Disney’s Board STILL Marred by Leftism, Wokeness and Failure

Two-and-a-half years ago NLPC produced a 27-page report to our fellow Disney shareholders, which called upon them to vote against the entire slate of board of director nominees, after gross negligence with their oversight responsibilities led them into a period where they let CEO Bob Iger drag the company into a failed succession plan marred by a woke political agenda. Their disastrous guidance — if you want to call it that — led to a stunning drop in public admiration for Disney, with the stock price plummeting with it. The dysfunction led to a board challenge by activist investor Nelson Peltz, among other consequences.

Our criticisms of individual board members was not driven solely by their involvement in, or support for, the political and cultural wars. Rank incompetence was also a factor.

Maria Elena “Mel” Lagomasino is the longest serving director and has shown no evidence that she adds anything of value to the team. Peltz agreed with that assessment.

Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors, is Disney’s second-longest serving director — since 2017. NLPC has criticized her performance leading the automaker on multiple occasions and has called for her ouster.

Third-longest serving Disney board member Michael Froman, who served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations in various roles, was also a target of Peltz. He also counts serving as Chairman of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth among his accomplishments.

Until recently former Nike Chairman and CEO Mark Parker was Chairman of Disney’s board. Under his direction, the shoemaker’s brand fell from popularity, suffering declining sales, profits and share price, amidst multiple allegations of sexual harassment at the company.

All in all, the makeup of recent years’ and current boards at Disney have the earmarks of DEI prioritization rather than capable expertise and leadership, with several members’ experiences rising no higher than secondary-level executive offices, mostly for company subsidiaries rather than entire corporations (Barra of course is one exception to that). This was a criticism Iger and the board hurled at Peltz when he made his hostile bid for board seats — that he had no media, entertainment or corporate-wide leadership experience needed for a multinational corporation capitalized with billions of dollars.

Now, out of this indistinguished Disney bunch also emerges Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald (pictured above) to dubious notoriety. Earlier this month the athletic-wear maker announced he would depart after the brand’s popularity sank in recent years, as the Wall Street Journal reported:

Chief Executive Calvin McDonald will step down in January, according to the athletic gear maker, which has been under pressure from its founder (Chip Wilson) to make changes to reverse its “loss of cool.”

 

McDonald will also relinquish his board seat but remain a senior adviser through March to facilitate a smooth transition, the company said…

 

McDonald, who had served as an executive at the beauty chain Sephora, took the helm of the Vancouver-based Lululemon in 2018 and steered it through the pandemic, tripling its annual sales during his tenure to $10.6 billion.

 

More recently, though, the company’s U.S. sales have faltered and it has come under attack by Wilson, who has blamed the “loss of cool” on the kind of CEO who can “speak Wall Street” but is killing innovation.

 

On Thursday, Lululemon reported a 7% increase in net sales to $2.6 billion for the period that ended Nov. 2. All that growth came from international markets, however. In the Americas, net revenue fell 2%.

 

To date this year, Lululemon shares have fallen 51% through Thursday’s close, erasing $25.4 billion in market capitalization, according to FactSet.

McDonald was brought on to Disney’s board in 2021, at its peak-“woke” period, well before our formal call for a vote of no-confidence of the entire slate. The company seems incapable of breaking out of its cycle of banality and futility, as exemplified by the source pool it draws from to carry out its governance.