Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek has found the successor to longtime Disney executive and general counsel Alan Braverman.
Disney has named Horacio Gutierrez senior executive vp, general counsel and secretary for the company, succeeding Braverman, who is retiring at the end of the year. Guttierez joins from streaming audio giant Spotify, where he was head of global affairs and chief legal officer. The executive, who starts at Disney Feb. 1, previously served as general counsel at Microsoft.
“Horacio is an incredibly skilled attorney and dynamic leader who comes to Disney with 35 years of legal experience in markets around the globe. Having spent more than two decades working for premier technology companies, he has an extensive understanding of the complex legal questions that come with technological disruption and rapid industry change,” Chapek said in a statement. “Horacio is a key addition to my leadership team, and I look forward to working with him as he builds on Alan’s outstanding legacy leading our unparalleled legal organization.”
Braverman had been a legal executive at the company since joining ABC in 1993. He has been its general counsel since 2003, pre-dating Bob Iger’s tenure as CEO. With Iger set to depart Disney at the end of the year, Braverman and fellow C-suite executive Zenia Mucha announced their intentions to leave as well. Disney tapped BP executive and former ABC News correspondent Geoff Morrell as chief corporate affairs officer, which will include communications and lobbying efforts.
Meanwhile, another of Iger’s top deputies, CFO Christine McCarthy, earlier this week signed a contract extension that will keep her overseeing the company’s finances into 2024.
Gutierrez, who joined Spotify in 2016, played a crucial role in negotiating Spotify’s longtime licenses with the major labels, which helped pave the way for the streaming giant’s public listing in 2018, among other duties. He had served as general counsel until November 2019, when he was promoted to head of global affairs and chief legal officer.
A version of this story originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
