Bob Iger Named TIME’s 2019 Businessperson of the Year

Credit: TIME

The cover art is Bob Iger holding Baby Yoda.

On Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger was named TIME’s Businessperson of the Year. To many business enthusiasts and the industry, the designation did not come as much of a surprise, given the fact that Iger is top dog of the media giant that houses not only the Mouse himself, but the Marvel and Star Wars franchises too.

Disney has been going strong this year, with successful box office feature films; Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing movie of all time, beating out James Cameron’s Titanic. In addition to this, Disney officially launched its long-awaited Disney+ streaming service, which saw more than 10 million subscribers sign up right after its launch. People even left Netflix for Disney+, which goes to show the power of the Mouse.

As part of naming Iger “Businessperson of the Year,” artist Tim O’Brien created a painting of the CEO holding someone that has been dominating the internet in recent weeks: Baby Yoda.

“Painting Bob Iger was fun, but of course, like almost the entire universe, being able to paint baby Yoda at a time when he’s blowing up the internet was thrilling,” TIME quoted O’Brien saying.

Even Iger had something to say about the success of the latest internet heartthrob.

“As soon as those ears popped up from under the blanket, and the eyes, I knew,” Iger was quoted as saying when he recalled the first time he saw Baby Yoda.

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