February 18, 2022: On Tuesday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek appointed an executive to lead the company’s metaverse strategy.

Mike White will be Disney’s senior vice president in charge of “next-generation storytelling,” Chapek said in a memo to employees that CNBC viewed. White was previously in order of Disney’s consumer experiences and platforms. According to his LinkedIn profile before joining Disney in 2011, White worked at tech companies such as Yahoo.

The metaverse refers to the concept of recent entertainment supplied by virtual reality devices that promise to usher in a recent wave of business on the internet. To date, Facebook has made the biggest bet on the metaverse, which changed its corporate name to Meta and spending over $10 billion on developing virtual reality hardware and software in 2021.

Chapek will not provide any specific details on how Disney plans to make money from the metaverse but said in his Tuesday memo that White’s task will be “connecting the physical and digital worlds” for Disney entertainment.

“Today, we have an opportunity to connect those universes and create an entirely recent paradigm for the experience of the audience and engage with our stories,” Chapek said in the memo.

Despite the metaverse’s investment and hype, the technology itself is still far off. Meta executives have said it could take up to 15 years to completely realize their vision of immersive worlds accessed through a set of computerized glasses.

However, major technology companies are dabbling in new kinds of augmented and virtual reality headsets. Meta says it plans to release an advanced version of its VR headset, and Microsoft sells an augmented reality headset known as HoloLens. Apple expects to unveil its headset as soon as this year.