#e4mExclusive:  Ajit Varghese steps down from JioStar

Ajit Varghese has stepped down from his role as Head of Revenue, Entertainment and International at JioStar, the Reliance-Disney joint venture formed in November 2024, as per the internal memo sent to employees at JioStar.

Varghese’s exit comes less than a year after taking charge of the high-profile role aimed at steering monetisation across the network’s television, digital, and international platforms.

According to sources, Mahesh Shetty will be taking over the role of Head of Revenue, Entertainment, JioStar. Shetty was appointed as the Head of Client Engagement and Cross-Screen Leverage at JioStar. With more than 20 years of experience across major brands in media and sales, Shetty was earlier the Head of Network Sales at Viacom18.

Prior to his stint at JioStar, Varghese led network advertising sales at Disney Star, where he was responsible for revenues across both linear television and digital verticals. He had joined Disney Star in January 2023 as Head of Network Sales.

With close to three decades of experience, Varghese is known for blending creative vision with business acumen. His career began in 1999 at Madison World as Head of Planning for Coca-Cola. He was soon elevated to Head of Business in 2000, where he revamped Coca-Cola’s strategy and led the business through a growth phase. In 2004, he became COO of Madison’s Infinity division, which saw 40% growth over the next two years and onboarded marquee clients like McDonald's, Marico, Asian Paints, and Axis Bank.

In 2006, Varghese joined WPP as Managing Director of Maxus India. Over a 13-year stint, he rose through the ranks to become CEO of Maxus Asia Pacific in 2014 and then Global President of Wavemaker in 2017, based in London. At Wavemaker, he oversaw KPIs across 60+ countries and positioned the agency as a future-ready entity.

In 2020, Varghese moved to ShareChat and Moj as Chief Commercial Officer, where he led monetisation, marketing, and creator economy strategy during a critical growth phase for Indian digital platforms.

Varghese’s next move is awaited with interest, given his record of driving business transformation across agencies, media networks, and digital platforms.