Transcript
Hello live. From the Crusty remnants of August. If you August it's a woke data, Wednesday, spectacular here at the woke data, Emporium in Solarium. Joined as always by you, Matt mascardi. I don't have. I don't have anything clever to say. I'm the chief PS correspondent. Now I thought Emma is in full lurk mode. In today's carpet scented bag of psoriasis colored nuggets called August. 31st 2022, the Disney board game. Oh, I like the way you did that a board game. Yeah, you could, you could take that a lot of ways like an actual board game like menopause or maybe maybe the board of directors, or maybe just the fact that you're going to be really bored here in us. Talk about Disney. What about all three? Let's let's go the trifecta. Two weeks ago, activist investor, Dan Lowe announced an investment in Disney his company, third point. I don't like, what is that? Third point? You got any? What is that, what? He only has three pointers. I what is that? Do you know what? That is third point. You know Ari the data Queen actually really likes Third Eye Blind. That's That's what that rough. I know it doesn't get. It doesn't feel from here. He announced an investment, and he immediately called on Disney to buy the rest of Hulu, Explorer spinning off ESPN, in refresh. It bore, that's where we come in. Refresh, it bored. Actually we're the leading experts in this idea, in board refreshment. That's maybe that's how we can. Maybe we could, we could sell like, an ESG soda. Could you, is there anything less appealing than the words? You just said, here's how, here's how crazy the corporate world is Matt. He third Point bought less than 1% of Disney's outstanding shares and still, there's this massive player in redoing Disney think about this. Think about that. When you think about the fact that Mark Zuckerberg, oh, and over 50% of the voting power at Facebook, was this, the new thing? This is the engine number one game, you buy like a miniscule amount, convince everybody else, you're right? And then they all move with you. So Danny Danny, Danny boy, attacked Disney and Disney board saying that the board suffered from gaps and talent and experience as a group, the house be addressed. The typically, I think he wanted to directors, he said the directors don't have enough experience in digital advertising. But that's all I guess that's what he cares about. Of course, bald Bob and Disney said, you know, basically, that's what they said, right? Wow. They don't really agree. Yeah, was that. Yeah, but let's get into it. And before before we get to our picks and talk about what we think about the Disney board and the Disney board refresher because we are the leading experts in board. Refreshment, they were the only experts, yeah, only experts. Can I just tell you that just for a little bit of context, a little bit of background before we start our game, here are three recent superstars on the Disney board ready for this. No. Sheryl Sandberg. Oh okay. You former basically CEO? I know she know, I'm not I just I wanted to drop that she was really the CEO. It's be fair. I mean she was supposed to be the adult in the room. Yeah. Yeah. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. And yeah, he does not appear to be in the adult anymore, and Steve Jobs. So this is where the Disney board used to be used to be powerful Tech, Superstars Gods gods of text. So, maybe maybe Danny lobe is gonna point. Maybe he wants some Superstars back, I don't know. All right, let's get yeah, he wants some superstars with advertising experience. Do you want to do you want to get into the board description? Shall I? What do you want to do well? So this is the Wall Street Journal wrote a story called this is what this is. What triggered us? Yeah, this is what triggered us ready for the ready, for the name of this article. What's the right Talent mix for Disney's board? That's the name of the article that's there. Yeah, that was strictly nobody else. And it's worth saying here that there were some slides or or like visuals that they added you know from people are that were important. You know you're not talking about the visual of a statue of Walt Disney's back. Holding Mickey Mouse now. No that's the other visual. The visuals were a bar chart of 10 year. Yeah, that's what got us. This is what God has to do this show. Because I said to Matt, this is the only way that the Wall Street Journal could think of describing. The Disney board was a bar code of 10 year and I thought, wait, this is where we come in, that's better. There's so much more to do but then they did this very fancy like, it looked like, you know, one of those like neural networks, social network things where you like, take some people and you draw some lines out from them to show where they worked. And that was, but it just showed the board members of where they worked. It didn't have any networking. It's just I think it was just like it's this is their experience. I gotta say it's very strange because and this is and this is the other point that got me to want to do this show is that I think that the Ron DeSantis is right. The ESG world is in tattered because I don't understand, I don't understand the auth, the authors of these story, who are you? It's Robbie Whelan and Ming Lee. What like, why you have you mentioned the director Derica rice in his connection to the Carlyle Group? He also mentioned the chair of Disney's board, Susan Arnold, but don't you don't mention her connection to the Carlyle Group that now, where she just that was her last executive. I so I don't really understand this at all. It makes no sense. And and I'm they called equilar to get the status. So, hey, Wall Street Journal are and start calling equilar who apparently keeping, you know, just call us, and here's what we're gonna do. He's gaps again, what