MAM
Honda 2Wheelers India announces new top management for India
MUMBAI: Honda Motor Co Ltd today announced the new top management in Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd (HMSI). Atsushi Ogata will be taking on new responsibility as the president, CEO and MD of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India. Ogata is also an operating executive at Honda Motor Co, Japan.
Ogata shall be the successor of Minoru Kato, who after spearheading Honda’s Indian two-wheeler operations for three years, returns to Japan with effect from 1 May 2020; elevated as the operating executive and chief officer life creation operation, Honda Motor Co, Japan.
Born in 1962, Ogata started his career in Honda Japan from 1985. In the year 2000, he moved to Europe as the General Manager of Motorcycle Sales Division in Honda Motor Europe Ltd. (HME) gaining experience in both HME’s northern and southern operation headquarters in Germany and France respectively over the next six years.
The next nine years (2006 – 2015) saw him drive Honda two-wheeler sales in China in two of Honda joint-venture companies in the country. After being the general manager in sales division of Sundiro Honda Co (Shanghai, China) for the first four years, he later became the president of Wuyang Honda Motor Co (Guangzhou, China).
Next up in 2015, he returned to Japan as general manager of motorcycle operation office. In 2018, Ogata moved to Asian Honda Motor Co Ltd (Thailand) as the director of Honda’s regional operations (Asia & Oceania region) for both motorcycle and power products business and was further elevated to executive director in the same profile in 2019.
With his unparalleled 35 years of rich experience at Honda across Europe, Japan, China and Asia & Oceania, Ogata will be arriving in India and shall be taking over as the new President, CEO, and MD of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India and Operating Executive, Honda Motor Co, Ltd.
Entering its 20th year of Indian operations, Honda 2Wheelers India has also further strengthened its senior leadership team to strategically steward the brand towards market leadership in the disruptive future.
As part of this move, V Sridhar (earlier GVP and director – manufacturing, HMSI) is now further elevated as the senior director – purchase, HMSI. Additionally, Yadvinder Singh Guleria and Vinay Dhingra are now elevated to the Board of Directors of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd.
Yadvinder Singh Guleria as the new director, HMSI now has greater responsibilities with an additional charge of customer service, logistics planning & control, premium motorcycle business, brand & communication along with sales & marketing. Guleria was previously the SVP sales & marketing, HMSI.
Similarly, Vinay Dhingra is also appointed as the new director, HMSI with the added responsibility of strategic information system (SIS) along with general & corporate Affairs. A veteran at Honda, Dhingra was previously the SVP general & corporate affairs in the company.
Parallely, two Directors have retired after completing their respective tenures – Anupam Mohindroo (previously Director – Purchase, HMSI) and Harbhajan Singh (previously Director – General & Corporate Affairs, HMSI).
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
