Hires & Promotions: Facebook, Reliance, BARC, Viacom 18, Toonz Media

Uber's Sanjay Gupta Joins Facebook As Director International Marketing

Uber's Ex-Marketing Director, APAC, Sanjay Gupta, has joined American multi-national Facebook as the Director of International Marketing.

Gupta has work experience of over twenty years and has worked with brands like Marico, Urban Ladder and Accenture, apart from Uber.

He is an alma mater of Havard, Shri Ram College of Commerce and Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.

Hitesh Malhotra Joins Reliance Industries As CMO, Beauty & Luxury

Former Lenskart CMO Hitesh Malhotra has joined Reliance Industries as CMO, Beauty and Luxury.

In November 2020, Malhotra joined Lenskart. Malhotra spent over five years as the Chief Marketing Officer at Nykaa before joining Lenskart.

Malhotra has over 15 years of brand expertise, having worked for companies such as Levi Strauss & Co, MakeMyTrip.com, and MSLGROUP India.

Ashish Bhasin Quits BARC Board Of Directors & Audit Committee

Ashish Bhasin, CEO, APAC and Chairman India, Dentsu International,  has resigned from the Broadcast Audience Research Council's Board of Directors and Audit Committee.

It has been learned that Bhasin informed the BARC Board of his decision in a letter, citing other commitments, personal reasons, and other preoccupations. His resignation takes effect right away.

Bhasin was the chairman of the Audit Committee, which conducted an internal investigation into the rating agency after charges of corruption surfaced in May.

Viacom18 Ropes In Anil Jayaraj As CEO Of Sports Business  

Viacom18 has roped in Star Sports' EVP Ad Sales Anil Jayaraj as CEO of Sports Business. Jayaraj will step into the new role from  September 16th.

Jayaraj will be in charge of all areas of the sports company, including P&L, rights acquisition, marketing, ad sales, and content strategy, as the president of the sports division.

With almost two decades of expertise in media and marketing, Jayaraj has worked for companies such as Castrol, BP, Pidilite, and Star Sports.

The next Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights auction, which will include Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI), Amazon, and Facebook, would be Jayaraj's toughest hurdle. Star India currently owns the media rights to the IPL till 2022.

He spent nearly five years as the Chief Marketing Officer of Pidilite. After that, he joined Star Sports to work in ad sales. He spent 6.5 years at Star, where he was in charge of on-air ad monetisation for properties such as the Indian Premier League (IPL), the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), and the Indian Super League (ISL), as well as events organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

ZEEL's Mukund Cairae Joins Toonz Media

Former ZEEL Chief Operating Officer — International Business Mukund Cairae has joined Kerala-headquartered Toonz Media Group as President. In his new role, Cairae will set up and grow the video distribution business in the linear as well as on-demand products vertical.

In April, Cairae had exited ZEEL after spending almost 17 years at the media conglomerate. He had assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer — International Business in April 2019 and remained in this role till April 2021.

Cairae joined ZEEL in 2004 from Videocon Consumer Durables, where he was General Manager of the Sales & Distribution vertical. Prior to Videocon, he worked at Kotak Life and Amadeus India in sales and marketing roles.

Toonz Media Group specialises in high-quality content creation, production, distribution, digital media exploitation, licensing & merchandising gaming, AR / VR & other emerging technologies and animation academics.