Shareholders questioned Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger about his membership on President Donald Trump’s business advisory panel during the company’s annual meeting Wednesday.
Some shareholders called for Iger to resign from the panel because it signaled an endorsement of the president’s policies.
But Iger said he planned to remain a member of the group.
“I’m well aware that there are a number of people who have protested the fact that I decided to join that group. I made a decision that I thought it was in the best interest of our company and of our industry to have an opportunity to express specific point of views directly to the President of the United States and to his administration,” he said.
"I did not believe and I do not believe that my membership in that group in any way endorses or supports any specific policy of the president or his administration.”
Iger also quoted from a song from Hamilton that talks about “being in the room.” “I think there’s an opportunity when you’re in the room where it happens to express opinions that I think would be in the best interests of this company and its shareholders.”
Some shareholders applauded his response.
Iger was also asked if Disney auditor PwC’s error in giving Academy Award presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway the wrong envelope during ABC’s Oscar telecast would affect its relationship with the company.
Iger said that he wasn’t sure if the incident was on the audit committee’s agenda. But the chairman of PwC called Iger and other senior executives directly “to both explain what happened and to apologize for what happened.”
“I appreciated the fact that he called,” Iger said. “I thought it was an honest human mistake… I don’t believe it will affect the relationship we’ve had with PwC, which has been a good one.”
Disney shareholders re-elected its board and ratified the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as independent accountants.
Two shareholder proposals were rejected.
