MAM
Kiran Mani quits JioStar to lead OpenAI’s Asia-Pacific push
The American AI giant poaches one of India’s most seasoned technology executives to drive its ambitions in the region, as India cements its place as a critical growth market
MUMBAI: Kiran Mani, the founding chief executive of JioHotstar and one of India’s most seasoned technology executives, has quit JioStar to become OpenAI’s managing director for Asia Pacific, a newly created role that signals how seriously the San Francisco-based AI company is betting on the region.
Mani, who stepped down as chief executive, digital at JioStar, will take up the position in June, relocating from Mumbai to Singapore. He will report directly to Jason Kwon, OpenAI’s chief strategy officer, sources privy to the development told ET.
The appointment is a coup for OpenAI. Mani spent more than 13 years at Google, where he ran the Android and Google Play business across Asia Pacific and Japan, and before that oversaw more than $5bn in advertising revenue as managing director of US retail, a role that also made him head of Google’s global retail practice. Earlier stints at Microsoft, IBM and Ogilvy & Mather round out a career that spans brand-building, P&L management and digital transformation across three continents.
At JioStar, he architected the merger of Viacom18 with Star India to create India’s largest media and entertainment platform, no small feat in a market notorious for its complexity.
The hire underscores a simple commercial reality: India is OpenAI’s second-largest global user base, and the broader Asia Pacific region is growing faster than almost anywhere else. Mani will lead regional strategy and operations from Singapore, inheriting a market that has become, as one source put it, a key growth engine for the company.
For OpenAI, the race to dominate Asian AI adoption is on. With Mani in the chair, it has found someone who knows exactly how to run hard.
