DISNEY CLASH HAS CEOS ON EDGE: “In private meetings and coaching sessions over the past few weeks, top business leaders have been asking a version of the same question: How can we avoid becoming the next Walt Disney Co.?” The Wall Street Journal’s Chip Cutter and Emily Glazer report. — “The fallout from the recent political spat between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has alarmed leaders across the corporate sphere, according to executives and their advisers, and heightened the challenges for chief executive officers navigating charged topics. At many companies, vocal employees have in recent years pushed bosses to take public stands on social and political issues. Florida’s pushback against Disney has raised the stakes.” — “‘The No. 1 concern CEOs have is, 'When should I speak out on public issues?’ said Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and now a senior fellow at Harvard Business School. ‘As one CEO said to me, “I want to speak out on social issues, but I don’t want to get involved in politics.” Which I said under my breath, “That’s not possible.”’” — “Some executives might be relieved. The old idea that CEOs should focus on shareholder returns and stay out of politics lingers in some corporate suites, even in a politicized age of public social-media discussions and more-activist workforces. Certainly the consequences of weighing in appear to be changing.” DISNEY SHAKES UP COMMS TEAM: “After less than four months, there is another changing of the communications guard at the Walt Disney Company,” per Deadline’s Dominic Patten. “Battered by the ongoing battle with Florida Gov. and 2024 POTUS hopeful Ron DeSantis as well as internal dissent, Geoff Morrell is out as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at the House of Mouse.” — Morrell, a Bush administration and BP alum, will be in part replaced by a Democrat: “Biden administration insider and recent Disney addition Kristina Schake will handle Disney communications efforts. Company General Counsel Horacio Gutierrez will take over Government Relations and Global Public Policy. Additionally, EVP Corporate Social Responsibility Jenny Cohen now will report directly to [CEO Bob] Chapek as Disney tries to figure out where it stands and to whom … it is donating.” TOP-ED: After an advocacy group funded by Big Tech companies last month attempted to seize upon divergent ideologies on LGBTQ rights among antitrust advocates in Washington, the transgender leader of a top antitrust group swiped back at those appeals in an op-ed today for Vice, calling the tactic “a new low” for tech lobbyists. — Evan Greer, director at the digital rights group Fight for the Future, which organized a recent antitrust day of action, was responding to an April letter from the Chamber of Progress, which is led by a former Google executive and funded by companies including Google, Meta and Amazon, that urged Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to disavow recent rhetoric from Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) that criticized tech giants like Apple for lobbying in favor of gay and trans rights in statehouses. — “Silence when political figures threaten to use antitrust as a weapon against companies opens the door to more such attacks," the group wrote to Cicilline and Klobuchar, who are leading a pair of bills to rein in tech companies. It urged the lawmakers to “acknowledge that antitrust action should never be used as a weapon against companies working to protect marginalized communities or to stand up for what’s right.” — But Greer, who argued that “extreme concentration in the tech marketplace has removed alternatives that would allow trans people to take our business elsewhere, even when our security is on the line,” called it “shameful that the Chamber — ostensibly a ‘progressive’ organization — is putting our safety and interests in the crosshairs, using trans people as a bargaining chip to kill tech reform bills.” — “The fact that they’re doing this at a time when trans people, particularly trans children, are actively under siege and being targeted by dozens of hateful and violent legislative attacks across the country, is immoral and inexcusable,” she wrote. “Big Tech is free to oppose bills that will finally hold them accountable, but at the very least, they should tell their lobbyists to keep our names out of their mouths.” EU EYES CRACKDOWN ON RUSSIA’S HIRED GUNS: “The European Commission is set to hit firms who consult and lobby for Russian companies … to prevent them doing public relations work for Vladimir Putin’s regime,” three EU diplomats tell our Pro colleagues across the pond Barbara Moens and Leonie Kijewski. — “In the coming days, the European Commission is set to propose a sixth package of sanctions on Russia in response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. While the main focus will be on a phaseout of Russian oil imports, the package will also include other measures, such as excluding the Russian bank Sberbank from the international payment system SWIFT.” — “Cutting the ties between the consulting and lobbying sector and Russia is also set to be one of the measures, the diplomats said. The move would also prevent firms from giving legal advice to Russian companies, according to one diplomat.” FAMILY AFFAIR: The yearslong tug-of-war over the ability for Gov. Tom Wolf to join a multistate program that would charge Pennsylvania power sector polluters for their emissions has entered the legal battle stage. Now, one couple is playing an outsized role in the fight over the state’s future in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Jordan reports. Pennsylvania officially joined RGGI last month and compliance will begin July 1. — After a number of Republican-led legislative attempts to stop Wolf from joining RGGI through executive action failed, a group of fossil fuel allies sued the administration and requested a preliminary injunction. — The Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, one of the plaintiffs in the case, is led by Rachel Gleason. She is married to Peter Gleason, a lawyer and lobbyist at K&L Gates — the firm representing the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, United Mine Workers of America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and others in the lawsuit to pull the state out of RGGI. — While Peter Gleason is not part of the litigation team on this case, he is registered in Harrisburg to lobby state lawmakers on behalf of energy interests like Vistra Corp., Coterra Energy , the United States Steel Corporation and Olympus Power, LLC that would be impacted by Pennsylvania’s participation in RGGI. Oil and gas is listed as one of Peter Gleason’s areas of focus at K&L Gates. — The lawsuit filed by fossil fuel interests isn’t the first legal challenge RGGI supporters are contending with. Another lawsuit featuring top legislative Republicans as intervenors is also ongoing. That lawsuit was filed before the regulation was published but ultimately failed to prevent the state from joining RGGI after a court-ordered stay was lifted. A status conference is scheduled in that lawsuit for later this week. SPOTTED at CRAFT Media/Digital’s post-White House Correspondents' Dinner party at the residence of Colombian Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzón, per a PI tipster: Tim Daly, Jason Isaacs and Billy Eichner; Henry Muñoz of Funny or Die; Kirk Wagar; Fat Joe; Brian Shroder and Patrick Hillmann of Binance; Brian Donahue of CRAFT; Mary McGinty of the National Retail Federation; Chris Reen of Clarity Media Group; John Horton and Angela Eaddy of DoorDash; John Bozzella of Alliance for Automotive Innovation; Rhonda Bentz of the Consumer Brands Association; Meg Bloomgren of the American Petroleum Institute; Harvey Mason Jr. from The Recording Academy; Todd Dupler of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; Rene Jones of UTA; Marissa Mitrovich of Frontier Communications; Jodie McLean of Edens; Ivan Zapien of Hogan Lovells; Mark Ein of Venturehouse; Tiffany Moore of the Consumer Technology Association; Missy Owens from General Motors; Josh Eastright of Bloomberg Industry Group; Marie Sylla-Dixon; Carl Hulse of The New York Times; Robin Bronk of The Creative Coalition; Jigar Thakarar and Lindsey Burris of Musicares; Joey Gonzalez of Barry's Bootcamp; Kimball Stroud of Kimball Stroud & Associates; and Steve Ross of The Artists and Athletes Alliance.
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