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Ousted ex-Disney CEO Bob Chapek sidelined the company’s long time chief financial officer during his last stand as head of House of Mouse, excluding her from high-level meetings and alleging that she had lost focus due to her husband’s health.
That’s according to a bombshell new feature from the Wall Street Journal which, citing unnamed executives at Disney, said that it was CFO Christine McCarthy, who eventually convinced former CEO Bob Iger to return to the role.
At the time, Iger was yachting around the Fijian islands, complaining to friends that he was ‘frustrated with the idleness’ of his life post-Disney. His wife, Willow Bay, was too busy with her job as a dean at the University of Southern California to join him island hopping.
He stepped down as CEO in 2019 with Chapek replacing him.
Disney CEO Bob Iger pictured with his wife, former model Willow Bay, in 2018
Iger separated completely with Disney near the end of 2021 after remaining onboard for two years as executive chairman, helping to guide Chapek and to guarantee a smooth transition.
However during that period, Iger would allegedly hold meetings with executives without Chapek, 63, and often complain about his successor’s leadership and refusal to lean on him, saying that his replacement was doing a ‘terrible job.’
According to WSJ, McCarthy referred to Chapek’s leadership as ‘devastating’ to the company. She finally made the call to Iger on November 16, to see if he was interested in coming back to the job he held for 15 years.
Two days later, Disney’s board would offer Iger the job and then fire Chapek, who was marred by dropping stock prices and a battle with Florida lawmakers over its special tax district status.
McCarthy was among the leading executives who often chastised Chapek’s failings, catching him off guard during a meeting where she laid out Disney’s dropping revenue, sources told the WSJ.
Long time Disney CFO Christine McCarthy hatched a plot to oust Bob Chapek as CEO after she found herself sidelined from important meetings
During his sabbatical from Disney, Iger spent time island hopping in Fiji on his 184 foot yacht, Aquarius
Ousted CEO Bob Chapek had sidelined McCarthy from key meetings, leading to her plot to overthrow him
They noted the Chapek was angry at McCarthy for not previously discussing the numbers with him while giving briefing materials to the rest of the board.
Chapek allegedly held meetings without McCarthy and said she had ‘lost focus’ and become ‘unstable.’ According to the WSJ, McCarthy’s husband was experiencing bad health at the time.
The CFO has been married to real estate mogul Michael McCormick since 1988. The couple has two children together, daughter Kelsey and son, Daniel.
Revelations into the insight of Chapek’s final days comes as Disney warns staff that job cuts are imminent with its stock down more than 42 percent in the last year.
According to current and former executives at Disney, Iger continued to act as a ‘shadow CEO’ at the company after retiring but taking a job as an executive chairman.
Iger allegedly continued to work in his office at Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, California, and conducted business with top executives without inviting Chapek.
The meetings were to let Chapek know, ‘They work for me, not for you,’ the sources said.
Chapek, on the other hand, wanted to find his own footing in the company and often strayed from Iger’s advice.
When the pandemic hit, Iger had recommended the company delay staff cuts until Congress approved relief aid.
Chapek, however, pushed for the cuts to preserve cash, but the board sided with Iger, who maintained much of his power to help guide Disney through the pandemic.
Sources said Chapek was ‘livid’ and would privately complain to his deputies that he ‘wasn’t fully in control.’
After Iger touted his work during the pandemic during a New York Times interview, the sources said that any chances of Chapek personally turning to his mentor for advice ‘went from unlikely to out of the question.’
The two men also clashed over the rollout of Disney’s streaming service, where Iger had projected the company would get 60 to 90 million users within its first five years.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office has said that he is not making a U-Turn on stripping away some of Disney’s special privileges, which had become a major issue under Chapek’s leadership
Chapek, noting the rise of streaming during the pandemic, raised the projections in December 2020 to 260 million subscribers, with Iger saying it ‘wasn’t smart to offer such an ambitious goal.’
Although Disney saw early success, its latest quarterly report shows the streaming service has since lost $1.5 billion.
Since Chapek took over, the company has lost a full one-third of its value.
Iger’s sensational return as Disney’s CEO came as a shock to even some of the media conglomerate’s senior executives — who only found out about the change in leadership while at an Elton John concert on November 20.
Chapek is expected to receive a $23 million exit package, and will receive even more if share prices bounce back up after falling more than 42 percent over the past year.
Iger (right) pictured with his successor and predecessor Bob Chapek (left) told Disney employees in late November that he had an ‘inkling’ he’d be getting a call to return to the company
Since Chapek took over the company, it has been blasted as becoming too woke as the House of Mouse further mishandled its relations with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the bill, which bars teachers of students in third grade and below from discussing sexuality.
As a result, DeSantis decided to strip Disney World of its special tax privileges.
The company has also been slammed for becoming more woke, with scenes of a lesbian kiss in kids’ movie Lightyear, and a transgender man buying tampons in TV series Baymax – although those productions were likely signed off during Iger’s tenure.
Disney is also facing pressure from park workers who have demanded wage increases as long-time employees say they’re ‘grossly underpaid’ while the company enjoys $3.6 billion in profits over their work.
The Services Trades Council Union (STCU), which represents 42,000 of Disney’s 70,000 workforce, has called on the company to bump employees’ wages to meet their high cost of living.
While Disney granted employees a $2 raise to $15 an hour in 2021, the union said it was a far cry from the $18.19 now needed to make ends meet as workers protested outside the Magic Kingdom last week.
Earl Penson, who’s worked as a chef for 11 years, told The Guardian that the latest pay increase was not distributed evenly as he only makes 50 cents more than a new hire.
‘We’re grossly, grossly underpaid for the hours that we work,’ Penson said. ‘A lot of us have the same story in not being able to afford the cost of living on the pay that we make.’
‘A lot of Disney workers are barely squeaking by. You have workers with families sleeping in their car.’
Disney park workers are demanding their wage of $15-an-hour increase to meet the current standard living wage of $18.19
He criticized Disney for not raising their wages to meet the average standard of living in Orange County, Florida, which the MIT Living Wage Calculator puts at $18.19.
‘It’s really heartbreaking, it’s a morale downer, because you would think they would recognize how hard the cast members work,’ Penson said. ‘I wish they would let us know that they appreciate the magic that we bring.
‘Every one of us is a part of the magic of Disney and we enjoy making the magic. We just want to be compensated for making the magic.’
According to Local 737, one of the six unions represented by STCU, about 75 percent of its members have had to skip meals over the past year just to save money.
Another 35 percent needed a second job to get by, and a fourth of the union members skipped out on purchasing medicine prescribed by a doctor.
About 40 percent or more have suffered stress over money, which has affected their relationships and health.
The Union also found that 26 percent of its members have had to move because their rent or mortgages had gone up, while 21 percent have taken on roommates to help with the costs.
About 39 percent of the members said they were worried about being homeless.
In regards to the negotiations, Disney said it was considering employees’ call for a pathway to a $20-an-hour salary.
‘We have presented a strong and meaningful offer that far outpaces Florida minimum wage by at least $5 an hour and immediately takes starting wages for certain roles including bus drivers, housekeepers and culinary up to a minimum of $20 an hour while providing a path to $20 for all other full-time, non-tipped STCU roles during the contract term.’ the company said in a statement.
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