Happy Birthday Sanjay Gupta: From building brands to shaping Google’s AI future in APAC

From HUL and Airtel to transforming Star India and now leading Google across Asia Pacific, Sanjay Gupta’s career has been defined by his ability to anticipate the next big shift in consumer behaviour and technology.

As Sanjay Gupta celebrates his birthday today, September 8, his professional journey offers a compelling story of leadership across some of India and Asia Pacific’s most transformative industries.

Currently President, Asia Pacific at Google, Gupta today leads the technology giant’s business across one of the world’s largest and most diverse digital markets. He was elevated to the APAC role in July 2024 after previously serving as Country Head and Vice President of Google India.

Over a career spanning more than three decades, Gupta has moved across FMCG, telecom, television, sports, streaming and technology industries that have themselves been reshaped dramatically during the period.

His career began at Hindustan Unilever, where he held leadership responsibilities across key consumer categories, including oral and home care. The stint gave him a grounding in brand building and consumer behaviour before he moved to Bharti Airtel as Chief Marketing Officer for its mobile business.

The next major chapter came at Star India.

Gupta joined Star India as Chief Operating Officer in 2009 and was elevated to Managing Director in 2016. His years at the company coincided with one of the biggest periods of change in Indian television and entertainment.

At Star, Gupta played an important role in expanding the company across entertainment, sports and digital. He was closely associated with the growth of Star’s sports business and its investments in marquee properties such as the Indian Premier League. He was also part of the leadership that pushed traditional television content into the streaming era through Hotstar, helping create a bridge between broadcast television and India’s rapidly expanding digital audience.

His contribution to the media and entertainment business was recognised by exchange4media when he was named Influencer of the Year in 2019.

In 2020, Gupta made another significant transition, joining Google to lead its India operations.

The move placed him at the centre of India's accelerating digital transformation. During his tenure leading Google India, the company deepened its engagement with India's digital ecosystem across businesses, creators, consumers, digital safety and emerging technologies. Gupta also became a prominent voice around the opportunities created by India's digital public infrastructure and the emergence of generative AI.

His elevation as Google's President for Asia Pacific in 2024 expanded that mandate considerably. The region he oversees is home to more than half of the world's internet users, making it central to the next phase of global technology adoption.

Increasingly, that next phase is being defined by artificial intelligence.

Under Gupta's APAC leadership, Google has been pushing initiatives aimed not only at accelerating AI adoption but also at widening access to AI skills. In May 2026, Google announced a further $10 million expansion of its AI Opportunity Fund across Asia Pacific, aimed at equipping 4.7 million students, teachers and workers with AI skills.

The initiative followed Google's earlier APAC AI for Society programme, backed by a $10 million Google.org commitment to support organisations applying AI to areas including agriculture, health and energy.

These initiatives signal how Gupta's leadership canvas has continued to expand  from selling consumer products and building telecom brands to creating television franchises, scaling digital entertainment and now participating in one of technology's most consequential transformations.

Yet there is a consistent thread running through his career: understanding how technology changes consumer behaviour and how businesses must evolve with it.

An engineer from Delhi College of Engineering and a postgraduate from IIM Calcutta, Gupta has repeatedly crossed conventional industry boundaries rather than remaining confined to one sector.

From television screens to smartphones and now the age of AI, his career has mirrored many of the fundamental shifts that have changed India's media, marketing and technology landscape.

As Sanjay Gupta celebrates another birthday, his journey continues to be one of transformation both of the organisations he has helped lead and of the industries in which he has operated.