Hugh F. Johnston

Hugh Johnston arrived at Disney in December 2023 as Bob Iger’s hand-picked CFO — the rare outside hire into a top executive role at the company, and a signal to Wall Street that the post-Christine McCarthy finance organization would be run by an operator with a deep public-company track record. His 34 years at PepsiCo, including more than a decade as CFO, made him one of the most familiar faces to consumer-sector investors.

At Disney, Johnston’s mandate has been the financial reorganization of the streaming business — from a billion-dollar-a-quarter loss center into a 10 percent operating margin segment by fiscal 2026 — alongside disciplined capital allocation across the Sports, Entertainment, and Experiences segments. His commentary on earnings calls is closely parsed for read-through on sports rights renewals, ESPN’s standalone trajectory, the Hulu integration, and the company’s M&A posture. In November 2025 the board extended his contract through January 2029, locking in continuity through the back half of the Iger-to-D’Amaro CEO transition.