The Walt Disney Company is reorganizing parts of its streaming-focused executive team following the departure of a senior product manager, The Desk has learned.
Ajay Arora, the Senior Vice President of Product Management and Engineering, will leave the company on April 30 after nearly five years, according to an internal memo from product and technology chief Adam Smith.
In the memo, Smith said Arora “has decided to pursue a new opportunity,” and thanked him for his contributions overseeing commerce, growth and account management across Disney’s streaming platforms, including Disney Plus and ESPN’s digital products.
Arora joined Disney after serving as Director of Product Innovation and Growth at Netflix. His prior experience also includes product leadership roles at Imgur and Audible, part of Amazon.
Following his departure, Disney is restructuring its Commerce, Data and Identity organization to more closely integrate those functions into its broader product and monetization teams. The move is part of a broader effort to position streaming as the “digital centerpiece” of Disney’s relationship with consumers, according to the memo.
Under the new structure, the Commerce and Identity Product group will be folded into Disney’s centralized product management organization and its direct-to-consumer streaming alliance. The change is intended to align decision-making across product and engineering teams while supporting commerce-driven features tied to subscriptions, user accounts and engagement.
Leadership of those teams will shift accordingly, with Georgina Hill overseeing commerce product, Chuck Mortimer leading identity product and Ana Pavlovic handling messaging. All three executives will report to Erin Teague, who leads product management for Disney’s streaming division.
At the same time, Disney’s Data Product and Engineering group will move under Tony Donohoe, Executive Vice President of the company’s ad platform. The reorganization is designed to bring data capabilities closer to Disney’s advertising and monetization infrastructure, particularly as the company builds out its ad-supported streaming tiers and measurement capabilities.
Smith said internal data initiatives, including Disney’s Atlas platform, are providing a more detailed view of consumer behavior and will benefit from tighter integration with ad technology systems. Data engineering will be led by Alek Zdziarski, while Romit Mehta will continue overseeing data product on an interim basis, both reporting to Donohoe.
The changes also include the dissolution of the Commerce, Data and Identity alliance, with its responsibilities being absorbed into other existing teams. Additional details on that transition are expected in the coming weeks.
The executive exit and restructuring come as Disney continues to refine its streaming strategy amid increasing competition and a growing emphasis on profitability, advertising and first-party data across its direct-to-consumer portfolio.
Disney will report its fiscal second quarter (Q2, aligns with calendar Q1) financial earnings in early May. The full memo as sent by Adam Smith is below:
Team,
I wanted to share the news that Ajay Arora has decided to pursue a new opportunity outside of Disney. His last day will be April 30th. Please join me in thanking Ajay for 5 years of significant contributions to our business and wishing him well in what comes next.
With his departure, we’re taking the opportunity to integrate Commerce, Data and Identity more tightly into the organizational structures driving our products and businesses.
Commerce & Identity Product: As we work to make DTC the digital centerpiece of Disney’s relationship with fans, we will move the Commerce and Identity teams to join our Product Management team and DTC Streaming Alliance. This aligns decision making under a single product organization and matches the structure of our engineering teams. Georgina Hill (Commerce Product), Chuck Mortimer (Identity Product), and Ana Pavlovic (Messaging) will now report to Erin Teague.
Data Product & Engineering: Atlas and related data efforts are giving us a sharper, data-driven view of our relationship with the consumer, and will benefit from sitting closer to our ad platforms and monetization engine. To drive this, Tony Donohoe will add Data Product and Engineering to his remit. Alek Zdziarski (Data Engineering) and Romit Mehta (Data Product, interim) will report to Tony Donohoe.
With these changes, we will also fold the CDI Alliance into other existing alliances. We are finalizing the details of this and will share updates as quickly as possible.
Please reach out to me, your leadership team, or your HR partner with questions.
Thanks,
Adam
