Disney Hires First-Ever Chief Technology Officer

Disney has hired Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer, in time for an unfolding generative AI tools era.

While also serving as senior executive vp, Anand comes to Disney after being CEO of Character.AI and also being a former Meta and Microsoft exec. Anand will report directly to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro.

“Karandeep brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI, and will be a vital addition to Disney’s senior leadership team as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney,” said D’Amaro in a statement. “He is an expert builder and strategist, technical and product-minded, with sharp instincts for what fans actually want. He also has real enthusiasm and respect for Disney, a clear sense of where technology and creativity meet, and shares our belief that technology creates the most value when it helps people do their best work.”

As CTO, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product, and engineering across the studio’s segment technology teams. A number of Character.AI’s technical team will follow Anand to Disney from Oct. 2.

The appointments come as D’Amaro since taking the reins at Disney has looked to create a more connected user experience, with Disney+ as the digital centerpiece.

“I’ve admired Disney my entire life for how it blends unforgettable storytelling with the latest technology to constantly push the boundaries of what entertainment can be. I’m honored to join a team with such extraordinary creative talent, and I look forward to building on the company’s impressive technology capabilities to help Disney connect fans worldwide with its beloved stories and characters in new and innovative ways,” Anand said in his own statement.

Besides Character.AI, Anand completed senior executive stints at financial technology company Brex, Meta’s Facebook and Microsoft, where he worked for 15 years and was part of the team that built the Azure platform. He holds a Computer Science degree from the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad, India.