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Disney names Gorman as next chairman; anticipates naming new CEO
The Walt Disney Co. is tapping Morgan Stanley executive James Gorman to serve as its next chairman, beginning early next year. The entertainment giant also announced that it anticipates naming its new CEO in early 2026.
Gorman will become chairman on Jan. 2, 2025. He will succeed Mark Parker, who is leaving after serving on Disney’s board for nine years.
Gorman is currently chair of Disney’s succession planning committee. He serves as executive chairman at Morgan Stanley, but will be stepping down from that post at the end of the year. Gorman previously served as Morgan Stanley’s CEO from 2010 to 2023 and chairman from 2012 to 2023.
Gorman has previous succession planning experience, as he oversaw the process at Morgan Stanley.
“The Disney board has benefited tremendously from James Gorman’s expertise and guidance, and we are lucky to have him as our next chairman – particularly as the board continues to move forward with the succession process,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement on Monday.
Iger came back to Disney in 2022 after a period of clashes, missteps and a weakening financial performance at the company under his chosen successor, Bob Chapek.
Iger was Disney’s public face for 15 years, compiling a string of victories lauded in the entertainment industry and by Disney fans, before he retired in 2020.
Gorman said in a statement that by naming Disney’s next CEO in 2026, it “will allow ample time for a successful transition before the conclusion of Bob Iger’s contract in December 2026.”
Disney is continuing to review internal and external candidates for the CEO position.
Shares of Walt Disney Co., which is based in Burbank, California, slipped 66 cents, or 0.7%, to close Monday at $96.62.
Brazil environmental disaster victims take case against mining giant BHP
LONDON | Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster took their case for compensation to a UK court Monday, almost nine years after tons of toxic mining waste poured into a major waterway, killing 19 people and devastating local communities.
The class action lawsuit at the High Court in London seeks an estimated 36 billion pounds ($47 billion) in damages from the global mining giant BHP. That would make it the largest environmental payout ever, according to Pogust Goodhead, the law firm representing the plaintiffs.
BHP owns 50% of Samarco, the Brazilian company that operates the iron ore mine where a tailings dam ruptured on Nov. 5, 2015, releasing enough mine waste to fill 13,000 Olympic-size swimming pools into the Doce River in southeastern Brazil. The case was filed in Britain because one of BHP’s two main legal entities was based in London at the time.
“BHP is a polluter and must therefore pay,” attorney Alain Choo Choy said in written submissions.
BHP attorney Shaheed Fatima said in written submissions the claim has “no basis,” adding that BHP did not own or operate the dam and “had limited knowledge of the dam and no knowledge that its stability was compromised.”
The river, which the Krenak Indigenous people revere as a deity, was polluted so badly that it has yet to recover. The disaster killed 14 tons of freshwater fish and damaged 660 kilometers (410 miles) of the Doce River, according to a study by the University of Ulster.
When the dam known as Fundao broke, sludge washed over Bento Rodrigues, once a bustling village in Minas Gerais state. Now it resembles a ghost town.
A few white tiles are the only remnants of the house where Mônica dos Santos, 39, lived with her parents near the Catholic church that also was destroyed. She has become one of the principal activists seeking full reparations.
“It’s not just the destruction of Nov. 5. The destruction since, I often say, has been worse,” she said. Some survivors turned to alcohol, others to drugs. Personal relations were strained, sometimes to breaking point.
The trial comes days after BHP announced that the company and its partner in Samarco, Vale SA, were negotiating a settlement with public authorities in Brazil that could provide $31.7 billion for people, communities and the environment damaged.
Vale on Friday said the sum included $7.9 billion already paid, $18 billion to be paid in installments over 20 years to Brazil’s federal government, Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo states and municipalities, and $5.8 billion in “performance obligations” by Samarco, including individual compensation.
Last month, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told Radio Vitoriosa, a local station in Minas Gerais, that his administration aims to reach an agreement with the mining companies by the end of October. Claims were filed by Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecution Office and public authorities.
Melbourne, Australia-based BHP said it believes the UK action is unnecessary because it duplicates matters covered by reparation efforts and legal proceedings in Brazil, but said it would continue to defend it.
Pogust Goodhead said the potential settlement shouldn’t have any impact on the case.
“Such timing only proves that the companies responsible for Brazil’s biggest environmental disaster are determined to do everything they can to prevent the victims from seeking justice,” the firm said in a statement.
Survivors from Bento Rodrigues have moved to a new village of the same name a half-hour drive away. Colorful, multi-story houses line freshly paved streets.
Priscila Monteiro, 36, moved in three months ago but said she doesn’t feel at home.
“It feels like I’m just passing through and I’m going to go back home any minute,” she said.
Monteiro was pregnant when the dam broke on her birthday. She and her 2-year-old were pulled from the toxic slime and survived, but she had a miscarriage. Her 5-year-old niece, Emanuelle, died.
“For me, the day that was supposed to be a celebration has become a day of mourning, forever,” she said, crying.
Monteiro says she hopes the trial in London will lead to recognition of the damage.
“God put the people from London on our path because there is no justice in Brazil. Now our last hope is them,” she said.
Biden administration to provide $325M for new factory
WASHINGTON | The Biden administration said Monday that it would provide up to $325 million to Hemlock Semiconductor for a new factory, a move that could help give Democrats a political edge in the swing state of Michigan ahead of election day.
The funding would support 180 manufacturing jobs in Saginaw County, where Republicans and Democrats were neck-and-neck for the past two presidential elections. There would also be construction jobs tied to the factory that would produce hyper-pure polysilicon, a building block for electronics and solar panels, among other technologies.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters that the funding came from the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. It’s part of a broader industrial strategy that the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, supports, while Republican nominee Donald Trump, the former president, sees tariff hikes and income tax cuts as better to support manufacturing.
“What we’ve been able to do with the CHIPS Act is not just build a few new factories, but fundamentally revitalize the semiconductor ecosystem in our country with American workers,” Raimondo said. “All of this is because of the vision of the Biden-Harris administration.”
A senior administration official said the timing of the announcement reflected the negotiating process for reaching terms on the grant, rather than any political considerations. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss the process.
After site work, Hemlock Semiconductor plans to begin construction in 2026 and then start production in 2028, the official said.
Running in 2016, Trump narrowly won Saginaw County and Michigan as a whole. But in 2020 against Biden, both Saginaw County and Michigan flipped to the Democrats.
—From AP reports
