Good morning! OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar opposes Elon Musk, outgoing Small Business Administration leader reflects on her four years, and Disney’s advertising boss got to the top by raising her hand.
– All about ads. Rita Ferro started her career as a manager of international sales at ESPN. When Disney and ESPN’s advertising teams were being combined in 1998, her new boss asked for recommendations for a head of sales. She put forward her own team: “We have a sales team, right?” she told her manager.
Speaking up worked out for Ferro, who two decades later is Disney’s president of global advertising. She oversees a multibillion-dollar advertising portfolio across linear TV and streaming at the entertainment giant with $89 billion in annual revenue, from ABC and ESPN to Disney Plus. Earlier this month, she presented about Disney’s advertising business at CES in Las Vegas. Advertisers on its streaming products are reaching 157 million ad-supported monthly active users globally, she shared, outlining a new methodology for standardizing measurement in streaming.
In her current role for a year-and-a-half, Ferro has discovered that what advertisers are looking for around the world is pretty consistent. “It’s a little different in France, or it’s a little different in Argentina, but ultimately the goal is pretty much the same around the world. People are advertising because they want to move product,” she says. “It’s really how you execute it in these markets and give them the tools and information to be able to do that.” Ferro’s team helps advertisers buy space across global brands like Marvel and Disney, but also attached to localized content. She’s working to develop a business model for what’s known as “flagship,” ESPN’s incoming sports streaming service.
Ferro reports up to Disney Entertainment co-chairs Dana Walden (No. 34 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list) and Alan Bergman, as well as ESPN chair Jimmy Pitaro. She’s had multiple bosses before—and says having to meet the needs of more than one boss has been key to her growth. “I always had to solve for the business, not for the person,” she says.
She advises rising execs who work for her today to approach the rapidly changing media and advertising business “from a place of optimism and opportunity, not of fear and delay.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Turning a profit. OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar called Elon Musk’s attempts to stop the company from going for-profit “lawfare.” Musk, who helped launch OpenAI, said the change would go against its mission as a nonprofit, while Friar said, “I think even he recognized very early on that it would require us to be much more than a nonprofit.” Bloomberg
- SBA reflections. Isabel Casillas Guzman, outgoing administrator of the Small Business Administration, said that the SBA’s independence is a key contributor to its efficiency and that it would not benefit from being folded into the Commerce Department. Former Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler is stepping into her role under the new Trump administration. Inc.
- Monumental moment. The National Mall in Washington, D.C. will be getting its first monument honoring women’s history. “I was told more times than I can count, including by very important people, that there is no space on the Mall for women,” said Anna Laymon, president and CEO of the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation. New York Times
- Now on Netflix. Ms. Rachel, the children’s YouTube content creator, made a deal with Netflix—a four-episode season will be available on Jan. 27, with more episodes to come later in 2025. Ms. Rachel teaches kids lessons on letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Ralph Lauren named Mercedes Abramo regional CEO for North America. She was most recently deputy chief commercial officer at Cartier.
Empathy, which provides support for people dealing with loss, named Sophie Ruddock COO, Cindy Goodrich CMO, Rotem Waissman VP of design, and Jennifer Amaral VP of insurance and wealth solutions. Most recently, Ruddock was interim COO at Dynamo AI; Goodrich was BetterUp’s chief brand officer and chief marketing officer; Waissman was VP of design at Monday.com; and Amaral served as VP of insurance and wealth solutions at Prudential.
Reydix, a technology company for fans to connect to live entertainment, appointed Aspa Lekka as COO. She is the cofounder and served as the COO of JOKR.
Carrot Fertility appointed Hilary Bartlett to chief product officer. Most recently, she was the company’s senior VP of strategy.
Venture capital firm Greycroft named Ashley Valentine chief people officer and Melissa Brandow chief compliance officer. Most recently, Valentine was executive director of human capital at Rockwood Capital and Brandow was Greycroft’s director of compliance.
Eastside Golf, a lifestyle and apparel golf brand, appointed Annette Parker as head of marketing. Parker most recently served as a sports marketing executive at Creative Artists Agency.
ON MY RADAR
Markets Berard’s challenges at ABN only begin with learning Dutch Bloomberg
The women on the frontlines of the Los Angeles wildfires Marie Claire
You blamed DEI for hurting your career. Now what? Wall Street Journal
PARTING WORDS
“We are still very connected to the misogynistic, patriarchal messaging that women are at our expiration date once our eggs are gone. That’s still there, no matter how far we’ve moved as a society. It’s just ingrained.”
— Actor and Stripes Beauty founder Naomi Watts on her upcoming book Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause
