Disney has created a chief technology officer position and hired Karandeep Anand to fill it, the company said in an announcement dated September 18, 2026 from Burbank, California. Anand takes the title of Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and starts October 2. He reports directly to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro.
Anand arrives from Character.AI, where he was most recently CEO. Before that he was president and chief product officer at Brex, and he spent 15 years at Microsoft in senior product and engineering roles, including work on the team that built Azure. He was also vice president of ads and business products at Meta's Facebook.
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In the new role, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, along with product and engineering. The company says he will work across Disney's segment technology teams to modernize its technology. Disney operates three business segments: Entertainment, Sports and Experiences.
Some members of Character.AI's technical team are expected to join Disney as well. The announcement did not say how many would make the move, and it named no departure date or successor at Character.AI. No compensation or salary details were disclosed.
D'Amaro has been sharpening Disney's focus on technology as a growth driver and emphasizing deeper direct relationships with fans since becoming CEO. Disney+ is described as the digital centerpiece of that connected Disney experience. The company trades on the NYSE under the ticker DIS.
The appointment follows a run of leadership changes at Disney. On September 17, Dana Walden, president and chief creative officer, named Adam Smith chairman of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment and gave Joe Earley a newly created role as president of Disney Entertainment Television franchise and content strategy.
Disney says Anand led Character.AI through a stretch of rapid growth and prioritized user trust and safety as the company scaled. He said he has admired Disney his entire life for how it blends storytelling with the latest technology. D'Amaro called the hire a vital addition to Disney's senior leadership team, pointing to Anand's experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI.
Other companies have named technology chiefs this year as well. In July, OpenAI promoted Uday Ruddaraju to chief technology officer of compute after he joined the company in 2025 as head of compute and infrastructure. In February, Myntra appointed former Google engineering head Pramod Adiddam as its chief technology officer, reporting to CEO Nandita Sinha.
