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Disney CFO Christine McCarthy will be stepped down as Disney’s CFO on July 1. McCarthy is taking a family medical leave of absence, but she’s also going to help Disney find a successor. Disney’s interim CFO will be Kevin Lansberry, the CFO for Disney, Parks, Experiences, and Products. Lansberry is temporarily taking on the interim CFO role and moving to Burbank from Orlando. Could he just capture the job? I wouldn’t rule that out.
After it was announced that McCarthy would be stepping down, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal that McCarthy was clashing with Disney execs on cost cuts. McCarthy was pushing for the Disney Entertainment unit (Disney+, Theatrical, etc.) to be consolidated even further to improve margins. McCarthy wanted Disney to adopt a structure similar to Netflix.
It’s clear that was a no-go with Iger and the other executives. Christine McCarthy also played a pivotal role in the ousting of former Disney CEO Bob Chapek and before that former Disney General Entertainment exec Peter Rice. McCarthy was also the one to make the call to Bob Iger to see if he would return to the company. Now McCarthy is the one being pushed out.
After how it was publicized how McCarthy blindsided Chapek it felt like it was only a matter of time before she would step down from Disney. What would stop McCarthy from throwing Iger under the bus right now? It’s a smart decision for Iger to move on and get fresh blood. There were also some who speculated and saw McCarthy as a CEO contender. The timeline there never made sense.
So who are possible internal candidates for Disney’s next CFO?
It’s a little less clear when it comes to external candidates for CFO. I’d assume any seasoned and respected CFO in the media, entertainment, and or tech sectors would likely be possible for the job.
Although this CFO search may inform us of Disney’s approach to CEO succession. If Disney brings in an external candidate, they could do the exact same thing for CEO. In an ideal world, Disney could kill two birds with one stone and identify successors for CEO and CFO within the same time period. Although, that would require major cooperation between the Board, Iger, and Disney’s senior leadership team.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
