Eisner and Iger's Opening Remarks

Michael Eisner and Bob Iger's Opening Remarks at the 2002 Disney Shareholders Meeting in Hartford, CT

Michael D. Eisner, Chairman & CEO
Good morning, I'm Michael Eisner and welcome to the 2002 Shareholder Meeting of The Walt Disney Company.

There are those who wondered why we chose Hartford for this year's meeting of Disney's owners. Of course, there are a number of virtues to this fair city, but, no, we didn't come here because of the confluence of the 91 and the 84 Interstates, nor did we come because of the weather, nor because this is what some people would call the rightful home of the New England Patriots, nor because Jim Calhoun, son of the University of Connecticut's basketball coach, is one of our top Consumer Products executives in Europe ... and, no, we also didn't come because it is home of the residence of Mark Twain. Speaking of Mark Twain, he once said, "To be talked to death is a terrible death" ... and I assure you we will strive today to honor Mr. Twain by being as efficient as possible in our remarks.

So, I will tell you that the real reason we chose Hartford was because of its proximity to Bristol, the home of the greatest four letters in sports entertainment -- ESPN.

We will be extolling the virtues of ESPN at greater length later on in this presentation, but I will tell you that if we had gotten only this incredible sports network when we purchased Capital Cities/ABC in 1995, we would have gotten our money's worth.

For those of you who don't know, the letters ESPN stand for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. But, that "E" could just as soon stand for "exciting," because 24 hours a day, ESPN makes the sporting world come alive for millions of fans around the world. And, it's all because of those dynamic folks in Bristol. So, among other things, we're here to say, thank you.

Another reason we are pleased to come to the East Coast is to demonstrate our support for this region of the country which suffered so directly on September 11. You should be aware that your company and its cast took meaningful steps to assist in the recovery effort, including the creation of The Walt Disney Company Foundation/DisneyHand: Survivor Relief Fund, which raised nearly $7 million from a corporate gift plus individual cast donations.

With this in mind, I would like to introduce a few special people.

First, there's Jimmy Carroll, who is Assistant General Manager of Operations for our New York ESPN Zone. Jimmy was at the Zone on September 11. Over the next three days, Jimmy, along with some of his fellow cast members, worked nonstop to prepare food and clothing to be delivered to the rescue site. He oversaw the preparation of more than 2,500 sandwiches each day, which were delivered to rescue workers. He also maintained the Zone as a place where police officers could utilize to get some rest and sustenance before going back out onto the street. Thanks to his resourcefulness and compassion, Jimmy was able to make a meaningful contribution to keeping the rescue effort going during those first crucial and uncertain days. Jimmy, would you please stand?

Then there's Etta Brown, who has been with ABC for 29 years, during which time she has volunteered generously with her time. So, it was not surprising that, after September 11, she was among the first to ask what she could do to help. She started out working through church programs to assist the victims and their families. Then she signed up to help host the "Monsters, Inc." premiere in New York for families of Fire, Police and EMS workers. Next came the DisneyHand Holiday kickoff event at ABC's Times Square Studio and Etta was there entertaining the children as they waited their turn to take pictures with Disney characters. Finally, there was the Winter Wonderland event organized by the Mayor's office at Pier 94, which featured Etta hugging every family member as they were presented their gift from the DisneyHand fund. As you can see, Etta is a prime example of so many of our cast members in New York and across the country, who embraced volunteerism to help those who had suffered the most. Etta?

Next, I would like to introduce Angie McKee. She works at the Disney Store near the Pentagon and is married to an Air Force officer assigned to the Pentagon. On the morning of the attack, Angie picked up her three children from school, but was unable to reach her husband. Despite her own concerns, she immediately contacted the Family Support Group at the local Air Force base to volunteer. Fortunately, she reached her husband at 4:00 that afternoon and learned that he was unharmed. Angie is a certified paramedic and took advantage of her training to assist anxious and grieving family members. She greeted them at the center that had been set up, escorted them to the attack site, read stories to their children and purchased flowers for the families to take with them to the site to use as memorials. The Saturday following the attack, Angie spent 12 hours on a phone bank, taking calls from families who wanted to know if their loved ones had been found. With her husband on "high alert," Angie McKee could have just cared for herself and her family. Instead, she cared for others. Angie, would you please stand and be recognized?