Late last week The Walt Disney Company announced that director Safra Catz, who is CEO of Oracle, is leaving as a member of its board. From Variety:
Disney and Catz did not provide an explanation for why she stepped down from the Mouse House’s board. With Catz’s departure, the size of Disney’s board has been reduced from 12 directors to 11. According to a Disney filing with the SEC, Catz informed the company on Thursday (July 18) that she would leave the board.
Disney’s board was in the spotlight earlier this year when activist investor Nelson Peltz tried to win a pair of seats (one for himself and one for ex-Disney CFO Jay Rasulo) in a monthslong proxy fight. Peltz had accused Disney’s board members of falling down on the job, specifically with respect to vetting a CEO successor for [Robert] Iger. At Disney’s annual shareholder meeting in April, investors reelected all 12 incumbent directors (including Catz) — and decisively voted against Peltz’s Trian Partners and another investment firm that had been trying to shake up the board.
While Catz’s political donation activity can be characterized by the traditional corporate executive approach of giving to “both sides,” the dollar amounts she has contributed show a clear slant in favor of Republicans in recent years. According to FEC data compiled by OpenSecrets.org, she gave $36,500 in 2022 and $38,400 in 2023 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and $36,500 in 2022 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (and greater amounts before that), with no contributions to the Democrats’ counterpart organizations. She has given to both Republican and Democratic individual candidates, but more so to those on the GOP side. She gave the maximum-allowed contribution amount of $5,600 to Donald Trump in 2020.
It cannot be said of any other existing Disney directors that their political viewpoints are anything but left-leaning or at best, indifferent. Iger donates significantly to left-wing candidates.
According to news reports from early 2023, Catz was the only board member — as chair of the audit committee — who was initially appealed to in 2022 by former Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter to put Peltz on the Disney board of directors, when Robert Chapek was still CEO before Iger returned. Peltz made threats to compete for a board slot for 2023’s annual meeting, but ultimately withdrew. This year he ran a full proxy campaign.
NLPC has been critical of Disney’s board the last couple of years both at its annual meetings and in SEC filings.
