MUMBAI: After a profitable 2004, Yahoo! India has announced some strategic appointments, the first being of Vishal Maheshwari, who will head Yahoo! India Mobile.
Yahoo! India country manager Neville Taraporewalla also announced two new positions to lend strategic direction to Yahoo! India search and online media sales. Rishi Behal was promoted as director-strategic alliances and search, while Pearl Uppal will head the national sales function of Yahoo! India as sales director.
Announcing the new appointments, Taraporewalla said, "Yahoo! India has seen an aggressive growth rate in the last couple of years and this goes beyond just increase in online advertising revenues. Our mobile content business is also on the rise besides we see a great potential in the search business. The new appointments signify our continued investment in people, resources and technology in India and also throws light on Yahoo's trust in local talent to power its business. The most crucial resource for Yahoo! is its people."
Maheshwari, who has been appointed to provide renewed strategic direction to the mobile business, was formerly head of customer asset management at BPL Mobile Communications and will now use his expertise across various sectors like Telecom, Financial Services and FMCG industry to strengthen Yahoo! India's Mobile business. He will report to Taraporewalla.
Seeing the growing potential of the search business in India, Behal, formerly regional manager- sales has been promoted to head the strategic alliances and search function for Yahoo! India. In his new position, Behal will be responsible for adapting search for Y! India and plan its road map for success in India like in many other countries. He would also specifically work with Yahoo! India's long term alliance partners to ensure better strategic relationships as well as bringing in larger relationships in the field of health, travel and gaming besides other areas.
Uppal, on the other hand, will now spearhead the national sales function of the company as sales director and will be responsible for increasing the online advertising client base of Yahoo! India and maintaining Yahoo! India's leadership space in the domain. Uppal will head the sales business unit which includes sales production and ad operations.
Both Behal and Uppal will report to Taraporewalla.
