Disney Senior Vice President of Communications Heather Hust Rivera to leave the company after almost 20 years [EXCLUSIVE]

Heather Hust Rivera, senior vice president of communications at Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution (DMED), is leaving the company after nearly two decades, Variety learned exclusively.

"I am grateful for the incredible opportunities I have had over the past 17 years at Disney , working in multiple companies with some of the hardest working, most talented and most creative people in the industry,” Hust Rivera said in a statement to Variety. other than the best to the team, and I can't wait to see what the next chapter has in store for us."

Hust Rivera's exit isn't entirely surprising, as she served as Chief Representative communications from Kareem Daniel, who resigned as DMED President at the end of November.

The changes come as returning CEO Bob Iger seeks to restructure the company after the sudden ousting of Bob Chapek after three years. Chapek had revamped Disney himself with the creation of DMED, in an effort to focus the company more on its streaming business. Iger made it clear that further changes would be made to DMED in a memo to staff in which he announced Daniels' resignation, with many industry insiders speculating that the group would be phased out altogether.

Daniel and Hust Rivera are the third senior executives to leave Disney after Chapek's departure, with the another being Lieutenant Chapek Arthur Bochner.

Hust Rivera was appointed to her role at DMED in March 2021. She oversaw global communications for all of DMED, which included Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ and Star+ as well as linear TV channels such as ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, Freeform, FX and National Geographic. His mandate also included communications for stations owned by ABC, advertising sales, Disney Music Group, content licensing and distribution, and theatrical movie distribution.

She first joined Disney in various publicity roles for the Department of Parks and Resorts before to lead all of Disney's video, web and social media teams for corporate functions. She also worked for Disney's consumer products, gaming and publishing division as vice president of communications and public relations. Prior to working at Disney, she worked at the United States Mission to the United Nations.

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