# Disney hires first tech chief to unify operations

> CEO Josh D'Amaro names Karandeep Anand as Disney's first companywide chief technology officer, part of a broader leadership reshuffle.
- Title: Disney hires first tech chief to unify operations | Shortify
- Summary: CEO Josh D'Amaro names Karandeep Anand as Disney's first companywide chief technology officer, part of a broader leadership reshuffle. Disney appointed…
- Keywords: disney, josh d'amaro, karandeep anand, chief technology officer, leadership reshuffle, one disney initiative, business, technology, hires, first, tech, chief
- Source: Business Insider — https://businessinsider.com/disney-new-tech-chief-read-memo-ceo-josh-damaro-2026-9
- Author: James Faris
- Published: 2026-09-18T17:19:20.722+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: disney, josh d'amaro, karandeep anand, chief technology officer, leadership reshuffle, one disney initiative, business, technology
## Disney names first tech chief
CEO Josh D'Amaro announced Karandeep Anand as Disney's first companywide chief technology officer on Friday.
## What Anand will oversee
Anand will run enterprise tech, infrastructure, data, AI platforms, product and engineering teams across Disney.
## D'Amaro's vision for the hire
D'Amaro said Anand brings rare experience in infrastructure, consumer technology and AI to unify the company.

> Karandeep brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology, and AI.
## Anand's background and experience
Anand was CEO of Character.AI, spent six and a half years at Facebook and over fifteen years at Microsoft.
## Part of broader leadership changes
The hire follows Disney promoting Adam Smith to head streaming and moving Joe Earley to franchise and content strategy.
## Anand reports directly to D'Amaro
Anand will report to D'Amaro as the company executes its One Disney unification initiative.
## Key takeaway

Disney appointed Karandeep Anand as its first chief technology officer to oversee tech, data, AI and engineering across the company under CEO Josh D'Amaro's unification strategy.