Jack Dorsey Joins Disney’s Board Of Directors

The Walt Disney Company just announced that Jack Dorsey (co-founder and CEO of Square, as well co-founder and chairman at Twitter, as if you didn’t know) has joined its board of directors.

“Jack Dorsey is a talented entrepreneur who has helped create groundbreaking new businesses in the social media and commerce spaces,” said Disney CEO Robert A. Iger in the release. “The perspective he brings to Disney and its Board is extremely valuable, given our strategic priorities, which include utilizing the latest technologies and platforms to reach more people and to enhance the relationship we have with our customers.”

The company’s tech bets in the past few years have included the acquisition of gaming companies Tapulous and Playdom. But presumably Disney’s interest in technology goes beyond any one area of the company.

Plus, of course, it acquired Pixar back in 2006, a company that had its roots in technology, even if it wasn’t exactly a startup. The deal brought Apple’s Steve Jobs to the Disney board and made him the company’s largest shareholder — so this is another way that Dorsey is following in Jobs’ footsteps (who he clearly emulates).

Disney’s board also includes Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and John S. Chen, former CEO at Sybase.

Dorsey, meanwhile, has become one of the best-known executives in the tech industry and the startup world, with a recent New Yorker profile not just looking at his achievements at Twitter and Square, but also asking what he’s doing next (for one thing, Dorsey has mentioned repeatedly that he’d like to run for mayor of New York one day). He alluded to the Disney news in a tweet, where he quotes Walt Disney himself: “I only hope we don’t lose sight of one thing—that it was all started by a mouse.”