According to several new reports, Disney chief financial officer Christine McCarthy, a 22-year veteran of the company, is among the top candidates to replace CEO Bob Iger at the end of his two-year term, which would make her the first female CEO in company history.
It’s only been a few weeks since Iger returned to the CEO position he previously held for 15 years, replacing his former successor Bob Chapek who was removed from the post after a series of high-profile blunders and a nightmare Q4 earnings report.
Multiple reports since then have indicated that McCarthy was one of the more outspoken voices asking questions about Chapek’s competence in the CEO role. It has been reported that in mid-November, McCarthy approached Disney board chair Susan Arnold and threatened to leave the company if Chapek wasn’t let go immediately. Many predicted that Chapek was on borrowed time anyway, but McCarthy’s decision to go around her CEO was an unprecedented move and surely played a role in his dismissal.