Dish TV India ropes in marketing heavyweight Anil Dua as group CEO

Dish TV India ropes in marketing heavyweight Anil Dua as group CEO

MUMBAI: There’s change at the top at Dish TV India. The DTH firm late last night announced (to the Bombay stock exchange) the appointment of FMCG and consumer durable marketing veteran Anil Dua as its group CEO. He will be replacing current CEO Arun Kapoor who was leading the company for the past 18 months.

Dish TV said it was bringing in Dua as another leading DTH player Videocon d2h is undergoing an amalgamation with it, which would create a gigantic cable and satellite distribution platform with around 28.1 million subs (as of December 2016). Dua is expected to work closely with Dish TV CMD Jawahar Goel and lead the future merged entity. He carries with him a stellar track record as an astute brand builder, marketer, with a sharp focus on customer experience and supply chain and strategy working with companies such as Hero Motorcorp, Unilever, and Gillette. His specialty has been transformation and building brands of scale.

During his earlier eight year stint with Hero Motorcorp during which he looked after its advertising, marketing and sales and distribution network, Dua more than trebled the company’s turnover and market cap. Dua also worked at Hindustan Uniiever and helped streamline its foods distribution pipeline. His last outing was as managing director of the diversified Middle east group OTE.

“We welcome Anil and are confident that his experience will further add to our capability and will help lead the company on a faster growth path,” said Goel in a press release. "His experience in brand building and distribution will add immense value to our organization.”

Dua on his part is quoted in the release as stating that he was excited with the action in the DTH space and with the opportunity that has been given to him. “I look forwarding to leveraging my experience and working together with the DishTV team in realising their lofty vision,” he said.

Kapoor, meanwhile, is going to be with Dish TV until the completion of the merger, following which he is expected to go back to teaching MBA students apart from venturing into social work. The proposed merger recently got the Competition Commission of India’s nod for it and the companies are following the process of getting the go ahead from to the National Company Law Tribunal.