Bob Chapek accused CFO who ousted him of ‘losing focus due to her ailing husband’

The ousted former Disney CEO Bob Chapek sidelined the company’s longtime CFO during his last position as head of the House of Mouse, excluding her from high-level meetings and claiming she had lost focus due to the her husband’s health.

That’s according to a new pump feature the Wall Street Journal who, citing anonymous Disney executives, said it was chief financial officer Christine McCarthy who ultimately convinced former chief executive Bob Iger to return to the job.

At the time, Iger was sailing a yacht around the Fiji islands, complaining to friends that he was “frustrated with the idleness” of his post-Disney life. His wife, Willow Bay, was too busy with her job as dean at the University of Southern California to accompany him from island to island.

He stepped down as CEO in 2019 and Chapek replaced him.

Disney CEO Bob Iger pictured with his wife, former model Willow Bay, in 2018

Iger parted ways with Disney entirely in late 2021 after staying on board for two years as CEO, helping guide Chapek and ensuring a smooth transition.

Yet during that period, Iger reportedly met with executives without Chapek, 63, and frequently complained about his successor’s leadership and refused to lean on him, saying his replacement was doing a “terrible job.”

According to WSJ, McCarthy called Chapek’s leadership “devastating” for the company. He finally called Iger on November 16 to see if he was interested in returning to the job he held for 15 years.

Two days later, Disney’s board of directors would offer Iger the job and then fire Chapek, who has been hit by plummeting stock prices and a battle with Florida lawmakers over its special tax district status.

McCarthy was among top executives who often criticized Chapek’s failings, catching him off guard during a meeting in which he exposed falling Disney revenue, sources told the WSJ.

Disney’s chief financial officer, Christine McCarthy, has long hatched a plot to oust Bob Chapek as chief executive after she was sidelined from important meetings.

During his sabbatical from Disney, Iger spent time island-hopping in Fiji on his 184-foot yacht, Aquarius.

The ousted CEO, Bob Chapek, had sidelined McCarthy from key meetings, leading to his plot to oust him.

They noted that Chapek was angry with McCarthy for not discussing the numbers with him beforehand as he handed out briefing materials to the rest of the board.

Chapek allegedly held meetings without McCarthy, saying that he had “lost focus” and become “unsettled”. According to the WSJ, McCarthy’s husband was in poor health at the time.

The CFO has been married to real estate mogul Michael McCormick since 1988. The couple have two children together, a daughter Kelsey and a son Daniel.

The revelations about Chapek’s final days come as Disney warns staff that job cuts are imminent with its shares plunging more than 42 percent in the past year.

According to current and former Disney executives, Iger continued to act as a ‘shadow CEO’ at the company after retiring, but took over as CEO.

Iger allegedly continued to work out of 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 you,” the sources said.

Chapek, on the other hand, wanted to find his own footing in the company and often deviated from Iger’s advice.

When the pandemic hit, Iger had recommended that the company delay job cuts until emergency aid was approved by Congress.

However, Chapek pushed for the cuts to preserve cash, but the board sided with Iger, who kept much of his power to help guide Disney through the pandemic.

Sources said Chapek was “living” and privately complaining to aides that he was “not in complete control.”

After Iger touted his work during the pandemic during a New York Times interview, sources said that any possibility of Chapek personally turning to his mentor for advice “went from unlikely to out of the question.”

The two men also clashed over the launch of Disney’s streaming service, where Iger had projected the company would have 60 million to 90 million users in its first five years.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office has said it is not making a U-turn to remove some of Disney’s special privileges, which had become a major problem under Chapek’s leadership.

Chapek, noting the surge in streaming during the pandemic, raised December 2020 projections to 260 million subscribers, with Iger saying “it wasn’t smart to offer such an ambitious goal.”

Although Disney found 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 third of its value.

Iger’s sensational return as Disney CEO surprised even some of the media conglomerate’s top executives, who only learned of the leadership change during an Elton John concert on November 20.

Chapek is expected to receive a $23 million exit package, and will receive even more if stock prices recover 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 “indication” that he would receive a call to return to the company.

Since Chapek took over the company, she has been criticized for being too awake as the House of Mouse mishandled its relations with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the bill, which bans teachers of third-graders from grade and younger talk about sexuality.

As a result, DeSantis decided to strip Disney World of its special tax privileges.

The company has also been criticized for becoming more aroused, with scenes of a lesbian kiss in the children’s movie Lightyear and a transgender man buying tampons in the TV series Baymax, though those productions likely shut down during Iger’s tenure.

Disney is also facing pressure from park workers who have demanded pay rises as longtime employees say they are “very underpaid” while the company enjoys $3.6 billion in profit from their work.

The Service Trades Council Union (STCU), which represents 42,000 of Disney’s 70,000 employees, has called on the company to raise employee wages to cover their high cost of living.

While Disney gave employees a raise from $2 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 night. last week.

Earl Penson, who has worked as a chef for 11 years, said The Guardian that the last pay raise was not evenly distributed, since he only earns 50 cents more than a new hire.

“We are very, very underpaid for the hours that we work,” Penson said. “Many of us have the same story of not being able to pay the cost of living with the salary we earn.”

‘Many Disney workers barely get through. You have workers with families sleeping in their car.

Disney park workers are demanding a $15-per-hour wage increase to meet the current living wage of $18.19

He criticized Disney for failing to raise their wages to match the average standard of living in Orange County, Florida, which the MIT Living Wage Calculator puts at $18.19.

“It’s really heartbreaking, it depresses morale, because you’d think they’d recognize how hard the cast members work,” Penson said. ‘I’d like you to let us know you appreciate the magic we bring.

“Each of us is part of the Disney magic and we enjoy making the magic. We just want to be compensated for doing 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 in the past year just to save money.

Another 35 percent needed a second job to survive, and a quarter of union members did not buy prescription drugs from a doctor.

About 40 percent or more have experienced money stress, which has affected their relationships and health.

The Union also found that 26 percent of its members had to move because their rent or mortgages had gone up, while 21 percent hired roommates to help with costs.

About 39 percent of members said they were worried about becoming homeless.

Regarding the negotiations, Disney said it was considering the employees’ call for a path to a $20-per-hour wage.

“We’ve put forth a strong and meaningful offer that far exceeds Florida’s minimum wage by at least $5 an hour and immediately takes starting wages for certain roles, including bus drivers, housekeepers and cooks down to a minimum of $ 20 per hour while providing a path to $20 for all other full-time STCU roles, with no tips during contract term.’ the company said in a statement.