NiCE, the Nasdaq listed AI customer experience platform provider based in Hoboken, New Jersey, has appointed Indian American executive Arun Chandra as its new chief operating officer. The company announced the move in a November 17, 2025 press release, describing the role as a newly created position that will lead a unified Global Customer Operations division and report directly to the chief executive officer.

The appointment places Chandra at the operational center of a company that is trying to define how artificial intelligence reshapes customer interactions at scale. NiCE, which provides software and services that help enterprises manage contact centers, analytics, and digital engagement, is pushing an AI first strategy that integrates automation, predictive insights, and human agents across channels. As chief operating officer, Chandra will oversee functions such as customer success, services, partners, marketing, business operations, and corporate security, bringing them together under a single global structure designed to improve execution and customer outcomes.

In announcing the new role, NiCE’s leadership emphasized both the scope of the job and the experience Chandra brings from some of the world’s most recognized brands. Before joining NiCE, he served as senior vice president for customer experience at The Walt Disney Company, where he helped modernize the experience for the company’s multi billion dollar streaming business. Prior to Disney, he held senior positions at Meta and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, building a resume that blends technology, operations, and large scale customer engagement.

Chandra’s appointment comes at a pivotal moment for the customer experience and contact center industry. Enterprises are under pressure to handle rising interaction volumes, more complex customer needs, and expectations for real time, personalized service. At the same time, advances in generative AI, speech analytics, and automation are changing what is possible in a contact center or digital service environment. NiCE is positioning itself as a leader in this transformation, and placing an Indian American executive with deep operational experience in the COO role signals that the company sees disciplined execution as just as important as product innovation.

For South Asian Americans in corporate leadership, the move is another example of how executives with diaspora backgrounds are increasingly visible in C suite roles at U.S. based technology and enterprise software companies. While founders and chief executive officers often receive the most attention, chief operating officers shape how a company actually delivers on its promises to customers. By trusting Chandra with a broad mandate across customer operations, NiCE is acknowledging both his track record leading complex organizations and the importance of operational excellence in its next stage of growth.

Operationally, Chandra will inherit a portfolio that touches the full lifecycle of NiCE’s customers, from onboarding and implementation to ongoing success and renewal. Bringing partner management, services, support, and customer success into a single division can make it easier to eliminate silos, fix recurring friction points, and align incentives across teams. His experience scaling global operations at Disney and technology firms offers a playbook for standardizing processes where it makes sense while leaving room for regional and sector specific differences. That balance matters as NiCE serves customers across industries and geographies.

The appointment is also tightly linked to NiCE’s AI first strategy. The company has been vocal about its belief that artificial intelligence should not be an add on but rather the organizing principle for how customer experience platforms are designed and delivered. A chief operating officer with a history of executing complex, technology driven transformations will be central to making that vision real in day to day operations. Chandra will be tasked with ensuring that AI powered products are supported by implementation teams that understand their capabilities, success teams that can measure impact, and support organizations that can address issues quickly.

For customers, the practical effects of this move may show up in faster rollouts, more consistent experiences across channels, and better alignment between sales promises and delivered outcomes. A tightly coordinated global customer operations division can reduce the risk that product teams move faster than the field can support, or that regional teams apply tools in inconsistent ways. As NiCE continues to compete in a crowded CX technology market, those execution details can be the difference between retaining and losing enterprise accounts.

From a representation standpoint, Chandra’s new role continues a pattern of South Asian American executives stepping into senior posts in enterprise technology and telecommunications. These leaders often bring a combination of engineering depth, global perspective, and operational rigor shaped by careers that span multiple continents and business models. For early and mid career South Asian American professionals in the CX and AI sectors, seeing someone with a similar background driving customer operations at a prominent public company reinforces the idea that the path to top operational roles is open.

Ultimately, the success of this appointment will be measured by metrics such as customer satisfaction, renewal rates, operating margins, and the pace at which customers adopt NiCE’s AI capabilities. However, the structure of the role and the choice of leader already communicate how NiCE is thinking about its future: AI first, customer centered, and execution driven. In that context, appointing an Indian American executive with deep experience at Disney, Meta, and HPE as chief operating officer is both a business decision and a signal to the market that NiCE is serious about scaling responsibly.

Key Takeaways About Arun Chandra

• NiCE has appointed Indian American executive Arun Chandra as its chief operating officer, a newly created role overseeing Global Customer Operations.
• Chandra brings extensive leadership experience from The Walt Disney Company, Meta, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, where he led large scale customer experience and operations initiatives.
• The COO role unifies partners, services, customer success, marketing, business operations, IT, and security, making execution and customer outcomes a central focus of NiCE’s AI first strategy.
• His appointment underscores the importance of operational discipline in bringing AI powered customer experience platforms to market and supporting enterprise customers globally.
• The move also highlights growing South Asian American representation in top operational roles at U.S. based technology and enterprise software companies.