we're gonna do Michael Roman with nothing, what you have nothing for nobody. Mary Barra is the only one with the university attached to her Duke University, who cares? Why do we do this? Nobody, nobody's all, nobody's, let's. So here's what we did, here's what I proposed to Damien. And Damian was skeptical that this would work as a show, and he's right because It's probably not because of work go. What we did was we decided who would we swap out from this? Bill were the new Dan Loeb. That's what we are Dan Loeb. We took our point zero, one percent, or less for 1 Point 4% stake in the company. We want to change out the board. Who do we choose? I've got two swaps and Damien's got three. I think you've got three right three. Yeah. So here's what we got, here's what and we can tell you where we got it. So Damien who's your first drop? Who do you get rid of first and foremost? Drum roll says There's no. Yeah, it better be a long drum roll because I gotta say one thing first before we get to it, can I just say congratulations to Disney? Why? Oh wow, this is a board out of ESG Central Casting. I I think this is why Texas and Florida is mad because Disney understands something first of all, five out of 11 directors, are women including yeah, maybe the most powerful position in all of corporate America, Susan Arnold, who chairs this board. She's also chair of the nomination committee and she shares the executive committee, which, as we know acts as the board when the board is off on a, you know, golfing trip. So it's true and there's, there's Latino black people, Asian white there. Everyone's hanging out together, beautiful. This is a beautiful ESG board. Let me say this too contacts wise. So Disney is actually wondering one of the most out of the S&P 500 know, the Russell 1000. Yeah. Disney's one of the most gender egalitarian companies, according to our influence, metrics, our influence metrics measures, how much a person influences, the board's decisions, not just the like count of them. But how much they actually have influence in the room women occupy 49.7% of the influence of the Disney board. It's amazing, 50 split influence that never happens. Usually when you add a couple of women and they're like 30 or 40% of your board, they're like token women like kind of like no one really listens token women, they dominate The Token win, dominate the committee memberships, and shares. And as I said, Susan, is the chair of the whole company. So she should go. I don't know what they're doing. She, why don't you see? Oh, I actually have inside information here. She's the quote is that she's not bald enough. Oh, now listen. And she also named Bob, I want to support. I want to say one more hats off to Susan Arnold because she actually Rose to power, not through your typical path. Usually, you have to be the boring CEO of some boring company or come out of some boring Elite. MBA program. Susan, Arnold did none of that nonsense. Not she none of it. So again, hats off. Susan. Arnold. All right. Ready? Nicely done. Dropping Drop someone first. Okay. My first, let me go all my drops or my first drop. Your first drop first and then your second drop second. Okay, just with my drops. Here we go. My first drop was so easy. It was like, it was like, taking a shower in a, at a company that showers you for you. This is how that's how easy this not land. So easy. It's Calvin, McDonald's, CEO, Lululemon athletica. First of all, we already have one of you. His name is not his, uh, Nike CEO. Mark Parker. We have a white and some guy you're vintage who sells nonsense athletic, really? It's a it's pointless. What you do is pointless. Athletic wear is the worst. Pointless, dribble in our society. For one year, you want to? I don't care. We already have one of you. His name is Mark Parker and let's be fair. Nike is way juicier and more connected up a company than Louisville ever be. So we got a, if we're gonna get rid of anyone gonna get rid of Calvin McDonald, I want to get my second pick. Yeah, okay. And that's Mark Parker. Oh there we go, there we go. Okay, we have plenty, we have plenty of retail and direct to consumer product development here, according to Disney's cute little skills Matrix on its proxy. We just don't need more retail. We don't need more like weird, white middle-aged retail. I mean, okay, running shorts. Yeah, Air. Jordan's what does it have to do with Disney? Matt, what are we doing here? What are we doing? Look, I don't know how you expect them to fight like the Galactic Empire and Star Wars without a nice pair of running shoes, stop it. And I'll get to my third pick and this is where it gets tricky. This is where the ESU world, that's me down a bit. Is that the one I really have to focus on here because you know me, I'm not gonna cut a woman. I I thought about getting rid of Mary Barra, but I picked, Mark Parker over over her. My third pick is Derica rice, which is hard because he's the only black person on the board. But I'll deal with that later. Okay, here's why I'm getting rid of him. Because first of all he his big connection is the Carlyle Group. We already have a Carlyle Group and yeah that apparently second of all his other two directorships are Bristol Myers Squibb. I mean come on a bio pharmaceutical company. What it is? A drug company and Disney is a drug. So stop I'm not sure and Target so it's more boring retail. I can't think of anything more boring than Derek or writes other than his skin color. So I'm sorry but Derek a year you're, You're gone. But again, I'm gonna address this but it was but it was hard for me because here's where ESG data is lacking is that they don't they don't adequately. Codify for race, right? They don't, it's not, it's we're getting there because I know more and more companies are starting to give us a status. Yeah, I'll