Disney promoted April Carretta to Executive Vice President (EVP) of Communications. She will be the communication lead for Dana Walden, who is the President and Chief Creative Officer of the company.

April Carretta

Carretta’s previous role was head of communications for Disney’s direct-to-consumer business and tech and product teams. In the new role, she will continue heading PR for those areas, while also being responsible for Disney Entertainment (which now is under Walden instead of Disney Experiences). Caretta held previous roles at at Twentieth Century Fox, Edelman, and Sony Pictures before joining Disney.

She will report to Chief Communications Officer Paul Roeder. Roeder replaces Kristina Schake, who Disney previously announced was exiting the company. He shared Carretta’s promotion news:

“As Josh and Dana begin shaping this next chapter for our company, I’ve been reflecting on the role Communications will play in helping us succeed, and, just as importantly, the people who make that possible,” Roeder said in a company memo obtained by Variety.

According to Variety, the memo also laid out other updates:

• David Jefferson, EVP, communications, will continue leading day-to-day corporate communications efforts including public affairs, media relations and corporate social responsibility. He will also now lead Disney’s international communications teams, working with regional comms leads: Belina Tan (Asia Pacific), Amy Holland (EMEA) and Felicitas Castrillon (Latin America), who each will continue to report to their respective regional presidents and now also to Jefferson.
• Mimi Fong, VP, communications, will be joining Carretta’s team to support Disney’s international content communications, working with Eric Schrier, president of Disney Television Studios, and Joe Earley, president of direct-to-consumer at Disney Entertainment.
• Carrie Brown, SVP of internal communications, will now report directly to Roeder and will continue leading enterprise-wide employee communications and engagement efforts, as well as providing internal comms support to Disney’s corporate functions.
• Mariana Vaca has joined Roeder’s team as director, communications to work across Disney’s comms teams corporatewide. Vaca previously was director of external communications for Walt Disney Studios.

Disney’s business segment communications leads will remain the same but with some changes in reporting structure:

• Alannah Hall-Smith, EVP, communications and public affairs, Disney Experiences, will continue in the role, dual-reporting to recently appointed Disney Experiences chairman Thomas Mazloum and Roeder.
• Josh Krulewitz, EVP, ESPN Communications, will continue to dual-report to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Roeder.
• Naomi Bulochnikov, EVP, communications, Disney Entertainment, will continue leading comms for Disney Entertainment Television, including advertising, dual-reporting to entertainment TV chairman Debra OConnell and Roeder.
• Bridget Osterhaus, VP, communications, will continue leading comms for Disney’s Platform Distribution organization and will now dual-report to Bulochnikov and Krulewitz.
• Erin Barrier, SVP, communications, Walt Disney Studios, was recently promoted to this role, dual-reporting to Alan Bergman, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and Roeder.

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