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For the first time in its history, Disney has appointed a chief technology officer. The entertainment giant confirmed the creation of the CTO role as part of a broader push to strengthen its technology leadership, marking a notable shift for a company long known for its film, television and theme park businesses.
The appointment signals that Disney is placing greater emphasis on the technology that underpins its products and services, from streaming platforms to its parks and consumer experiences. By establishing a dedicated CTO position at the top of the organisation, the company is formalising a function that had previously been distributed across different divisions rather than concentrated in a single executive.
The move makes Disney the latest major media company to elevate technology to a named, executive-level role, reflecting how central digital infrastructure has become to the entertainment industry. The new CTO will sit alongside other senior leaders as Disney continues to invest in the systems and platforms that support its many businesses.
Further details of the appointment follow below.
Karandeep Anand is joining Disney as its new Chief Technology Officer. The appointment marks a significant addition to the company's leadership team, with Anand stepping into a role that has been created for the first time in Disney's history.
Anand's arrival comes as Disney continues to invest heavily in its streaming platforms and digital products. As CTO, he will be expected to guide the company's technology strategy during a period of rapid change in the media industry.
His appointment follows a distinguished career at major technology firms, where he built a reputation for scaling consumer-facing products and leading large engineering organisations. Disney has not yet announced a start date, but the hire signals the company's intent to strengthen its technical foundation at the highest level.
Observers will be watching closely to see how Anand shapes Disney's technology roadmap, particularly as competition in streaming intensifies. His mandate is expected to span infrastructure, product development, and emerging technologies.
Karandeep Anand will report directly to recently appointed CEO Josh D'Amaro. The reporting line places the company's first CTO at the top table of Disney's leadership, with a direct route to the chief executive.
Alongside that reporting relationship, Anand will head up several of the company's core technology functions. According to the announcement, he will lead the teams responsible for:
That portfolio spans both the foundations Disney's digital services run on and the product and engineering work that sits closer to the customer experience. Bringing infrastructure, product, engineering, and data/AI platforms under a single leader gives the new CTO broad oversight of how Disney builds, runs, and extends its technology stack.
The scope of the role underscores why Disney created the CTO position in the first place. By placing these teams under one executive who answers directly to D'Amaro, the company is signalling that technology leadership will sit at the centre of its decision-making rather than being distributed across separate divisions.
Before joining Disney, Anand served as chief product officer at Character.AI, a chatbot startup. His career also includes a senior product role at Meta, where he worked on the company's business products, and a long tenure at Microsoft.
That résumé places Anand at the intersection of consumer-scale platforms and emerging AI products. His time at Character.AI is particularly relevant to Disney's ambitions, since the company has signalled interest in AI-driven experiences across its parks, streaming and consumer products. Anand's appointment as Disney's first chief technology officer brings a product executive with both big-platform and startup experience into a newly created role. He is expected to draw on that mix as Disney builds out its technology organisation.
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