Christine McCarthy

McCarthy graduated from Smith College with a bachelor's degree in biology. She also earned an MBA in marketing and management from the Anderson School of Management at UCLA.

Before joining Disney, McCarthy worked in the banking industry. From 1981 to 1996, McCarthy worked at First Interstate Bancorp in several finance and planning positions. She served as CFO and an executive vice president for Imperial Bancorp from 1997 to 2000.

In 2000, she became treasurer of Disney. On June 30, 2015, McCarthy was appointed as the CFO of The Walt Disney Company replacing Jay Rasulo under a four-year contract with a base salary of $1.25 million with a potential 200% performance based bonuses and 250% long term incentive award.

On December 21, 2021, Disney announced they had renewed McCarthy's contract as CFO through 2024. On June 15, 2023, Disney announced that McCarthy will be "stepping down from her CFO role" due to family concerns and named Kevin Lansberry as her interim replacement. McCarthy will stay on as a Strategic Advisor after stepping down as CFO on June 30."

She has been on the board of Procter & Gamble since 2019 and Flutter Entertainment since 2024.

McCarthy is a trustee for the Westridge School (Pasadena). She is also a mentor for the National Math and Science Initiative.

Controversies

In 2021, she faced controversy when she suggested cutting food portion sizes at Disney's theme parks would benefit overweight Disney guests.

In 2022, the Disney board unexpectedly dismissed CEO Bob Chapek, replacing him with his predecessor Bob Iger on an interim basis. The Wall Street Journal reported that McCarthy played a key role in the dismissal by raising concerns with the board. News reports later identified her as a likely successor to Iger, though she later stepped down from the company.