Differentiating Corp Dev / Corp Fin @ Disney
Recently met some Disney reps for coffee chats at my school; they mentioned two programs - a rotational program in global development (parks) + corp finance, and another one in 'decision support'.
Is the corp finance thing equivalent to corporate development, or are they different? If yes, could someone please explain the difference in the roles + which one is generally considered more desirable? Had read earlier on this site that corp dev @ Disney is a highly sought-after role - does this also apply for the corp fin rotational program, or the decision support stuff?
Thanks!
Global Business Development does strategic planning work for Parks & Resorts (and I believe Consumer too now has been combined into that segment). Entails building business cases for organic growth projects (think new theme park or new hotel). This team rolls into the segment CFO who reports to the segmentChairman, Bob Chapek.
Corp Fin is their central treasury and corporate FP&A function - I believe this team reports into their treasurer / deputy CFO.
Corp Dev (or Corp Strat and Biz Dev, CSBD) is their M&A team. Used to be “Strategic Planning” under Mike Eisner (very famous team that basically controlled all resource allocation at Disney and churned out a ton of Disney execs), then turned into CSBD under Kevin Mayer when Bob Iger took over as CEO (narrowing the scope to just M&A and corporate level strategic opportunities), but now Mayer leads Direct to Consumer (Disney+) and the M&A team now reports into the CFO as well.