The former CFO who thinks he can fix Disney

Nearly a decade after leaving, Jay Rasulo is back, this time as a nominee to join Disney's board

- Robbie Whelan

When Disney's efforts to build a theme park in China became snarled in the late 2000s, Chief Executive Bob Iger sent his parks chief to Shanghai to figure out why government officials weren't returning calls.

Jay Rasulo recalls meeting with a high-ranking Communist Party official on the trip who urged him not to give up. "Jay, keep knocking at the gate," the official said. "Someday it will open."

Nearly a decade after leaving Disney, Rasulo is back, once again knocking at the gates of power, this time as a nominee to join Disney's board as part of activist investor Nelson Peltz's proxy campaign against the company.

For more than a year, Peltz and his hedge fund, Trian Fund Management, have publicly criticized Disney's current board and Iger's management. Trian controls around 33 million Disney shares and is urging shareholders to vote Peltz and Rasulo onto the board at the company's April 3 annual meeting.

The outcome of the vote could reshape how one of America's most iconic entertainment companies is governed for years to come. The inclusion of Rasulo is a sign that Peltz thinks some shareholders will be persuaded to vote for a slate that includes an executive who grew intimately familiar with Disney over the course of his nearly 30-year tenure.

"When people call me about the company and what's going on, I say, 'Don't ask me! It's breaking my heart!'" Rasulo said in an interview. "When Nelson called me, I decided I couldn't sit on the sidelines." 

Rasulo, once considered a potential successor to Iger, said he knows how to work with the veteran Disney CEO and that shareholders deserve "objective, passionate, owner-focused representatives" to hold the company's management accountable. Peltz has said he wants Disney to target higher profit margins in the streaming business and have the board review the movie studio's strategy.