Ajit Mohan To Head Facebook India

Ajit Mohan to join facebook to head the India operations. Ajit, current CEO of Star-India owned video streaming platform Hotstar, and will be taking charge as Facebook India's Vice President (VP) and Managing Director (MD) in early 2019. Earlier the position was taken care of by Umang Bedi left Facebook in October 2017, he had left because the role was getting limited.

Ajit will be responsible for Facebook's India operational strategy and driving the company's continued investments in the country. “I look forward to championing India in Facebook and working with stakeholders across the spectrum to help build deep and meaningful communities across the country,” said Mohan in a public statement.

Ajit will be heading Facebook India at a time when the company has been facing multiple challenges throughout the globe, particularly those related to user data privacy and widespread fake news on the social platform. As per the newer Telecom policy, FB has to comply locally,issues related to data policy, roll-out of its payment platform, and ensuring that the company does not fall short of complying with the data localization norms set by government of India.

Facebook expects to leverage Mohan's expertise in the video streaming service industry, highlighted by the company's purchase of rights to live stream all of Spanish football’s La Liga matches in India. As a matter of fact, under Mohan's leadership Hotstar made a world record of concurrent viewership of a single online broadcaster for a sole event during the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Mohan started his career with international management consulting firm, Arthur D. Little in 1997. He later moved to McKinsey and Co. as a consultant in 2005 . After working with The Wall Street Journal as a columnist for a year, he found a leadership role with Star India Network as a Senior Vice President in 2012. In 2016, he was made the CEO of Star Network's video streaming service, Hotstar .