Disney Star today announced the appointment of Ajit Varghese as Head of Network Advertising Sales. In this role, he will be responsible for overall advertising revenues of Disney Star’s television and digital businesses and for driving growth through transformative sales and channel strategies, creating alliances and business development. Ajit will also develop the long-term vision and define the strategic direction of the sales organization. He will report to K Madhavan, President & Country Manager, Disney Star.
Ajit joins Disney Star from ShareChat and Moj where he was Chief Commercial Officer, responsible for driving monetization, leading marketing efforts and content partnerships. Prior to ShareChat, Ajit was the Global President of Wavemaker, a WPP group media agency, overseeing business operations and driving growth across 50+ markets, based out of London and before that, did a three-year stint with Maxus (WPP) as its CEO for Asia Pacific, based in Singapore. Other organizations he worked with include Madison World, Kantar IMRB and Initiative Universal Media.
“Ajit 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 K Madhavan.
Over the course of his more than 27 year career in the advertising and marketing industry, Ajit has established himself as a highly accomplished leader as CEO of regional and global agencies. In his previous roles, he has driven growth and revenue on the publisher side, fronted large-scale business transformations for clients, built diverse businesses around media, creative, digital, data, content, sports and performance.
“The advertising market in India has already crossed Rs 100,000 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 Ajit Varghese.
About Disney Star:
With a television network that reaches more than 700 million viewers in nine different languages every month and a streaming platform (Disney+ Hotstar) that has transformed the way India consumes entertainment, Disney Star is the leading media & entertainment company in the country. The organization’s entertainment portfolio, which generates more than 20,000 hours of original content every year, cuts across general entertainment, sports, films, infotainment, kids and lifestyle content. With leadership positions in every segment it occupies, Disney Star has been redefining the media landscape for more than 30 years now, anchored on the three pillars of story-telling, innovation and an unwavering focus on delivering to the expectations of our audiences.
