Christine McCarthy has been a key member of Disney’s top management team in recent years. She is leaving the company and going on a medical break.
Kevin Lansberry, EVP and CFO of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, will be the company’s Interim CFO starting July 1. This was revealed by CEO Bob Iger.
McCarthy will stay on as a strategic advisor to the company during her time off. She will also help find and train a long-term replacement to make sure the change goes smoothly.
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The change in the executive room comes as Disney wraps up a big round of layoffs. The company wants to save $5.5 billion by cutting costs, so it is letting go of 7,000 workers. McCarthy has also been in charge of how the company’s streaming activities spend their money.
Wall Street has been paying more attention to streaming in the past few months, and one company has admitted that it was too aggressive in 2020 and 2021 when it tried to reach a global scale and fight more directly with Netflix.
Nearly a year ago, McCarthy told the company’s board of directors that she was worried about mistakes made by former CEO Bob Chapek, such as his ambitious goals for streaming subscribers.
Chapek was fired in November 2022, and Iger was put back in charge of the company for the second time. Iger has a two-year contract, and a board group is working with him to find a possible replacement.
“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.”
Christine McCarthy Stepping Down as Disney CFO:
BREAKING: Christine McCarthy Stepping Down as Disney CFOhttps://t.co/NK8t56EqSI
— WDW News Today (@WDWNT) June 15, 2023
Lansberry has agreed to be the interim CFO while the company looks for a stable replacement from both inside and outside the company.
“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 be responsible for leading the company’s global finance team, which includes investor relations, risk management, tax, treasury, corporate alliances and partnerships, corporate real estate, corporate strategy, and business development. It also includes enterprise controllership, enterprise technology, financial planning, and analysis.
McCarthy started working for Disney in 2000 as the treasurer. In 2015, he became the CFO. Before she joined Disney, she was the CFO of Imperial Bancorp from 1997 to 2000. F
rom 1981 to 1996, she held different executive jobs at First Interstate Bancorp. She is on the boards of Procter & Gamble and FM Global, and she is a trustee of the Carnegie Institution for Science.
