Christine McCarthy, a significant figure in Disney’s senior management team in recent years, is stepping down and taking a medical leave of absence from the company.Veteran Disney executive Kevin Lansberry, EVP and CFO of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, will serve as the company’s Interim CFO, effective July 1, CEO Bob Iger announced. McCarthy will continue as a strategic advisor to the company during her leave and will assist with the process of identifying and onboarding a long-term successor to ensure a smooth and successful transition.The change in the executive suite comes as Disney is completing a significant round of cutbacks, with 7,000 employees being laid off as the company pursues a goal of $5.5 billion in cost savings. McCarthy has also been overseeing the management of expenses for the company’s streaming operations. Streaming has drawn increased scrutiny by Wall Street in recent months, with the company conceding it had been overly aggressive in its efforts in 2020 and 2021 to reach global scale and compete more directly with Netflix.Nearly a year ago, McCarthy expressed her concerns to the company’s board of directors about missteps by former CEO Bob Chapek, including his aggressive streaming subscriber targets. In November 2022, Chapek was ousted and Iger returned to the corner office for his second stint running the company. Iger has a 2-year deal and is working with a board committee to identify his potential successor.“Christine McCarthy is one of the most admired financial executives in America, and her impact on The Walt Disney Company during 23 years of dedicated service cannot be overstated,” Iger said. “Christine has served as a key strategic anchor during a period of great transformation, and she and I have discussed her desire to ensure an orderly and successful CFO succession in advance of the company’s transition to its next chief executive officer. She is stepping down from her CFO role as she takes family medical leave, but has graciously offered to move into an advisory position to assist her successor in assuming the duties she has so expertly handled these many years.”“I am immensely grateful for the opportunity Bob provided me to serve as CFO of this iconic company and am proud of the work my talented team has done to position Disney to capitalize on the business possibilities that lie ahead,” McCarthy said. “Although I am leaving the CFO role, I look forward to helping with the transition and will always be rooting for the success of my extended Disney family, who have shown time and again that determination, teamwork and the pursuit of excellence are an unstoppable combination.”Lansberry has agreed to serve as Interim CFO while a search of internal and external candidates is conducted for a permanent replacement. “Kevin has been with the company for more than three decades and is a trusted lieutenant to Christine. Having expertly served as CFO at our largest business segment since 2017, he has my complete confidence, and I look forward to working with him during this transition,” Iger said.As Interim CFO, Lansberry will assume oversight of the company’s worldwide finance organization, which includes corporate alliances and partnerships, corporate real estate, corporate strategy and business development, enterprise controllership, enterprise technology, financial planning and analysis, global product and labor standards, global security, investor relations, risk management, tax and treasury.McCarthy joined Disney in 2000 as treasurer and became CFO in 2015. Prior to joining Disney, she was CFO of Imperial Bancorp from 1997 to 2000 and held various exec positions at First Interstate Bancorp from 1981 to 1996. She is a board member at Procter & Gamble and FM Global and is a trustee of the Carnegie Institution for Science.
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