Mumbai: Music streaming app Gaana has bolstered its management by naming Sandeep Lodha its new chief executive officer and roped in former Times Internet executives Vivek Pandey as chief operating officer (COO), and Ram Awasthi as chief technology officer (CTO). With this new leadership team in place, the Times Internet-owned streaming service plans to foray into the OTT sector.
All the three leaders bring with them almost 60 years of rich experience that is poised to provide Gaana with the growth impetus, said the platform in a statement on Tuesday.
Times Internet, chief executive officer, Gautam Sinha said that the Indian OTT ecosystem is about as “exciting, dynamic, and competitive” as it has ever been and there is “unprecedented interest” from global companies keen to tap into the Indian consumer opportunity. “At Gaana, we are equally excited about our next stage of tech-led relationships with users, content producers, and advertisers,” Sinha added.
A leader within the media and entertainment industry, Lodha has 22 years of rich experience in scaling brands in hyper-growth sectors with Disney, Bain & Company, Weddingz, and Intel Capital.
Pandey has been the vice president of revenue strategy and analytics at Times Internet and also managed TIL’s adtech stack. Previously, he was at the helm of major digital transformations at companies like Tata Cliq, MakeMyTrip, and Indiatimes Shopping.
Awasthi is a technology leader with experience in envisioning, architecting, and delivering a broad range of distributed, internet-scale, and real-time applications. In his earlier role, he was responsible for leading new business initiatives and setting up high-performance technology teams and evaluating tech stacks for different business units under Times Internet.
“Our new CEO Sandeep’s experience leading hyper-growth brands like Disney & OYO, Vivek’s 360-degree product, growth and monetisation experience, and Ram’s strong & visionary leadership in technology make us believe we can achieve the audacious goals we have set for the brand in the coming years,” Sinha said.
