Kristina Schake, Disney’s EVP and Chief Communications Officer, has been given a contract extension and a raise, according to Deadline.
- Schake, who joined The Walt Disney Company a little more than a year ago, has had her contract expiration extended to June 29, 2026, a year longer than her original deal.
- Her base salary was also increased to $780,000 as of April 9.
- Disney has said the reasoning for the raise was an “increase in her responsibilities,” though they did not elaborate.
- Schake’s target bonus award has also been increased to 150% of her base salary.
- Deadline also reports that her initial salary was $725,000 and her total 2022 compensation reached $6.2 million including bonuses and stock awards.
- This news of course comes at a time when Disney is in the midst of trimming 7,000 jobs in pursuit of $5.5 billion in cost savings.
- Prior to Disney, Schake spent three decades working at the nexus of government, media, business, entertainment, and technology. Most recently, she was appointed by President Biden to lead the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine education campaign and was previously Global Communications Director for Instagram.
- Schake was Deputy Communications Director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and served in the Obama administration as Special Assistant to the President and Communications Director to the First Lady.
- With this role, Schake is returning home to California, where she served for several years as the senior communications strategist for First Lady Maria Shriver, the Women’s Conference, and the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities Initiative.
- In 2009, she co-founded the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which led the successful bipartisan public awareness campaign and legal challenge to restore marriage equality to California.
- She began her career working for Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan.
- Schake is a native of Sonoma, California, and is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University.