{"id":488595,"date":"2026-02-25T00:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488595\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T00:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T00:33:07","slug":"disney-communications-chief-kristina-schake-is-leaving-the-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488595\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Communications Chief Kristina Schake Is Leaving The Company"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJust over four months after inking a two-year contract extension<\/a>, Kristina Schake<\/a> is exiting as Disney<\/a>\u2018s Chief Communications Officer as a new CEO takes over. <\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing her four-year stint as the House of Mouse top mouthpiece, the former Michelle Obama<\/a> and Hillary Clinton<\/a> senior aide will \u201cdepart the company after March 18, 2026, coinciding with the end of Bob Iger<\/a>\u2019s tenure as Chief Executive Officer,\u201d Disney said today after a memo from the current 75-year-old CEO went out to staff. Parks chief Josh D\u2019Amaro is set to be formally installed as CEO on March 18.<\/p>\n

\n\tNo replacement for Schake has been unveiled yet. Even though Schake got a raise and was on board until June 30, 2027 under her October 2025 signed contract extension, a number of contenders for her role, including longtime Disney Communications EVP Paul Roeder, have been floated over the past several months.<\/p>\n

\n\tRight now, it was all wine and roses over at Disney HQ. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cKristina is an accomplished and respected communications leader, and Disney has been fortunate to have her expertise and insight during a dynamic period that has demanded strategic clarity and judgment,\u201d Iger said Tuesday in a praise packed statement. In the note sent out to \u201cfellow employees and cast members,\u201d Iger noted: \u201cI am personally grateful for Kristina\u2019s partnership and friendship, and for the lasting impact she has made at Disney.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSchake\u2019s shift out of Burbank is one of the clearest indication that D\u2019Amaro is intent on putting his own team in pivotal positions in the company. <\/p>\n

\n\tSchake joined Disney as chief spokesperson in 2022 <\/a>during the short and disastrous\u00a0communication regime of the GOP friendly Geoff Morrell. A leader of Joe Biden\u2019s Covid-19 response and vaccine promotions, she was upped to the top PR job by then CEO Bob Chapek<\/a> upon Morrell\u2019s well compensated pink slipping with the goal of steadying the rocky ship. For the most, through palace coups, strikes and shifting markets and White House occupants, Schake did just that. She also survived Chapek\u2019s November 2022 ouster<\/a> and went on to serve Iger for the rest of his second term.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am so thankful to have had the opportunity to serve The Walt Disney Company during such a pivotal chapter in its history,\u201d\u00a0Schake herself stated today on the news of her Disney departure. . \u201cThe company I joined in 2022 was in a vastly different place from where it is today, both reputationally and from a business perspective, and I am proud of the work our worldwide communications team has done to support Bob as he has put Disney on a steady course for growth for the next generation of leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201cI leave with tremendous respect for this institution and great confidence in Disney\u2019s future under Josh D\u2019Amaro and Dana Walden<\/a>,\u201d ex-Instagram comms boss Schake concluded, putting the soon-to-be Disney CEO and (the newly created) president side-by-side.<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney\u2019s board of directors voted unanimously on the D\u2019Amaro and Walden jobs which were announced on February 3. With Iger relinquishing the CEO badge but remaining as a senior advisor in theory until the end of his current contract on December 31, new CEO D\u2019Amaro and president Walden will get the keys to their new gigs and offices at the company\u2019s annual meeting on March 18. D\u2019Amaro will also be added to the James Gorman-led Disney board on the same day.<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps Schake will steer the press release on that changing of the Mikey guard before walking out herself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just over four months after inking a two-year contract extension, Kristina Schake is exiting as Disney\u2018s Chief Communications…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[210171,46632,105798,3716,88,27423,200651,224413,25248,92],"class_list":["post-488595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bob-chapek","tag-bob-iger","tag-dana-walden","tag-disney","tag-entertainment","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-josh-damaro","tag-kristina-schake","tag-michelle-obama","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}