Alicia Schwarz, SVP and Chief Compliance Officer at The Walt Disney Company, is the latest high-ranking Disney official to be laid off as part of a lengthy series of job cuts that began this week at The Walt Disney Company, according to Deadline.
What’s Happening:
- Schwarz’s role will be absorbed by Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez.
- She joined the company in 2014 as principal counsel, later serving as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, as well as Global Deputy Chief Compliance Counsel.
- The corporate compliance function oversees compliance with Disney’s global ethics and standards of business conduct and manages regulatory compliance with anti-corruption and trade law.
- The laying off of Schwarz and other executives comes as Disney CEO Bob Iger looks to reach $5.5 billion in overall cost savings.
- Roughly 3% of Disney’s global workforce, or 7,000 positions, are set to be cut, which equals out to 4,000 employees and 3,000 open positions that have not been filled.
- The initial exodus is related to a consolidation of production operations across Disney TV Studios, Hulu, Freeform and FX and the shutdown of the studio operation’s Creative Acquisitions department.
- A unit set up by ousted chief executive Bob Chapek to explore Metaverse projects was disbanded, as was the former CEO’s Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution division.
- Other high profile executives already known to be affected include Ike Perlmutter (Chairman of Marvel Entertainment) and Jeffrey R. Epstein (VP of corporate communications and D23 spokesperson).