The Walt Disney Company has appointed Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand to the newly created role of Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer as Disney increases its focus on technology, data and artificial intelligence across the company.
Anand will join Disney effective October 2 and report directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro.
As CTO, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product and engineering.
He will work across Disney’s segment-level technology organizations to modernize how the company builds and deploys technology across its entertainment businesses.
Several members of Character.AI’s technical team are also expected to join Disney as part of the move.
The appointment comes as D’Amaro makes technology a larger component of Disney’s growth strategy, including plans to deepen direct relationships with consumers and create a more connected Disney experience centered digitally around Disney+.
Anand brings experience across generative AI, consumer products and large-scale cloud infrastructure.
At Character.AI, he led the company through a period of rapid audience growth while emphasizing user trust and safety. Before Character.AI, Anand was President and Chief Product Officer at fintech company Brex.
Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at Meta’s Facebook, including Vice President of Ads & Business Products, and spent 15 years at Microsoft, where his product and engineering work included helping build the Azure cloud platform.
That combination of AI, consumer technology, advertising and infrastructure experience aligns with Disney’s effort to apply technology across streaming, entertainment, customer relationships and internal operations.
Disney said the newly created CTO role reflects three broader priorities under D’Amaro: maintaining storytelling as the company’s central focus, putting technology in service of creativity and operating more cohesively across the broader Disney organization.
KEY QUOTES:
“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.”
Josh D’Amaro, CEO of The Walt Disney Company
“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.”
Karandeep Anand, Incoming Chief Technology Officer of The Walt Disney Company
