Bob Iger, who was reinstalled as CEO of the Walt Disney Co. yesterday, will be eligible to receive up to $27 million in each of the two years he is under contract to lead the company.
The compensation targets covering Iger’s new contract window, from November 20, 2022, through December 31, 2024, were disclosed disclosed today in an SEC filing. The exact amount of Iger’s pay ultimately will depend on a host of factors, including how the company performs as well as his own progress toward financial targets.
The reinstallation of Iger in the top job, which he held for 15 years before ceding the role to company veteran Bob Chapek, has stunned the media industry and the larger business community. While some CEOs, among them Howard Schultz at Starbucks and Steve Jobs at Apple, have successfully returned to their alma maters, encores are hardly the norm. In the shakeup last night, Chapek was ousted and key deputy Kareem Daniel left the company today as Iger looks to put his stamp on the organization.
Iger will get a salary of $1 million a year, according to the filing, as well as an incentive bonus of another $1 million. He could collect up to $25 million in equity awards depending on a number of variables.
Chapek, meanwhile, will receive at least $20 million in parting gifts from Disney. In the SEC filing, the company said he will get severance payments “in accordance with the terms of his previously disclosed employment agreement,” with the exact amount to be specified at a later date.
Iger has often made a healthy living even by the elevated standards of media execs. The 47-year Disney vet, who officially capped his prior tenure at the company at the end of 2021, made $47.5 million in total compensation in fiscal 2019, his last full year as chairman and CEO. The total package fell nearly 28% from the $65.6 million he made in 2018. In fiscal 2021, his last year as executive chairman, Iger took home $46 million. Chapek’s compensation totaled $34.46 million in fiscal 2021, up from $14.16 million the year before.
Abigail Disney, the heiress whose great-uncle was Walt Disney and grandfather was Roy O. Disney, has been vocal in recent years in criticizing her namesake company’s executive pay practices. In 2019, she labeled Iger’s pay “insane.” Earlier this year, a documentary Disney directed about broader pay inequity, The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, was commercially released after making its world premiere last January at Sundance.