New Delhi: Indian-origin tech executive Karandeep Anand has been appointed The Walt Disney Company’s first Chief Technology Officer. The IIIT Hyderabad alumnus will take up the newly created role starting 2 October.
Anand will report directly to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and lead technology across the company, from product and engineering to infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence. He will also work across the technology teams in Disney’s individual businesses. Part of his job will be to modernise how the entertainment conglomerate builds and uses technology.
The new role comes as D’Amaro looks to technology to bring Disney’s different sectors closer together. He has spoken about Disney+ becoming the digital centre of that experience, connecting the company’s films and television, sports, parks and other businesses.
“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 as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney,” D’Amaro said in a statement.
Anand is currently CEO of Character.AI, a generative AI company where users can create and converse with chatbots. He took over in June 2025, after previously serving as an adviser to its board. Character.AI has since been moving beyond chatbots, adding video generation and other entertainment formats.
“I’ve admired Disney my entire life for how it blends unforgettable storytelling with the latest technology to constantly push the boundaries of what entertainment can be,” Anand said.
Anand has also spent about two years at fintech company Brex, first as Chief Product Officer and later as President.
Prior to Brex, Anand was at Meta for nearly seven years. He eventually became Vice President and Head of Business Products, leading a team that built products for more than 200 million businesses across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
His longest stint was at Microsoft, where he spent 15 years in product and engineering roles. At Microsoft, he worked on the strategy for Azure cloud and other developer platforms.
Anand graduated from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, in 2003 with a BTech (Honours) in Computer Science and Engineering. Earlier this year, IIIT Hyderabad named him a recipient of the 2026 Alumni Achiever Award.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)