In this Monday, March 13, 2017, file photo, The Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger attends a special screening of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" at Alice Tully Hall in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) --
The Walt Disney Co. is cutting $13.5 million of CEO Bob Iger's annual future potential earnings ahead of the closing of Disney's $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox's entertainment assets.
The move comes ahead of Disney's annual shareholder meeting Thursday. A year ago, shareholders voted against Iger's pay package at the shareholder meeting in a non-binding vote that the company said it would take into consideration for future compensation.
The company is cutting an annual base salary increase of $500,000 that Iger was set to receive when the Fox deal closes and maintains his current base of $3 million. It cuts the annual bonus he was set to receive by $8 million to $12 million. It also cut his annual target long-term incentive award by $5 million to $20 million.
Merman has officially announced the signing of director Ritesh Gupta for commercial representation in the U.S. Gupta had joined Merman last year but was working on a feature film for most of 2024 so the production company held off until now on making the signing public.
The director is a former award-winning sports journalist and creative director. He’s created noteworthy campaigns from Budweiser’s viral “Dwyane Wade: This Bud’s for 3,” which he directed, to the multi-award winning Beats by Dre campaign “You Love Me,” which Gupta worked on as group creative director at the agency Translation. The “You Love Me” film, which was directed by Melina Matsoukas, earned a primetime commercial Emmy nomination in 2021 as well as a DGA Award win for PRETTYBIRD director Matsoukas. This marked the second Emmy nod for Gupta. Back in his MTV days he was a producer on a documentary, Aftershock: Diary of Gideon in Pakistan, which garnered a News & Documentary Emmy nomination.
As a director, Gupta’s approach is to layer a truthful authenticity ingrained during his time as a journalist--along with an emotional intelligence he honed storytelling in the documentary world--to craft his own evocative and unique cinematic style. In addition to his two Emmy nods, he has netted four Webbys, six AICP wins, eight Cannes Lions, 25 Clios and recognition from ADCOLOR and the ANDYs.
“Ritesh brings a unique perspective to his storytelling,” said Merman global director Ellen Clarke. “He has the ability to identify the multilayers of a narrative and its characters, weaving them impactfully together. His strength lies in his connection to the talent’s performance and discovering the authenticity within the story.”