tell you something. The the Intrepid data Queen did over the last two days. She trolled the internet for every list like of powerless of black directors, Hispanic directors, Asian directors, and she found a way, which I don't, and all my years at msci, they couldn't figure this out. They, she found a way to actually download the list. And tag it to actual directors. So we have a list of directors that nobody else has, but who you adding, then you have, you're gonna have to add or we're getting right to my ads. Yeah. Well, I mean, do you want me to do? I'm doing swaps. I didn't do a job direct swap. I'll get my ads. And I went a little bit outside the box in a couple of these Bears, I'm Shockers. Yeah. The first one is a woman named. All three of my candidates are black so I solve for the Derica rice problem. Okay. Yeah. I think you over solved. Yeah. Cars. The first is Jessica Matthews with the age of 22. Founded a company called Uncharted power Global full service power technology company. She is currently listed on 11, different patents, a dual citizen of Nigeria. And the US a degree in economics from Harvard, MBA from Harvard and she's on all kinds of impressive, lists Fortune's, most promising, women Forbes, 30, under 30 Black Enterprise interview. Oh amazing, it's all there, it's all there. I'm just saying this. Yeah, that's it. That's my first choice just I can't argue with that. I suppose. Okay. The second choice, more traditional she ever been on a board before. We're just making. This will be her first. This will be here. So we're just getting right into the large cap, make a cap, just Chuck them right in. Oh, believe me. I, I just gave you the highlights of her resume Jessica, Matthews can handle this shit. All right, I'll ask her just listening. We're talking about Disney here, we're listening. If you're listening Jessica just reach out. My my second is a more traditional choice and honestly I can't believe he's not already on a board. So maybe I've started a revolution here and this is a no-brainer and this is a man named Christopher Young Executive Vice President Business Development at Microsoft. Okay? He was a former CEO of McAfee. He led cybersecurity efforts at Cisco, RSA, and AOL. And he is currently a member of the cybersecurity advisory committee for the US cybersecurity in infrastructure, Security Agency. I mean, really also a black man. How do you argue against this? I mean, he has no all these companies need cybersecurity, especially a company like, Disney. What is a no-brainer, what happened to like, what who's gonna sell tube socks on this board? I mean, can you believe when I describe Christopher Young? Can you believe that there's the CEO of Lululemon is there? Instead of this guy? I mean that is hard to blow your mind. Sorry. When you Uh, and finally one that's gonna throw you, probably Matt, you probably not going to see it this Melissa. Hannah, the co-founder CEO mommy which is an organization dedicated to supporting mother's newborns her company connects moms with Healthcare professionals. Here's why I picked her, she got JD MBA. Here's why I picked her. Basically. This is just a troll to the anti-wolf movement. Oh wow. She's very stakeholder friendly. We have a we have a abortion crisis in this country we need. And, you know, everyone knows who's listening to show more than once is that I want stakeholder, he Representatives on the boards. This woman will not only represent women, but she'll represent the female workers at Disney. Yeah, I don't know. Again, just troll. Yeah, this is, I'm pretty sure Dan Loeb said out, gambling, breaking off ESPN and troll Ron DeSantis as his three criteria for. Okay, you look at least If you mark my choices, you can at least pick the safe one and you can get rid of that Lululemon Weirdo And you can replace them with. So I did with, with the head of cybersecurity expert. Christopher, Young from Microsoft. So that is not a bad swap right there, but everything you said is wrong, okay? So I'm going to give you the right ones. First of all, it's worth saying that Disney is a highly insular board. Eight of the 11 board members, have third degree connections, back to the board. Meaning sure they sit on boards with somebody who sits on a board with someone from Disney. They just loop around back and forth. They all know each other. Why I'm just in fresh blood here. Fresh blood, there's a lot. So that is your argument for fresh blood. The, when it comes to strengths, Amy Chang on the board, has a strongest resume, she's an exeo, she's got like 14 Advanced degrees. She she went to three Elite schools. Three like the and she's the Auntie Susan Arnold. She up. She's been at mega cab. These before bald Bob is actually the weakest on the board, but for being he's not deal with Disney like they. Okay, he's not going anywhere. Yeah, but he, he's the one who makes no sense, Susan Arnold actually should be the CEO. She's the longest tenure. She's one of the strongest. According to our Global power rankings of directors. She's in the top, 15% of like directors in the world. She's one of the most powerful directors ever, but here are my swaps I'm gonna, I'm not gonna touch those people. My first swap option. Number one, I only have two option, one. Michael Froman Lisa Wardell. I don't know. I'll hear you. I don't agree with this because Roman has government. Can I kept him because he has connection to the, to the government. That's exactly why part of the reason why I'm getting rid of him because he's the x-rayed rep for the US under Obama, he worked for under Robert Rubin, when he was treasury secretary for Clinton, he's an acolyte for him. He helps start the hammer a Reuben started, the Hamilton project at the Brookings Institute was in the musical. Not the musical. Not thank you, not the musical that