Disney has hired former Xbox executive Jennifer Creegan as its first head of marketing technology and operations, a newly created role reporting to chief marketing and brand officer Asad Ayaz. Creegan starts September 7, LaughingPlace reported, citing Variety.
The job is meant to connect Disney’s marketing across every business the company runs. Creegan will work with the film and television studios, streaming, sports, parks and experiences, games and consumer products, and with Disney’s technology and data teams, with a brief that centers on understanding fans better and making faster decisions about how to reach them.
Twenty Years At Microsoft
Creegan most recently ran strategy, business planning and insights at Xbox, where she helped guide decisions across product, content and monetization. Before that she spent more than two decades in Microsoft’s advertising division. That combination of a consumer-facing games brand and an advertising technology background is a natural fit for a role built around data.
“There are more ways than ever to experience Disney today, and that gives us an incredible opportunity to bring fans closer to the brands and stories they love,” Ayaz said in the announcement. “Jenn understands how technology and data can come together with innovative marketing approaches to help us show up for fans in fresh and unexpected ways.”
Where The Role Sits
Ayaz has run marketing across all of Disney since 2023. Creegan joins what Disney calls his enterprise marketing leadership team, the group that coordinates campaigns across the studios, Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and the parks.
The hire fits a pattern of Disney pulling data and technology functions closer to the center of the company. Sean Shoptaw’s games and digital entertainment group moved into Dana Walden’s division this spring, and Ayaz is scheduled to speak at Created in LA this month about the paths creators are taking into Disney projects, a session that leans on the same idea of a single connected view of the fan.
A Busy Week For Disney’s Corporate Side
The announcement landed the same day Disney renewed its multi-year carriage agreement with Optimum TV and confirmed it will present at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference. It also comes as the company offers early retirement to some longtime executives as part of a cost-reduction effort that runs into 2027, which makes a new senior hire a signal of where Disney is choosing to spend.
Disney did not name a deputy or a team size for the new function.
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