Susan Arnold Becomes First Woman To Chair Disney

[ZariusTwo]

Walt Disney has elected a woman to chair its board for the first time in the entertainment giant's 98-year history.

Susan Arnold, who has been a Disney board member for 14 years, will succeed Bob Iger at the end of this year.

She was formerly an executive at global investment firm Carlyle.

Mr Iger, who stepped down as Disney's chief executive in 2020 after 15 years in the role, will leave the company by the end of this month.

"As I step into this new role as chairman of the board, I look forward to continuing to serve the long-term interests of Disney's shareholders and working closely with CEO Bob Chapek as he builds upon the company's century-long legacy of creative excellence and innovation," Ms Arnold said in a statement.

She has also served in senior roles at some of America's biggest companies.

For the last eight years Ms Arnold has been an executive at Carlyle Group, having previously held roles at consumer goods giant Procter and Gamble and fast food chain McDonald's.

"Susan is an incredibly esteemed executive whose wealth of experience, unwavering integrity, and expert judgment have been invaluable to the company since she first joined the Board in 2007," Mr Iger said.

Her appointment comes as large companies are moving away from management structures where the chief executive and chairperson roles are held by the same person after pressure from corporate governance experts, investors and, in some cases, regulators to separate the two key positions.

Mr Iger's exit marks the end of an era for Disney, who has been in a senior role at the company since 1996.

In his time as chief executive Disney made a number of major acquisitions, including the takeovers of Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. In 2016, the firm opened its first theme park and resort in mainland China.

Several other Disney executives have announced plans to leave by the end of this year, including studios head Alan Horn, president and chief creative officer of Disney Branded Television Gary Marsh and company general counsel Alan Braverman.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59500682

[Coola Yagami]

So is she another woke leftist or someone actually sane and competent?

[oldmanwinters]

The Force really was Female!

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

So is she another woke leftist or someone actually sane and competent?

In my experience, "having a vagina" and "woke leftist" tend to be pretty much hand-in-hand, unless it's a bleach-blonde "Karen" type and they're the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

But the fact that it's Disney pretty much says it all. If she WASN'T a "woke leftist" then she wouldn't even be in the conversation.

[Andrew NDB]

Sadly, yes. If it was another dude, there'd still be like a... 65% chance it'd be a woke leftist with an agenda. A woman? Historically that just tends to make it 100%.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Sadly, yes. If it was another dude, there'd still be like a... 65% chance it'd be a woke leftist with an agenda. A woman? Historically that just tends to make it 100%.

And I've mentioned this before, but isn't it kinda weird how about 95% of all the trumpet-blowing about "progressive" issues and "Let's make everything super-gay, now" is coming from women? Like, I do occasionally see a guy blow the same horn but it's ALMOST all women who do so.

And I've asked this before, but Why? Like WHY is it SO important for women that everyone be gay (or "free to be gay if they choose to be" I suppose would be more accurate)? I've said this a million times, but I have a decent number of gay friends, and even in those circles, the men are mostly like "Eh, whatever" when it comes to "the issues", but the women are very proactive with the "Isn't it time we had an LGBTQ+ ________ in (Name Franchise Here)?" type of stuff. Like it's REALLY important to them, whereas men - either straight or gay - seem to not really give a sh*t.

I'm genuinely curious because there HAS to be a reason.

[ZariusTwo]

Midnight's Edge are actually spinning Arnold's appointment as potentially being much different than what we got from Iger. She's a numbers person, and not entertainment driven.

[sdp]

Anyone following Iger will be a disappointment just because of how influential and how he revived the dying Disney brand. Obviously no one gets promoted to heading Disney just for being woke, she obviously has the chops and experience for it. Who knows how she'll be, in my experience high level women in business tend to not be very lenient on risks and go for results. Mostly to prove a point that they can do it despite being women and having the odds stacked against them. Usually they aren't the best leaders for that reason, but that's different than not being prepared, she is likely better because of it.