Milred Royan exits JioStar after three decades in media

Thirty years, two mega-mergers, one big goodbye. Milred Royan, a media sales veteran with over three decades of experience across broadcast, television, digital and print, is stepping away from JioStar and into what she calls “what’s next”. Announcing the move on LinkedIn, she said she is “not walking away” from what she has built, but “carrying it forward”.

Royan’s last role at JioStar was executive vice president, entertainment ad sales, from November 2025 to August 2026. Before that, she was executive director from February 2025 to November 2025, working as LCS head, TV and digital, for the JioStar network and managing key verticals such as e-commerce, quick commerce, media and entertainment, BFSI and retail. Her full stint at JioStar ran for one year and seven months.

The bigger story is what came before. Royan spent 21 years and seven months at Disney Star, part of the Walt Disney Company, and says 23 of her three decades in media were spent across Star India, Disney Star and JioStar. She rose through the ranks in Bengaluru, and later Bangalore, over two decades:

1. Manager, sales, from August 2003 to September 2004 (one year and two months), as branch head south for Star Vijay, Star News and Star Gold.
2. Senior manager, sales, from October 2004 to July 2006 (one year and 10 months).
3. AVP, sales, from August 2006 to July 2010 (four years), as branch head south for HSM, FTA and the regional cluster.
4. Vice president of sales, from August 2010 to July 2015 (five years), as national head of the FTA vertical.
5. Senior vice president, ad sales, from August 2015 to December 2021 (six years and five months), as national sales head.
6. Executive director, from December 2021 to February 2025 (three years and three months), as national sales head.

Her skills across these roles include project management and strategy, among 13 more.

The foundations were laid earlier. Royan began her career at The Times of India as senior officer from April 1995 to February 2000 (four years and 11 months) in Bengaluru, working on Saturday Times, Femina and Filmfare, and the Femina Miss India event. She then joined Sony as group manager from February 2000 to July 2003 (three years and six months), also in Bengaluru, handling the south branch for Sony, SET Max and AXN. In her words, she began at The Times of India and Sony Pictures Networks India “learning the fundamentals of media sales and client relationships from the ground up”.

Her profile reads like a masterclass in scale. Royan describes herself as a strategic and results-oriented executive who has driven revenue transformation across broadcast, television, digital and print, managing full P&L accountability and delivering high-margin growth by aligning market insights with innovative, branded consumer solutions. She has partnered with C-suite leadership teams at Fortune 500 organisations, including Amazon, HUL, ITC and Airtel, and with high-growth unicorns such as Flipkart, Myntra and Swiggy, to execute brand launches and market expansion strategies. She is adept at operationalising complex business objectives and institutionalising processes that optimise go-to-market strategies and scale revenue through geographically dispersed, high-performance sales organisations.

Four core competencies define her approach: P&L management and financial discipline, driving high-margin growth for complex media portfolios; go-to-market and business strategy, streamlining processes to enhance market capture; organisational leadership, building, mentoring and turning around underperforming business units by fostering high-velocity sales cultures; and strategic partnerships, bridging corporate objectives with innovative media assets to create sustained market impact. Her stated specialisms are business leadership, sales and P&L management, building and coaching teams, and media expertise.

Few executives can claim her vantage point on Indian media’s biggest shake-ups. Royan built the south market, then led national and category-level businesses across the network for TV and digital. Along the way she lived through two of the industry’s biggest mergers: the Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Star India, and the merger of Viacom18 Media Private Limited and Disney Star that created JioStar. Through it all she carried P&L ownership, identified and managed risk through constant restructuring, led cross-functionally, and built collaboration across sales, programming and finance to keep the business agile “as the ground kept shifting”.

The post is also personal. Royan said the organisation never stayed inside the lines of work. It held her through life, including the birth of her son and the hardest days after losing her father, when colleagues gave her the time and space she needed without asking her to choose between family and career. It supported her, she said, not just as a business leader but as a mother and a human being trying to hold both worlds together.

Her thanks were wide. She thanked the large, brilliant teams she has led, the clients and agencies who became true partners, and the leaders whose belief in her never wavered through two mergers and countless reorganisations. The milestones hit and the markets shaped, she said, are a direct result of their relentless drive, collaboration and brilliance. “I leave with friendships for life, and a version of myself I could not have built alone,” she wrote.

Her closing note looks ahead. Three decades of leading through scale, risk, governance and transformation, she said, is not just a career behind her but a perspective she looks forward to bringing to new tables and new conversations.

Thirty years in, Royan is not hanging up her boots. She is packing a rather good playbook.