Rohit Gupta

Six months after former Sony Entertainment International president Michael Grindon initiated a "rightsizing exercise" in Sony Entertainment Television that swept away a number of high profile executives, the first replacement appointment has been made.

Coming in place of marketing and sales head Kacon Sethi (she was managing director of sister channel SET MAX as well at the time) is Rohit Gupta - previously executive director, industry solutions operations, Xerox Modicorp.

Gupta's brief, outside of pushing ad sales for SET, will be to get the most out of the ICC cricket rights that Sony has acquired.

Gupta, who has been appointed executive vice-president - sales & revenue management, has been with Xerox for 18 years, right from its inception in India. Gupta comes into SET with no prior media exposure but that, according to SET CEO Kunal Dasgupta, can actually work as an advantage as he can provide a fresh perspective.

Gupta's marks the first appointment from outside to replace any of the high-profile departures like former COO Rajesh Pant, programming head Rekha Nigam, senior V-P corporate development Anand Desai and V-P - MAX, Prashant Sanwal.

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