MAM
LEAD announces Anupam Gurani & Manoj Naik elevation at a leadership role
Mumbai: Homegrown school edtech unicorn, LEAD, has elevated Anupam Gurani to chief business & marketing officer and Manoj Naik to chief finance & operations officer. In their new positions, Gurani and Naik will further strengthen LEAD’s proposition as an integrated school edtech solutions provider with expertise in operations, classroom management, curriculum, and pedagogy.
In addition to his marketing responsibilities, Gurani will now also drive customer success and revenue generation at LEAD, with a focus on continually delivering great results for all school stakeholders, and Naik will also lead supply chain and procurement excellence, in addition to leading financial operations at edtech.
LEAD co-founder and CEO Sumeet Mehta said, “Gurani and Naik are leading our mission of bringing excellent education to every child. With their deep expertise and experience, I am sure they’ll continue to contribute to the lead in their elevated roles.”
“The opportunity to build on our current momentum for growth and student confidence-building through school edtech is tremendous, and I am excited to take on this new role. I look forward to working with our teams to drive further success for LEAD as we continue to make excellent learning accessible and affordable for students across India,” said Anupam Gurani. An accomplished sales, marketing, and strategy professional with over 18 years of experience, Gurani has previously led teams in leading multinational organisations across India and Southeast Asia, including Disney+, Hotstar, Vodafone, Google, and Reckitt.
“I am thrilled to be a part of LEAD at this important juncture in its journey of impact and growth. As we continue to shape the future of learning outcomes in India’s schools, I am excited about the opportunity to strengthen operational excellence with an incredible, values-driven team,” added Manoj Naik. With over 30 years of experience, Naik has led finance, commercial and technology operations in leading companies such as GE Capital, ManipalCigna Health Insurance and Fullerton Securities, among others across India and the UAE.
AD Agencies
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.
