BURBANK, Calif.–John M. Renfro has been named senior vice president of human resources at The Walt Disney Company, it was announced today by Robert A. Iger, president and chief operating officer. Renfro will report to Iger and to Michael D. Eisner, chairman and chief executive officer.
Renfro has been senior vice president of human resources for Gateway, Inc., a technology and personal computer company based in San Diego.
He succeeds William Wilkinson, who recently left Disney to form a consulting firm aimed at increasing diversity in the workplace and marketplace.
As chief human resources officer at Disney, Renfro will be responsible for areas that include managing Disney’s employee communications, culture and organization development, employee education and development, staffing, diversity, compensation and benefits, and employee relations. The heads of human resources in Disney’s business units will report to Renfro as well as to the senior executives of their respective business units.
“John has the ideal experience and passion for leading the broad and extremely important aspects of our global human resources strategies,” said Iger. “He is a seasoned executive and we will look to him to help us grow our leadership in human resources management and planning.”
Prior to joining Gateway, Renfro was senior vice president of human resources and administration for Zenith Electronics Corp. in Chicago.
Previously, he held increasingly responsible human resources management positions at Ameritech, Dun & Bradstreet and A.C. Nielsen. These latter positions offered him experience managing human resources throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and Latin America.
Renfro holds a B.S. degree in administrative sciences from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.