Facebook India appoints Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan as its new MD

Facebook India said on Monday that it has appointed Ajit Mohan as its Managing Director and Vice-President.

Mohan joins Facebook India from Star India's OTT platform Hotstar, where he served as CEO. This is a newly created role of Managing Director for India, a VP-level role, and he will report into Menlo Park (Facebook's headquarters) instead of Asia Pacific.

He will join Facebook early next year, the company said in a statement.

Prior to Hotstar, Mohan also served as executive VP and Senior Vice President, Corporate, at Star TV Network.

As part of his responsibilities, Mohan will be aligning teams and driving Facebook’s overall strategy in India. He will also drive the company's continued investment in India.

"India is one of the largest and most strategically important countries for Facebook. As we think about what it will take to achieve our mission of bringing people together and building community, we know that investment in India is critical. Ajit’s depth of experience will help us to continue to have a positive impact in India across communities, organizations, businesses and with policy makers," said David Fischer, Vice-President of Business and Marketing Partnerships, Facebook Inc.

Facebook has been going through troubled times in India, after the Cambridge Analytica controversy about harvesting user profiles for influencing elections made headlines.

Its chat and messaging service WhatsApp has also been in the eye of a storm over the issue of the spread of fake news and its upcoming payments service.

The position of MD at Facebook has been lying vacant at Facebook since October last year, when Umang Bedi quit after a stint which lasted only 15 months.

"I am delighted to take on the mantle of shaping Facebook’s charter in India. It is a unique opportunity to shape the agenda of a company that has brought the world closer together in one of the most exciting markets in the world. I look forward to championing India in Facebook and working with stakeholders across the spectrum to help build deep and meaningful communities across the country," said Mohan.

Mohan will lead a "senior leadership team in India that will strengthen Facebook's relationships with people, businesses, and government and intensify the company's efforts to help people in India connect with the people and things they care about most," Facebook India said in a statement.

Mohan is an alumnus of McKinsey and Company’s New York office where he worked with media companies around the globe as well as served as a Fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute. He is a graduate of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.