Hugh Johnston

Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer The Walt Disney Company

Last Reviewed: October 3, 2026

Executive Summary

Hugh Johnston has been Chief Financial Officer of The Walt Disney Company since December 2023. His remit is broader than most finance chiefs’: besides accounting, planning, investor relations, tax and treasury, he oversees corporate strategy and business development, enterprise technology, real estate, global security and risk. He came to Disney after 34 years at PepsiCo, where he was chief financial officer from 2010 and vice chairman from 2015, and where he also ran Pepsi-Cola North America, global operations and, at times, the company’s IT and e-commerce businesses. He sits on the boards of Microsoft and HCA Healthcare, chairing both audit committees. His hiring brought a finance chief with more than 13 years in PepsiCo’s top finance job from consumer goods into media and entertainment.

Career Highlights

• Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Disney since 4 December 2023.
• Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo, 2010 to 2023, and Vice Chairman from 2015.
• President of Pepsi-Cola North America, 2007 to 2009.
• Director and audit committee chair of Microsoft and of HCA Healthcare.

Professional Journey

Johnston earned a bachelor’s degree at Syracuse University and an MBA at the University of Chicago. He joined PepsiCo in 1987 as a business planner and held finance positions there until 1999, when he left to become vice president of retail at Merck & Co.

He rejoined PepsiCo in 2002 as senior vice president of mergers and acquisitions, then served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of PepsiCo Beverages and Foods until 2005. He moved into operating roles as senior vice president of transformation, executive vice president of operations, president of Pepsi-Cola North America from 2007 to 2009 and executive vice president of global operations.

In 2010 he became PepsiCo’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, adding the title of vice chairman in 2015. Alongside finance his portfolio included PepsiCo’s information technology function from 2015, its global e-commerce business from 2015 to 2019 and the Quaker Foods North America division from 2014 to 2016.

He joined Disney as senior executive vice president and chief financial officer on 4 December 2023; in November 2025 Disney extended his employment agreement to January 2029. Disney reports three segments, Entertainment, Sports and Experiences, and employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025, according to its annual report. He joined Microsoft’s board in 2017 and HCA Healthcare’s in 2021, chairing the audit committee at each, and is a director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

At Disney his finance organization also takes in corporate real estate, corporate strategy and business development, global product and labor standards, global security and enterprise technology, according to the company.

Education

Syracuse University

Bachelor of Science

University of Chicago

MBA