Kavita Panda named chief partnerships officer at ASEAN Business Partners

BENGALURU: Kavita Panda has climbed to the top table. The long-serving operator has been promoted to chief partnerships officer at ASEAN Business Partners, taking charge of the firm’s global technology partner ecosystem as it deepens its footprint across Southeast Asia.

The elevation caps five years at the company, where Panda first landed as group head partnerships and country manager, India, before rising to chief operating officer in 2022. In her new role, based in Bengaluru, she will build strategic alliances and advisory partnerships, with a mandate to help organisations across the region adopt technology solutions that move the needle on business outcomes.

Panda’s grounding in partnerships runs deep. She spent over 15 years at The Walt Disney Company, rising to executive director and head of Disney media distribution, India, where she ran the P&L for syndicating Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century content, striking long-range deals with Hotstar, Netflix, Jio, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play and Apple. Under her watch, Reliance Jio and Amazon Prime Video both inked content pacts with Disney India.

Earlier still, she headed Disney’s consumer products licensing business, working the merchandising machine behind franchises such as Captain America: Civil War, which roped in 70 brand tie-ups, eclipsing the 50-brand hauls of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Her Disney innings also spanned ad sales leadership roles across the south market, alongside earlier stints at Star India and Zee Television.

With a career built on scaling B2B and B2B2C businesses across media, entertainment, consumer products and retail, Panda now turns her partnership playbook on Southeast Asia’s technology ecosystem. The region’s tech alliances just got a serious operator. Watch this space, the deals are only getting bigger.