Disney’s Chief Financial Officer Resigns
Christine M. McCarthy, who spent her eight years as Disney’s chief financial officer helping stabilize the company during the pandemic when most of Disney was shut down, and who played a key role in Bob Chapek’s ousting as CEO last year, will step down down on July 1, she said on Thursday.
Ms McCarthy, 67, said she would take “family medical leave”. Disney did not provide further details, although it is common knowledge within the senior ranks of the company that her husband has a serious illness. Ms. McCarthy, who has battled cancer twice during her Disney career, has a contract that runs until June next year.
She will serve as a strategic advisor until then, helping to “identify and onboard a long-term successor,” Disney said. Kevin Lansberry, 59, will become the company’s interim chief financial officer. He has served as chief financial officer for Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Products since 2017. “He has my complete confidence,” Disney CEO Robert A. Iger said in a statement.
Mr. Iger called Ms. McCarthy “one of the most admired financial executives in America” and said her impact on Disney “could not be overemphasized”.
In February 2020, just as the pandemic began to shut down much of the global economy, Mr. Iger stepped down as CEO of Disney and handed the job over to Mr. Chapek, the company’s former theme park chairman. Together, Mr. Chapek and Ms. McCarthy hurried to put Disney on the most solid financial footing, including securing $20 billion in the bond markets.
“Christine was able to pick up the right kind of debt instruments to keep us afloat,” Kevin Mayer, Disney’s former streaming chief, told a reporter from Smith College alumni magazine last year.
Last fall, however, the relationship between Mrs. McCarthy and Mr. Chapek had fizzled out. She had become increasingly alarmed by losses at the company’s streaming division and wondered if Disney+ could meet the aggressive subscriber targets that Mr. Chapek was publicly touting.
The friction came into focus at a Disney board meeting—Ms. McCarthy bluntly told the board what she thought, infuriating a surprised Mr. Chapek—and he never recovered; the board fired him at the end of November. (In May, Mr. Chapek and Mrs. McCarthy were both named in a shareholder lawsuit accusing the company of misleading investors about Disney+’s growth.)
Mr. Iger agreed to retire to take over the reins of Disney again. Mrs. McCarthy, who had stayed close to him, was the first to call him to see if he was interested.
Ms. McCarthy joined Disney in 2000 as treasurer. Prior to that, she worked in the banking industry for two decades.