OpenAI, the owner of artificial intelligence platform ChatGPT, has hired JioStar CEO Kiran Mani to head its Asia Pacific operations, reports said on Wednesday.
Mani is presently the CEO of JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance Industries Ltd. and The Walt Disney Co. The platform operates in a similar fashion to Amazon Prime and Netflix, giving up to 300 million subscribers access to a plethora of domestic and international serialised programming and motion pictures.
Mani will be occupying the newly created role of managing director for OpenAI's Asia Pacific operations in June, and will be operationg out of the company's Singapore-based office. He will be reporting to Jason Kwon, the company's chief strategy officer.
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Here's a look at Mani's past professional experience:
Professional Career
Mani's earliest known job was his position as an 'Account Planner' from 1989 to 1999 for Oglivy, a prominent British advertising firm based in New York. The company served as the inspiration for the setting of the hit television series Mad Men. Mani's notable projects at Oglivy include working for Ponds and Lakme Beauty, and cosmetics brands for Hindustan Unilever Ltd., as per his LinkedIn account.
Mani then spent eight years working for Indian digital tech giant IBM, starting as a Brand Manager in 2004 and leaving the company as Vice President of Strategy, Marketing And Operations for the South Asia region.
He then went on to serve as Senior Director for Marketing, Strategy And Operations for Microsoft from 2008-2010, after which he went on to co-found Fosbury Flop, an ad-tech startup that was bought out within two years in 2011 by an undisclosed entity.
One of Mani's most notable stints include a decade-long tenure at Google where he started as the Head of Sales for the India region in 2010 and left the company after 13 years while serving as general manager of Android and Google Play for the Asia Pacific And Japan region.
He also serves as an Angel Investor and a board advisor for several firms as well as being a board memeber for Internet and Mobile Association of India and Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Mansi took over as CEO of Jiostar in October 2023, and was the founding CEO of Jio Hotstar.
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