Disney Appoints Character.AI CEO as First Companywide CTO
Walt Disney Co. has appointed Karandeep Anand as its first companywide chief technology officer, effective October 2nd. Anand previously served as CEO of Character.AI and will join Disney as senior executive vice president. He will report directly to CEO Josh D'Amaro and oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data, AI platforms, product, engineering, and work across Disney's segment technology teams.
Anand brings a unique mix of experience in infrastructure, consumer technology, and AI to the role. He was also president and chief product officer at financial technology company Brex and held leadership positions at Meta's Facebook. Earlier in his career, Anand spent 15 years at Microsoft in senior product and engineering leadership roles.
Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro emphasized that Anand is an expert builder and strategist who has real enthusiasm for Disney. He also believes that technology creates the most value when it helps people do their best work.