Google India has named Sanjay Gupta, former managing director at Disney India, as its new country manager and vice president of sales and operations.
He replaces Rajan Anandan, who resigned in April to join venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India as a managing director. Vikas Agnihotri, country director-sales, had replaced Anandan in the interim.
Gupta will be responsible for driving the company’s efforts at internet adoption among consumers and businesses and accelerating innovation in India, Google said in a statement.
He will take on the role early next year and will be based in Mumbai. He will work closely with the teams based in Gurugram, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
“It is an exciting opportunity to leverage the power of technology to solve some of India’s unique challenges and make Internet an engine of economic growth for people and communities,” Gupta said.
An alumnus of IIM-Kolkata and Delhi College of Engineering, Gupta has worked with companies such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Bharti Airtel Ltd in his three-decade-long career. His most recent stint was with Disney, which acquired broadcaster Star India from 21st Century Fox earlier this year. At Star, he helped extend its traditional television content to digital consumers through video streaming app Hotstar.
Scott Beaumont, president of Asia-Pacific at Google, said the internet giant's Indian operation is important and strategic for innovation. “We are happy to combine Gupta’s expertise, experience and leadership with our teams and build further on our existing efforts in this highly dynamic, competitive and exciting digital economy,” Beaumont added.