Avinash Kaul shares his journey from Kashmir exile to media leader

MUMBAI: On 19 January 1990, a 12th-grade student held his father’s hand and boarded the last bus out of Srinagar, leaving behind his home, his room, his memories, and everything he knew. That boy was Avinash Kaul.

Thirty-six years on, Kaul, ex-CEO of Network18, reflected on that day in a heartfelt LinkedIn post. His family had become migrants in their own country, displaced by the Kashmir exodus. He did not write for sympathy; he wrote to share a lesson in resilience and leadership forged in the harshest of circumstances.

“I carried Kashmir not as a wound, but as a foundation,” Kaul wrote. “Every time I faced impossible odds as a leader, I remembered: I’ve rebuilt before. Every time someone said it couldn’t be done, I thought: I’ve survived worse. Every time I had to make hard decisions, I knew: I already know what real loss feels like.”

Kaul’s story is a rare reminder that leadership is often born not in boardrooms but in moments of profound uncertainty. The frightened boy on that bus could not have imagined that decades later he would oversee India’s largest news network, managing 20 news channels in 16 languages and reaching over 700 million viewers.

From fleeing conflict to shaping the nation’s information landscape, Kaul has transformed adversity into strength. “To everyone carrying their own January 19th, whatever form it takes, I see you. That’s not your weakness. That’s your superpower in disguise,” he wrote.

Across a 27-year career, including 15 years as CEO, Kaul has become a respected figure in the media industry. He has shaped standards for audience measurement and advertising through contributions to the Media Research Users Council, the Broadcast Audience Research Council, and The Advertising Club.

Yet it is the human story behind the titles that resonates most. Kaul’s journey shows that displacement and loss can be the greatest teachers, turning survival into vision and courage into leadership.

Thirty-six years later, he is still climbing. “And that’s my superpower,” Kaul wrote. The lesson is clear: the trials of yesterday can define the leaders of today, and the scars of the past can fuel the triumphs of the future.