Kareem Daniel began at Disney as Bob Chapek's intern.
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Newly reinstalled Disney CEO Bob Iger is already asserting his dominance at Disney – ousting a high protégé of ex-boss Bob Chapek and securing a $27 million-per-year pay package deal in his first hours on the job.
Iger, 71, revealed the exit of Kareem Daniel, Chapek’s high lieutenant and chairman of Disney Media and Leisure Distribution, as a part of a significant inner restructuring on the Mouse Home. Chapek had shaped the division in late 2020 in a bid to streamline the leisure big’s enterprise technique.
In a memo to staffers asserting the shakeup, Iger framed his actions as an effort to revive energy to artistic executives at Disney – a few of whom had reportedly chafed underneath the management of Chapek and Daniel.
“Our aim is to have the brand new construction in place within the coming months,” Iger wrote within the memo. “With out query, components of [Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution] will stay, however I basically consider that storytelling is what fuels this firm, and it belongs on the middle of how we set up our companies.”
The CEO stated he had requested different high Disney executives, together with Christine McCarthy, Jimmy Pitaro, Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, to collaborate on the “design of a brand new construction that places extra decision-making again within the palms of our artistic groups and rationalizes prices.”
Iger signed a two-year contract with an annual base wage of $1 million, in response to an SEC submitting. Nonetheless, the longtime Disney govt can earn as much as $27 million for every of the 2 years with incentives tied to the corporate’s monetary targets and different metrics.
“I do know change might be unsettling, however it's also needed and even energizing, and so I ask to your persistence as we develop a roadmap for this restructuring. Extra data will probably be shared over the approaching weeks,” Iger added within the memo.
The management adjustments marked a speedy downfall for Daniel, who bought his begin as Chapek’s intern whereas he was nonetheless in grad college at Stanford College and steadily rose via the ranks alongside his mentor.
After a brief stint at Goldman Sachs, Daniel formally joined Disney in 2007. By 2017, he rose to function president of enterprise operations for Disney’s theme park design crew, often known as the Imagineers. When Chapek succeeded Iger as Disney CEO in 2020, he elevated Daniel to move up the corporate’s key enterprise efforts.
“He is an excellent govt who has an unbelievable objectivity on the subject of fact-based resolution making,” Chapek stated of Daniel in a 2020 interview with Bloomberg.
As head of Disney Media and Leisure Distribution, Daniel oversaw the corporate’s funnel of content material, together with the streaming providers which have turn into the centerpiece of its long-term technique.
Previous to Iger’s shock return, Chapek and his high allies have been underneath immense stress to proper the ship at Disney. The corporate had plunged greater than 40% since January following a collection of C-suite failures and middling monetary efficiency.
Issues about Chapek’s means to guide grew so pronounced that a number of high executives, together with McCarthy, Disney’s CFO, approached the corporate’s board of administrators to air their grievances, the Wall Avenue Journal reported.
Chapek rankled left-leaning staff, together with staff on the animation studio Pixar, after he initially stayed silent in response to Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Homosexual” invoice.
Chapek ultimately caved to the stress and denounced the invoice — a transfer that angered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who led an effort to revoke the corporate’s particular tax standing.
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