RAJ NAYAK - CEO

Raj Nayak, a well-known name in the Advertising and Marketing circles in India, is the Chief Executive of NDTV Media Ltd. He is recognized for his vision and foresight. He has over 20 years of experience having started his career with Tata Economic Consultancy services and has worked in various capacities both in the print and electronic medium.

Raj now leads NDTV Media, India’s best-known and most respected full service Media Marketing and Consulting Company. It has offices spread across 9 cities. The team of NDTV Media comprises of more than 150 professionals with extensive experience in the Indian media market, many of whom have held middle and senior positions at STAR TV, Discovery Channel, ESPN STAR Sports, Cartoon Network, Sony TV, CNBC and Zee TV.

Prior to joining NDTV Media, Raj was the Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing for the STAR TV Group where he was responsible for strategising, packaging and marketing of all STAR TV channels and for the advertising revenue of the entire group. He was a key member of the STAR TV India Management Committee and was also on the Board of Vijay TV and Indya.com.

During his tenure at Star TV, he was handling over 8 channels in different genres, with more than 250 people reporting to him, helping generate revenues to the tune of USD 175 million annually. He can be credited with changing the way sports television was marketed in India. He set new benchmarks with the ICC Cricket World Cup in 1999 and also played a key role in turning around the fortunes of ESPN Star Sports in India.

Raj brings with him a proven track record of revenue generation and an exceptional understanding of the media industry. He is an astute and savvy sales person and his greatest strength lies in his ability to create long-lasting relationships with agencies, clients and the talent fraternity. His ability to mingle with ease across levels and across industries and be accepted by them is what makes him unique!

Raj is the Vice President for International Advertising Association (IAA) – India Chapter.

With a career spanning 19 years, Niraj has been an integral part of the media evolution in India. From the government controlled single channel Doordarshan to today’s scenario comprising of more than three hundred channels with about forty 24-hour news networks, he has been closely associated and involved with them all. Niraj's journey through the multifarious corridors of Indian media has enriched his experience of all its forms and genres.

From a modest start in print with India’s leading English news daily, The Times of India Group, he moved to cricket by joining the legendary cricketer Kapil Dev's media organization. Blessed with a keen sense of timing and an entrepreneurial spirit, his next destination was producing TV shows, importing international content and acquiring rights for Live Telecast of international sports and entertainment events like Miss World, etc. for terrestrial TV.

Before joining NDTV Media, he was Senior Vice President with STAR TV. As the number two person in the department, he headed all sales functions for the STAR Network in India.

At present, he is the COO of NDTV Media. Besides spearheading Business Development, he heads NDTV Media's foray into the digital space with ndtv.com and allied sites. He also works closely with its partners MSN in India.

Niraj is passionate about golf and has a deep interest in Tibetan rites.

An engineer and an MBA by education his first job was with Timex watches in the Quality Control Dept. Before long the excitement of advertising beckoned and he opted for a career in advertising with India’s largest media planning and buying agency, Mindshare Fulcrum working on Unilever Brands.  He followed it up with a move to the broadcast side of business and joined Discovery Communications working in the Research and Planning division with a primary focus on research and analytics for content planning, sales , distribution and marketing. Part of the founder member team, at NDTV Media, he was ealier with Star TV India as Head of Sales Planning and CRM . During his tenure he played an important role in  streamlining sales efforts, planning  and inventory management across the Star TV Network.

He in his words " lets his work talk for him ". His passions include singing, mountaineering and teaching. With the traditional flamboyance associated with media sales being alien to him he finds solace in strategizing for the company. 

Another founding member & part of the NDTV Media team since inception, he comes with over 13 years of varied media and event selling experience.  Prior to NDTV Media he was in Middle Managemet handling Network Sales for the STAR TV Network.    

He started his career with the Hospitality Industry  & later did a 4 year stint with the Times of India, where he believes he learnt the importance of humility in doing business. A firm believer in the saying “Whatever Happens, Happens for Good”, he Loves life, Loves People and Loves to have fun at work. Also the official funny-bone at informal office parties with his unlimited treasure of jokes.

 

A person with an awkward mixture of a fitness enthusiast and a philosopher. Motto in Life – Gimme MORE but only if I have learnt what’s at hand.

He has more than 10 years of experience, which includes 7 years in Media. An entrepreneur at heart, he has been a founding member of NDTV Media. He has worked in the Strategic Planning & Implementation Cell of Star India  before joining NDTV Media  and was actively involved in Sales Planning for the entire Star Group.  He has worked closely on structuring sales strategies and execution. He  has  also handled Management Reporting and Budgeting exercises  for the Sales Team. He has worked for 5 years in entrepreneurial capacity in various sectors like Real Estate and Corporate Financing before joining STAR India.  
    

He loves spending time with his talented wife, two beautiful babies and his K9.  He enjoys unwinding over a Single Malt and some great Jazz.  He also manages to keep himself fit with his regular sessions of kick boxing.

A Post Graduate in MBA he started his career in Print Media Sales at Times of India, Mumbai in 1997.  Between the start of his career and joining NDTV Media a few years later, Hemant gained varied and wide experience in the field of Internet at Mahindra Network Services Limited, C&S Television at Discovery Channel India and finally in an entrepreneurial role of programming syndication and marketing slots on Terrestrial TV - Doordarshan at Eternal Dreams.With about 9 years of media sales experience under his belt, excitement for Hemant is a constant passion to hunt for new business opportunities and making them into reality by planned and structured implementation.  Sales in a strategic and planned way is the mantra for him.

On the personal front he is a very devoted husband and in the spare time is an avid reader or on the weekends you would find him destressing by dancing away to salsa or jive numbers around the town.