UrbanUpdate

In an interview with CNBC last month, Disney CEO Bob Chapek introduced the latest innovation in the company’s post-pandemic strategy: a neatly-trimmed gray beard. Chapek was making the rounds to discuss Disney’s strong quarterly earnings, including controversial price hikes at its parks, a division he chaired for five years before succeeding Bob Iger as head honcho. But as the executive dryly parried questions about competition from Netflix and weighed in on the effects of a looming economic uncertainty, the four-minute segment strayed further and further from the most pressing issue at hand: Why on earth was Chapek, a buttoned-up C-suiter with a reputation for shrewd corporate maneuvering, sporting the CEO equivalent of a playoff beard?

Of course, Chapek isn’t the first heavily-scrutinized executive to flirt with growing out a little facial hair, as a treat. Almost a decade ago, then-Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein showed up at the World Economic Forum with a neat set of whiskers. Like Chapek, his beard wasn't full mountain man, but it still made news. (New York Magazine launched a semi-ironic Lloyd Blankfein Beard Watch, to take just one example.)

A glance through Chapek’s public appearances yields nary a hint of a beard before this. How, then, to explain the 62-year-old exec’s sudden about-face? Is it a calculated effort to spotlight his everyman bona fides? A no-fucks-given power move after signing on for another three years as CEO? A kiss-off to his naysayers, like his predecessor Iger, who has expressed “regret” about making Chapek his successor? 

Maybe he just likes the way it looks. “There's very little you can do as the CEO of a major publicly-traded company to add pieces of flair to your appearance,” says Matthew Belloni, the former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and a founding partner at Puck. “And a beard these days seems like one of them.” (Chapek himself was unavailable for comment; a representative from Disney cited his “extremely committed” schedule in the lead up to D23 Expo, the company’s biannual fan extravaganza.) 

Belloni was quick to downplay Chapek’s beard as a gateway to a more freewheeling vision of corporate leadership, but he also emphasized its radical nature, especially given Disney’s stringent regulations concerning the appearance of its employees. In 2012, the company updated its notoriously strict dress code to relax rules around facial hair in its parks and resorts, a reversal after years of enforcing a strict policy forbidding beards of any kind. And only last year did the company expand the parameters of its guidelines to allow for longer beards, which are still subject to all kinds of guidelines. 

To some observers, Belloni notes, it’s a clear flex, an indication that after a particularly strong quarter Chapek feels comfortable thumbing his nose at the conventions of his position. “This is a guy that has been under such close scrutiny since the day he took the job, he finally got a three year contract renewal, and then—boom—the beard appears,” he says. “So this may be an expression of freedom. It may be something that he has thought about for a long time. It may be a whim. But it certainly comes across as a power move.”

More Great Grooming Recommendations from GQ

The Best Beard Trimmers of 2024

The 10 Best Moisturizers for Every Type of Skin

The Best Men's Deodorant for Every Kind of Stink and Sweat

The Absolute Best Face Washes for Men

Subscribe to GQ for more Recommends content.

Avidan Grossman is GQ’s Senior Commerce Editor, covering menswear, beauty, and grooming. Prior to that, he was the Style eCommerce Editor at Esquire. He’s been reading GQ since he was a gangly middle-schooler, and widely faults the publication for turning him into the massive nerd he is today. You can... Read moreStyle Commerce EditorRelated Stories for GQDisneyBeards