10:00 am ET January 18, 2023 (Dow Jones) Print
By Erich Schwartzel


Even by show-business standards, former Walt Disney Co. executive Geoff Morrell netted a massive payday from his brief time in Hollywood.

Mr. Morrell started working at Disney on Jan. 24, 2022, as the company's chief corporate-affairs officer. He left less than four months later following a public-relations implosion that led to employee protests and pitted the company and then-CEO Bob
Chapek against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

For those 70 weekdays, Mr. Morrell made $8,365,403 in total compensation -- or about $119,505 a day, according to calculations based on a proxy statement that Disney filed Tuesday.

When the payouts associated with his termination agreement are taken into account, that per-day figure jumps to $176,746.

Disney also paid Mr. Morrell about $500,000 to move his family to Los Angeles from London and another $500,000 to move away when he lost the job. Then, after he left the company, Disney bought the $4.5 million southern California home that Mr. Morrell
had purchased, according to Disney's filing.

The revelation of Mr. Morrell's pay comes as Disney faces renewed criticism over its executive compensation, which activist investor Nelson Peltz has described as "over the top." Mr. Morrell's swift exit from Disney followed weeks of tumult for Mr.
Chapek, who ultimately never recovered from the political fallout and was fired in November.

The cost of those management woes came into focus in Tuesday's filing, which doubled as a rebuke to Mr. Peltz's demand for a board seat and changes to how the company operates.

As the company's head of communications and government relations, Mr. Morrell was an outsider brought into the Disney fold, having worked for years in the Pentagon and at global energy company BP PLC.

He was hired at a base salary of $489,500 and given a bonus of $2.75 million upon joining to replace compensation he was leaving behind at BP. Stock awards, options and other compensation would add about $5.1 million to his fiscal 2022 compensation. The
realized value of his fiscal 2022 compensation is expected to be about $2 million less due to some performance-based payments not vesting, given his abbreviated employment, according to a person at Disney.

Soon after starting the job, Mr. Morrell and Mr. Chapek found themselves embroiled in controversy surrounding Florida's Parental Rights in Education bill, which prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for kindergarten to third-
grade students. Mr. Morrell and others advocated an approach that kept Disney out of the political fray, opting not to weigh in on charged matters as his predecessor, Robert Iger, had.

The decision to sit it out -- and then ultimately to speak out against the bill -- angered Disney employees and turned the company into a favorite target of Mr. DeSantis. Disney, which had navigated the polarized politics of the past several years with
its brand intact, saw that reputation tarnished among progressives and conservatives alike.

During his brief stay at Disney, Mr. Morrell drew attention internally for other perceived missteps, such as when he accidentally tweeted the secret opening date of a "Guardians of the Galaxy" roller coaster.

Mr. Morrell said he was leaving Disney on April 29.

"After three months in this new role, it has become clear to me that for a number of reasons it is not the right fit," he said at the time.

Mr. Morrell also stands to collect an additional $4,006,849 as part of his termination agreement from the company. That includes about $2.5 million in the remaining base salary of his contract and a $1.5 million target bonus for fiscal 2022.

Disney bought the home Mr. Morrell purchased in southern California, the proxy said. The company said in the proxy that this was standard practice for "relocation practices for unique circumstances," and that a third-party vendor bought the house for the
same amount Mr. Morrell paid.

Public records show that Mr. Morrell spent $4.5 million on a California Colonial home in the city of Pasadena in April 2022.

Disney will keep or forfeit any gains or losses on its sale, with Mr. Morrell not involved in the transaction, the proxy said. The house hadn't been resold as of last October.

Disney's proxy also noted it had given Mr. Morrell $527,438 to relocate his family from London to Los Angeles. That is several times the amount paid to other Disney executives who relocated in 2022.

Two other high-ranking executives were paid relocation expenses in 2022: chief human resources officer Paul Richardson, who received $125,021, and general counsel Horacio Gutierrez, who received $81,246, according to the proxy.

Disney then paid Mr. Morrell an additional $506,310 on June 25 -- about two months after he had announced he was leaving Disney -- "to account for his unique circumstances," which included his relocation out of the Los Angeles area.

The agreement "will mitigate further disruption to the company," it added.

Mr. Chapek never regained the support of some Disney board members following the Florida situation and was fired in November. He earned a total of $24 million in 2022. As part of his termination, he is entitled to about $6.5 million in the remaining base
salary of his nearly three-year contract, and a $1 million target bonus for fiscal 2023, the proxy said.

Mr. Morrell has since moved back to Washington, D.C. Earlier this month, the consulting firm Teneo Holdings LLC said he was joining as president of global strategy and communications, a newly created role.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com


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January 18, 2023 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)

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