would have been better. Um he advocated for repealing glass steagall which yeah we know how that Clinton. Good idea. Good idea from him wants a greed with the statement that low carbon fuel standards are quote, discriminatory and environmentally unjustified that he agreed to that statement when he was in government, he actually was found to have hid 500,000 dollars in a Cayman Islands account. So well, I mean he worked under a million, doesn't count and he really liked doing these classified back door, trade deals with people. Now he works doing strategic growth at in the drug industry at MasterCard. He basically he's handing out debt, strategic growth. What is that mean? Does that mean just giving you more credit cards? Is that what strategic growth is at MasterCard? He has low influence on this board, less than 10%, and he's already been there for four years, so he's had his shot. Proven. It's not it's like he was on my short list. Again, I only kept him because he might be the only one who might understand like when the antitrust when Lina Khan comes. I got that covered. I gotta cover good better than you're gonna get it. We're gonna swap him for Lisa Wardell. Who yes. The top 1000 directors in our power rankings. She's worth two directors to Romans 0.7 value. She's black. She's a woman, she's an ex and currency CEO. She's on the board of Lowe's American Express, there's a swap right there. MasterCard for American Express, if you were about like your credit card exposure, you still got it. She's 52 years old, which is Young for board. She's a young, she'd, make a young board member. She has two Advanced degrees at JD and MBA went to two Elite schools and Vassar, which arguably is an elite school and minored in African studies with Damien was in your classes. Yeah, I minor in Black So you know it's completely different. I don't know what you minor did. I thought you just you bring it up all the time and I don't completely different. She works in higher education. She's heavy and diversity. What who is she what does she do? What is her job? She's a she's a CEO of like education company like she's good and um side note she pledged Delta Sigma Theta which if you don't know what that is, it's historically black sorority. He's talking about that's very cool. Move on move on. So there's your swap. Number one we didn't get the government experience back but we get it was swapped number two which is real like a Messina for electronic. That's another one. I wanted to get rid of but you know again like only Latino representative on the board. I know that one hurts. I did not pick another Latina woman, Lord of all places you know which makes it even like that's part of I'm discriminating against Florida. This is my mini troll. Like a casino is on the Coca-Cola board. She's she, as she says, she's Hispanic sheet 172 years old. So, she's above average. She has a lot of influence Dan Lobby, Daniels, stir if you're listening. If you want to get somebody with a lot of influence off this board, he's speaking. This is your teacher choice. This is a good choice, get rid of any longest tenure next, to Susan Arnold call us because really, because we can, we can help you understand how to Target. See in this instance, Matt is absolutely right. You want to Target directors with high amount of influence, so that when your directors come on, they can act, they will actually be listened to because the loud voices in the room will be out. I'm sure correct. No, you're correct. That is correct, call us and here's Alexis Herman. Alexis Herman, she ranks in the middle of the pack Global director. She's worth 1.1 director to Legacy those 2.5 so she is less influential not as powerful but she was the Secretary of Labor under Clinton. The first African-American ever to hold the job. When she was five, her family survived the KKK assault and she went on to go work to desegregate. Parochial schools in Alabama, on Mobile Alabama, she helped resolve the largest UPS strike in 1995. This is actually you, this is a forward-looking play, the inevitability of Disney workers striking because of don't say. Say maybe say gay bills that shape. It doesn't know what he's doing, all the issues in Florida, she's gonna help you resolve this. She'll do it in less than two weeks. She already said, she already showed she can and she's on the board of So she's got the government experience, but she's on the board of MGM Resorts. Lobe gets his gamble in person. Yeah, she's also on the board of Coca-Cola. So it's a one-for-one Coca-Cola swap. Yeah, we really need one. You only, we don't need representative. And side note also pledged Delta Sigma Theta, they'd be sorority sisters on the board. Wait, I'm getting a little uncomfortable now. That's that's too. Many the model we have suggests that these two changes would tip the balance of power to women. So the influence overall would go to women, you would add a black female voting Bloc which means you have a high diversity and stakeholder inclusion, minded group, with a particular, a large amount of influence you would get similar if not better experience and background you would improve your exposure to gambling for lobes. Gambling, push, you get better worker oversight because she picks sucks at it and you would normally push out two of the longer tenured eyewear rights. This seems like win win win win win do it honestly. I like a lot of this. How do we get? How do we get Dan to come on the show? What do we have to do? Danny Boy, call us at mascardi. We are free float, media, if you like this, I can't imagine you did. If you turn this off, I think this is one that will like Who, who's the, who's the, who? And will, we just saw that a Disney board crisis. Yeah. No, that was a real problem for most people. That's all we got. We'll be back tomorrow. Goodbye.