Bob Iger describes his message when he ran as president – deadline



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Disney's President and CEO Bob Iger did not run for president in 2020 after thinking about it, but on Wednesday he outlined the themes that would have been at the center of his campaign.

Laurene Powell Jobs asked Iger, in Washington, at the Atlantic Festival, what would be her message as he ran.

"I think America badly needs optimism, look to the future and believe that so much will happen, or that we, as a nation, can attack ourselves. to some of the most critical issues of our time, "he said. I said.

"And that could be the environment, the income disparity, the impact of technology on the world from the point of view of disruption. This could be the cost of education, the availability of affordable housing, health care. You call him. and I do not think that in America today, the collective belief is that we can solve these problems. "

Iger is promoting his new book The turn of a lifetime, which was released Tuesday.

"I am very lucky," he said. "I was a child of the lower middle class or the middle class. My father was suffering from manic depression and was struggling to keep a job. I started working at ABC for $ 150 a week 45 years ago and I became CEO of that company. It's a beautiful story, but it's not necessarily because I've been extraordinary. "

Iger said he was "disturbed" by the fact that future generations will not have the same sense of opportunity, be it for the same kind of success that he's had or to achieve another type of dream, "even if the dream is only to lead a life that feels safe and comfortable, where the air can breathe, that sort of thing."

Jobs did not interview Iger specifically about the state of the 2020 race nor President Donald Trump, but he said the Walt Disney company was "no longer really turning to government entities to deal with these issues." .

"The lack of collaboration, the lack of communication, the lack of trust in our federal government is appalling," he said. "I have a bit of hope for local governments, because I do not think we can do anything at the national level."

He said that one of the things he was not expecting from his position as CEO was that employees would turn to society to tackle issues such as immigration, environment, affordable housing, transportation and education. Last year, the company launched a new program to pay tuition fees for hourly employees "without commitment".

"They are waiting, and perhaps rightly … their business is intensifying," Iger said.

A presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, criticized Disney for what the company paid to its theme park workers.

"What would be really heroic is that Disney uses its profits from Avengers to pay all his employees a middle-class salary, instead of paying his general manager Bob Iger $ 65.6 million, or more than 1,400 times the average salary of an average Disney worker, " tweeted Sanders in April.

Iger did not call Sanders in particular, but said that one of the things politicians do not understand is the obligation made to shareholders on a quarterly basis.

Iger said that there is a "delicate balance" that companies must establish with shareholders, customers, employees and the community. He also added that businesses have recently become more focused on the need to reconcile these interests.

"I think companies have for too long been too shareholder oriented," he said.

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