Karandeep Anand

Karandeep Anand is a technology and product executive whose career spans cloud computing, social media, financial technology, and generative artificial intelligence. Anand earned a Bachelor of Technology in computer science from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, and completed a marketing and strategy certification from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Earlier in his career, Anand held senior product and engineering leadership roles at Microsoft, where he contributed to the development of the Azure cloud-computing platform. Azure is recognized as one of the three dominant global cloud computing infrastructures, alongside Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Following his tenure at Microsoft, Anand held several leadership positions at Meta, ultimately serving as vice president and head of business products. In this role, he led the Business Products Group, serving over 200 million businesses and connecting with billions of people through Ads, Business Messaging, Workplace, and Small Business products across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Anand later served as president and chief product officer of Brex, a corporate card and spend management platform for startups and enterprises. At Brex, he oversaw the development and launch of the AI product Brex Assistant and the introduction of Empower, the company's spend management platform. Anand then became CEO of Character.AI, an AI entertainment platform with millions of monthly active users worldwide. As CEO, he delivered a keynote at Mobile World Congress, discussing the evolution of immersive storytelling in entertainment.

Anand's appointment as chief technology officer at Disney marks the first time the company has established a single executive with corporate-wide technology authority. In this role, Anand oversees enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product, and engineering, collaborating across Disney's segment technology teams to modernize the company's technology operations. Anand's experience in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and consumer technology positions him to help Disney advance its use of AI and innovation in support of its creative legacy.