest isn't quite as positive as Marvel would hope. As a composite, reviewers indicate it's good but definitely no WandaVision. To be fair, that's a brutal comparison for any show. WandaVision is spectacular. Still, Disney has spent a ton of money on VisionQuest and really needs a hit. In addition to bringing back Paul Bettany as Vision, Disney also persuaded James Spader to return. We're talking about two actors who have starred in multiple major Hollywood films. Spader portrayed the villainous Ultron in The Avengers: Age of Ultron. So, his casting here is quite the coup for the series and arguably the primary draw. Since Ultron has battled the Avengers in the comics for decades now, everyone expects him to return. This show presumably sets the table for that eventuality. We're just waiting to see how. Most importantly, Vision should also get some answers about the status of his family. I don't want to spoil the events of the other two shows, so let's just say he's changed. After watching the first two episodes, I can confirm the show leans heavily into this idea. The Vision you know is no more, replaced by an empty vessel searching for an identity. I'm happy to report that I adored these episodes, so I disagree with the early critical reception. One thing's for sure, though. If VisionQuest isn't a hit, Disney+ won't commit to more Marvel titles. I know what they've said about Zodiac, but filming hasn't started yet. So, there's a LOT riding on VisionQuest, and Disney definitely needs a hit. Nielsen Streaming Ratings. Okay, let's talk about the Nielsen streaming ratings for the week of September 28th through October 4th, 2026. Before I get into specifics, I'll note that the Halloween phase hasn't started yet. Historically, the Movies chart has started showing popular horror titles by mid-September. That didn't happen much this time, although Backrooms showed up. It's a new release, though. So, this week's chart is relatively straightforward, albeit quite strong for Disney. Here are the company's streaming hits: * American Horror Story - 712 million viewer minutes * Bluey - 706 million viewer minutes * Toy Story 5 - 687 million viewer minutes * Murder in a Small Town - 661 million viewer minutes * Doc - 611 million viewer minutes * Gilmore Girls - 551 million viewer minutes * Grey's Anatomy - 545 million viewer minutes * Bob's Burgers - 536 million viewer minutes * Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle - 220 million viewer minutes * Coraline - 198 million viewer minutes The new season of American Horror Story looks like it'll be a huge hit. Also, Disney programs airing as original content on Fox are performing extremely well. Overall, this is a very good chart that should encourage Disney. It'll look even better in a couple of weeks if VisionQuest proves popular, though.

Jim Freeman, ex-Amazon Prime Video VP, joins Ticketmaster as CTO to lead 'AI-first' push. October 20, 2026 Ticketmaster has appointed former Amazon executive Jim Freeman as its Chief Technology Officer. The Live Nation-owned company has also hired Rachel Smith from Block as its first SVP of Data Science and Machine Learning, and ex-Disney executive Chuck Mortimore as SVP of Product. Ticketmaster announced the appointments on Monday (October 19), alongside the addition of the team behind AI startup Ragie. "Reliable, secure and personalized experiences depend on how effectively we use technology and data," said Saumil Mehta, Global President of Ticketmaster. "Jim, Rachel, Chuck and the Ragie.ai team will help us move faster, build better tools and deliver better outcomes for fans, artists, venues and clients." As CTO, Freeman will be responsible for the technology behind Ticketmaster's products for fans and clients, including what the company calls "a new generation of agentic, AI-powered tools." "Jim, Rachel, Chuck and the Ragie.ai team will help us move faster, build better tools and deliver better outcomes for fans, artists, venues and clients." Saumil Mehta, Ticketmaster Freeman will also oversee Ticketmaster's global engineering organization and platform modernization, continue work on its defenses against bots and "bad actors," and lead a push to make "every function AI-first" across the company. Ticketmaster says Freeman has spent more than 30 years running engineering teams at consumer technology businesses. As a VP at Amazon, he helped build and launch Prime Video, then scaled the service to more than 30 million monthly active users worldwide. He also launched Prime Video Direct and Amazon Channels, and expanded the service's device partnerships and distribution. Freeman later served as CTO of European fashion marketplace Zalando, which now connects more than 62 million active customers with 7,000 brands across 29 markets. Most recently, he was a Senior Advisor at Permira. Freeman fills a position that had been vacant since February, according to Variety. Ticketmaster's previous CTO, London-based Carlos Alvarez-Coch, left shortly before the US antitrust trial against Live Nation began on March 2. Smith joins Ticketmaster from Block, where she helped scale the data science teams behind Square, Cash App, and TIDAL. She was responsible for more than 120 data scientists across those businesses. At Ticketmaster, Smith will build what the company calls a "center of excellence for data science," extending its existing analytics work and making data more central to product development and business decisions. Ticketmaster says the move will create its first dedicated data science and machine learning organization, with a focus on fraud detection, bot mitigation, and the fan experience. Mortimore, meanwhile, will lead Ticketmaster's product strategy for identity, access, and trust. His remit covers how fans access and manage their accounts and tickets, as well as protections against "bad actors and unauthorized access," according to Ticketmaster. Mortimore has held product leadership roles at Disney, Stripe, Visa, and Salesforce over more than 20 years, following earlier engineering roles at Netscape and Sun Microsystems. At Disney, his most recent employer, he consolidated identity across the company's global businesses, including its theme parks, Disney+, and Hulu. Ticketmaster said the Ragie team, whose work focuses on AI infrastructure and retrieval technology, will help staff across the business build AI tools and put them to use. Ragie announced on July 27 that it was joining Ticketmaster, a deal Variety reported as an acquisition. Ragie's website still describes the company as a "fully managed RAG-as-a-Service platform," and now carries a banner announcing that "Ragie joins Ticketmaster." RAG, or retrieval-augmented generation, is a technique that lets AI models draw on a company's own documents and data when generating answers. The appointments come almost a year after Mehta joined Ticketmaster as Global President, with a stated aim to "accelerate an AI transformation" at the company. Mehta previously spent more than nine years at Square, where he was most recently Chief Product Officer and Head of Business Org. In May, Ticketmaster cut around 350 jobs, or 8% of its global workforce, primarily in engineering, product, and design, according to Pollstar. "The purpose of [these cuts] is stronger prioritization, especially in engineering product and design," Mehta told Pollstar at the time. "That comes with flattening layers, consolidating ownership, changing how teams are structured and ensuring that we put more energy behind specific initiatives." Ticketmaster's controls on bots and ticket brokers are also the subject of a lawsuit brought against Live Nation and Ticketmaster by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and seven states in September 2025. The complaint alleges that Ticketmaster knowingly allowed brokers to use hundreds or thousands of accounts to exceed artists' ticket limits, and that those tickets were then resold on Ticketmaster's own resale marketplace. In a court filing on October 13, Live Nation and Ticketmaster denied the FTC's claims, calling the lawsuit "misguided." "In 2025, Ticketmaster detected and blocked nearly 260 million attempts daily by bots to access its services, and currently blocks tens of thousands of suspected inauthentic account-creation attempts each day," the filing states. Separately, a federal jury in Manhattan found in April that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had illegally monopolized primary ticketing at major US concert venues, along with the market for large amphitheaters. Live Nation and Ticketmaster have asked the court to throw out the verdict or order a new trial. The coalition of 33 states and the District of Columbia that pressed the case to a verdict, after the DOJ settled its claims a week into the trial, is seeking the divestiture of Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster's revenues rose 15% year-over-year to USD $852 million in Q2 2026, with adjusted operating income up 14% to USD $331 million. The company says it processes more than 600 million tickets annually across more than 35 countries.Music Business Worldwide