Mumbai: Disney Star has appointed Ajit Varghese as head of network advertising sales.
He will be responsible for the overall advertising revenues of Disney Star's television and digital businesses, as well as driving growth through transformative sales and channel strategies, alliance formation, and business development.
Varghese will also create the long-term vision and define the sales organisation's strategic direction. He will report to Disney Star's president and country manager K Madhavan.
Varghese comes to Disney Star from ShareChat and Moj, where he was chief commercial officer, in charge of monetisation, marketing efforts, and content partnerships. Prior to joining ShareChat, Varghese was the global president of Wavemaker, a WPP group media agency, overseeing business operations and driving growth across 50+ markets from London; before that, he spent three years as the CEO of Maxus (WPP) in Singapore. He has also worked with Madison World, Kantar IMRB, and Initiative Universal Media.
"Varghese is a highly respected and well-regarded professional within the advertising and marketing fraternity. I am confident that under his leadership, we will be able to unlock significant value and create more opportunities to further grow our market leadership," said Madhavan.
Varghese has established himself as a highly accomplished leader as CEO of regional and global agencies during his more than 27-year career in the advertising and marketing industry. In previous roles, he has driven publisher growth and revenue, led large-scale business transformations for clients, and built diverse businesses in media, creative, digital, data, content, sports, and performance.
"The advertising market in India has already crossed Rs 1,00,000 crore and is expected to be among the fastest growing in the world this year. This, combined with Disney Star’s status as the country’s leading media & entertainment company, allows for tremendous opportunities by which we can create ground-breaking solutions to drive growth for our clients. I keenly look forward to being a part of a great company, best-in-class content and a superb team," said Varghese.
