Disney Names SVP for Its Entry Into the Metaverse

The Walt Disney Co. has named an executive specifically to look into its metaverse strategy, Reuters reported Tuesday (Feb. 15).

Disney CEO Bob Chapek sent an email to that effect, saying Mike White, an executive in the Media and Entertainment Distribution group, was the one chosen.

“For nearly 100 years, our company has defined and re-defined entertainment by leveraging technology to bring stories to life in deeper, more impactful ways,” Chapek wrote in the email to staff, adding, “Today, we have an opportunity to connect those universes and create an entirely new paradigm for how audiences experience and engage with our stories.”

Reuters reported that White will now be the senior vice president of next-generation storytelling and consumer experiences.

White has 25 years of tech and leadership experience, and before joining Disney in 2011, worked with Apollo Group and Yahoo.

Chapek had announced Disney’s metaverse foray last November. He said this would come with improvements to storytelling and combine “elements of the physical and digital world.” In Chapek’s view, the metaverse is the “next great storytelling frontier.”

J.P. Morgan also opened up a metaverse concept recently, debuting the lounge in Decentraland. It’s the first lender to open up something in that virtual world.

Read more: JPMorgan Opens Branch in Metaverse

Decentraland is a virtual world based on blockchain, and the Onyx lounge, as it’s called, was released as JPMorgan opined in a letter on how it could find new opportunities this way.

Christine Moy, JPMorgan’s head of crypto and the metaverse, said there’s a good deal of client interest and the company wanted to “help clients cut through the noise and highlight what the current reality is, and what needs to be built next in technology, commercial infrastructure, privacy/identity and workforce, in order to maximize the full potential of our lives in the metaverse.”