Disney Names Character.AI CEO Karandeep Anand Chief Technology Officer

The Walt Disney Company announced on September 18, 2026 that Karandeep Anand, most recently the chief executive of Character.AI, will join the company as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, a newly created position, effective October 2, 2026. Anand will report directly to Disney Chief Executive Officer Josh D’Amaro.

As Chief Technology Officer, Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product, and engineering, working across the company’s segment technology teams to further modernize how Disney builds and delivers technology company-wide.

Disney said the appointment comes as D’Amaro sharpens the company’s focus on technology as a driver of growth across the business. Since becoming CEO, D’Amaro has emphasized deepening Disney’s direct relationships with fans by creating a more connected Disney experience, with Disney+ as the digital centerpiece.

Remarks From D’Amaro and Anand

“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 the announcement.

D’Amaro described Anand as an expert builder and strategist, technical and product-minded, with sharp instincts for what fans actually want. He said Anand brings real enthusiasm and respect for Disney, a clear sense of where technology and creativity meet, and shares the company’s belief that technology creates the most value when it helps people do their best work.

“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. He said he was honored to join a team with such extraordinary creative talent, and that he looks forward to building on the company’s technology capabilities to help Disney connect fans worldwide with its stories and characters in new and innovative ways.

Career Across Microsoft, Meta, and Brex

Disney said Anand led Character.AI through a period of explosive growth, building what the company described as one of the most engaged consumer-AI audiences in the world while making user trust and safety a priority as the platform scaled.

Before Character.AI, Anand served as President and Chief Product Officer of Brex, a financial technology company. He previously held several leadership roles at Meta’s Facebook, most recently as Vice President of Ads & Business Products. Earlier in his career, Anand spent 15 years at Microsoft in senior product and engineering leadership roles and was part of the team that built the Azure platform. He holds a Computer Science degree from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.

Tenure at Character.AI

Character.AI named Anand its chief executive on June 20, 2025. The company said at the time that he had spent the previous nine months as a board advisor, playing a key role in shaping its product strategy and user experience, and that as CEO he would focus on advancing Character.AI’s long-term strategy, applying its multimodal AI technology and expanding its user community. The same announcement moved Dominic Perella into a new role as Chief Legal Officer and SVP of Global Affairs.

In a note to Character.AI users published with that announcement, Anand committed to a set of product changes within 60 days: improving memory and overall model quality, with the research team refining open-source models for Characters; making the app’s content filter less overbearing while maintaining user safety; adding better ways to tag Characters and improving search and discoverability; giving users more control and organization, including the ability to archive Characters; and providing more transparency on what is allowed during Character creation.

He also said the company was building features to let creators make richer, more immersive and expressive Characters that interact in audio and video, and committed to launching the full set during summer 2025.

Disney said a number of Character.AI’s technical team members are expected to join the company along with Anand’s appointment.