The Walt Disney Company is making a significant move in the technology space. Disney has announced that Karandeep Anand will join the company as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, stepping into a brand new position that takes effect October 2, 2026.
A Big Hire With an Impressive Resume
Anand brings a resume that covers some of the biggest names in tech. Most recently, he served as CEO of Character.AI, the popular AI conversation platform. Before that, he was Vice President of Ads and Business Products at Meta, where he worked across Facebook’s advertising and business product ecosystem. He also served as President and Chief Product Officer at Brex, a financial technology company, and spent 15 years at Microsoft in senior product and engineering roles, including work on the Azure cloud platform. He holds a Computer Science degree from the International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad.
What His Role Will Cover
Reporting directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product, and engineering across Disney’s divisions. The role was created specifically to modernize how Disney builds and delivers technology throughout the company a significant undertaking given how many properties and platforms fall under the Disney umbrella.
D’Amaro spoke highly of the hire, saying Anand brings “a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI” and calling him “an expert builder and strategist.”
Anand was equally enthusiastic about the opportunity. “I’m honored to join a team with such extraordinary creative talent,” he said, adding that he looks forward to helping Disney “connect fans worldwide with its beloved stories.”
In an interesting side note, several members of Anand’s technical team from Character.AI are also expected to join Disney alongside him.
This is a hire that signals Disney is serious about the role technology and AI will play in its future. It will be fascinating to watch what direction Anand takes the company‘s tech infrastructure in the months and years ahead.
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