Sonia Coleman

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

Last Reviewed: October 3, 2026

Executive Summary

Sonia Coleman is Senior Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of The Walt Disney Company, which employed about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025. She leads its global people and culture strategy, talent acquisition and development, compensation and benefits, organizational effectiveness and employee services. She has spent her career in human resources: twelve years at The Home Depot, four at The Children’s Place, and since 2008 at Disney, where she supported consumer products, the corporate center and then ESPN and the general entertainment businesses before becoming chief human resources officer in 2023. Her rise came almost entirely through business-unit HR roles, giving her a view of Disney’s divisions from the inside before she took the enterprise job.

Career Highlights

• Senior Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of Disney since 27 September 2025.
• Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer from 8 April 2023.
• Senior Vice President, Human Resources, for Disney General Entertainment and ESPN from 2021.
• Joined Disney in 2008 as vice president of HR for Disney Consumer Products.

Professional Journey

Coleman earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership at Chapman University and a master’s in human resource management at Florida International University. She spent 1992 to 2004 at The Home Depot, where her Disney biography says she was the strategic HR leader during a period of large-scale change, and 2004 to 2008 at The Children’s Place in several strategic HR roles.

She joined Disney in 2008 as vice president of human resources for Disney Consumer Products, a role she held for eight years. From May 2016 she was vice president of human resources for the company, overseeing HR strategy, change management, organizational development and engagement for corporate and enterprise employees and serving as lead HR business partner to senior corporate executives.

From April 2017 she led HR for Disney General Entertainment as senior vice president, and from August 2021 for both ESPN and the general entertainment portfolio, a group that included ABC Entertainment, ABC News, the ABC-owned stations, Disney Television Studios, Freeform, FX, Hulu Originals and National Geographic content.

She became senior executive vice president and chief human resources officer on 8 April 2023. On 27 September 2025 her title changed to chief people officer, and Disney extended her employment agreement to June 2028. She now serves on the leadership team of chief executive Josh D’Amaro alongside chief financial officer Hugh Johnston and chief legal and global affairs officer Horacio Gutierrez.

Her remit as chief people officer takes in talent acquisition and development, compensation and benefits, opportunity and inclusion, organizational effectiveness, and employee services and systems, for a workforce Disney put at about 231,000 people at the end of fiscal 2025.

Education

Chapman University

Bachelor of Science, Organizational Leadership

Florida International University

Master of Science, Human Resource Management