Former US senator George Mitchell has been appointed chairman of Disney after shareholders ousted Mr Michael Eisner at the company's AGM.
Mr Mitchell of the key figures in the Northern Ireland peace process as former president Bill Clinton's US special envoy.
Mr Eisner kept his position as chief executive even after 43 per cent of shareholders voted against him in an unprecedented protest last night.
The vote sent shockwaves through corporate America and marked the strongest such protest against an incumbent chief executive ever, signalling Disney's concession was unlikely to satisfy shareholders campaigning for Mr Eisner's removal.
Calpers, the nation's largest public pension fund, said the "stunning" result of the vote showed the depth of investor frustration with Mr Eisner.
"This discontent is too wide and way too deep in the marketplace, and it has led us to believe that Eisner should go," said Mr Sean Harrigan, president of the board of administration of Calpers, or the California Public Employees Retirement System.
Disney's board said that while it recognised that some shareholders were calling for Mr Eisner's removal, it was confident that the company's results would validate its support of management and current strategy.
Mr Eisner has been criticised over Disney's longer-term stock performance, low ratings at the company's struggling ABC network and what detractors see as his mishandling of a now-scuttled movie distribution deal with Pixar.
Analysts had expected Disney would strip the chairmanship from Eisner, but many doubted that step would be enough to placate investors now.