Disney has restructured its marketing leadership under recently appointed Chief Marketing and Brand Officer Asad Ayaz.
The former president of marketing outlined the new structure of the marketing division in a memo to staff Thursday, obtained by TheWrap. He named five executives as division heads across consumer products, experiences and entertainment.
Additionally, Ayaz created a new enterprise marketing team, which will increase collaboration among individual marketing groups while keeping an awareness of global perspectives.
“Our shared goal is to unlock an innovative and agile organization strengthened by greater clarity, accountability, and collaboration that thrives in a rapidly evolving landscape,” Ayaz wrote in his Thursday memo.
Ayaz laid out five key pillars for Disney’s marketing department for 2026: maximize our relationships with consumers and fans; elevate our best-in-class creativity; deepen our understanding of consumers; fully harness our ecosystem of partners and creatives; and move faster with agility, innovation, and experimentation.
His all-star team of divisional heads will execute this mission:
- Ron Faris for Disney Consumer Products
- Scott Hudgins for Disney Experiences
- Martha Morrison for Disney Entertainment Studios
- Shannon Ryan for Disney Entertainment Television, Disney+ and Hulu
- Tina Thornton for ESPN
“We will show up as one unified storytelling brand across our flywheel — film, television, streaming, parks, experiences, and sports — aligned to how consumers experience the company today,” Ayaz added. “We will engage with them in more relevant ways, when they want, where they want, making it seamless and intuitive for them to connect with our characters, stories, products, and experiences.”
Ayaz also established a leadership team for his enterprise marketing division. They will partner with both the segment and international marketing groups to increase communication amongst the team. The following executives will lead their respective teams, per Ayaz’s memo:
- Brand & Franchise – Joanna Balikian will lead the strategy and execution of enterprise brand campaigns and synergy initiatives, oversee company brand priorities and governance and drive fan engagement strategies that strengthen affinity across audiences.
- Corporate Alliances – Becca Vodnoy will continue in her role shaping Disney’s global partner and promotional strategy, developing and growing high value relationships with partners and creators.
- Creative Execution – Carrie Brzezinski-Hsu will lead Disney’s new creative production ecosystem, unifying cross-segment creative agencies. She will partner with the segment creative teams to ensure every asset reflects the company’s creative excellence and brand standards. In addition, she will continue to oversee ESPN’s Creative Studio, with dual accountability to Tina Thornton.
- Media – Kimberly Flaster will take on a new role that shapes and directs a unified media investment strategy that leverages cross-channel buying, advanced optimization, and data-driven decisioning. She will report to the respective Segment Marketing leaders and trade desk operations.
- Research & Insights – Andrew Ferguson will lead enterprise-wide consumer and brand intelligence, along with marketing, brand and franchise performance research. His team will guide campaign research—from audience resonance testing to end-to-end campaign measurement.
One leadership position is still vacant. Disney has yet to appoint a marketing operations and technology head for the enterprise team. The new role will oversee the systems processes, and tools that drive modern marketing. They will also be responsible for implementing the company’s MarTech vision and roadmap.
The leadership changes were effective immediately.
