MAM
Maria Sharapova to endorse Samsung Electronics
MUMBAI: Tennis diva Maria Sharapova has inked a three-year sponsorship deal with Samsung Electronics covering her native Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States after her deal with Sony Ericsson expired last year.
The sponsorship agreement, which includes mobile phones, tablet computers and television sets, may go global next year.
Sharapova’s manager at IMG Worldwide Max Eisenbud believes Russia is a largely untapped market for tennis, what with Sochi hosting the Olympic Games in 2014.
“Maria really hasn’t been marketed that much in Russia. It’s important to her because that’s where her roots are. I also felt that was a really untapped market, with the 2014 Sochi Olympics coming up.”
According to Forbes magazine, the 24-year-old Tennis star earns around $25 million a year in endorsements.
She endorses a number of brands which include Unilever’s Clear shampoo, US fashion label Cole Haan, French mineral water brand Evian, sports equipment maker Head, American sportswear brand Nike, American jewellery and silverware company Tiffany & Co and Swiss luxury watchmaker Tag Heuer.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
