MUMBAI: In a surprise move, Star India has appointed Amit Chopra as the network sales head to replace Kevin Vaz, who was helming the position since November 2009.

Chopra?s mandate will be to leverage the skills of the sales team at Star India to fuel aggressive growth in the business.

The realignment will see Kevin Vaz move to lead the English channels? cluster of Star India. Kevin will also continue to steer Star Jalsha and Jalsha Movies as their General Manager and Business Head.

Interestingly, Star had appointed Chopra in December last year to steer the group?s sports strategy. The India operations of ESPN Star Sports (ESS) have come under Star post its complete takeover by News Corp.

Before joining Star, Chopra was the CEO of Hindustan Media Ventures Limited (HMVL). An Engineer from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Chopra has spent 12 years in FMCG in Hindustan Unilever in a variety of marketing and sales assignments.

It also needs to be noted that the English channels cluster of Star was headed by Saurabh Yagnik, who quit the company in November last year to join Multi Screen Media?s (MSM) English movie channel Pix.

Vaz, who joined Star in 1996 as an ad sales executive, rose through the ranks to become the network ad sales head of the company. The soft spoken ad sales executive has been with the company for almost 17 years now.

MUMBAI: Star India has appointed former Hindustan Media Ventures Limited (HMVL) CEO Amit Chopra to steer the group?s sports strategy which includes the BCCI media rights.

The new appointment comes in the wake of Star?s increasing involvement in taking care of parent News Corp?s sports business in India. Earlier this year, Star had acquired the BCCI media rights till 2018 for Rs 38.51 billion. This was followed by News Corp consolidating its hold over sports broadcasting in Asia by acquiring for $335 million Disney?s 50 per cent stake in the equal joint venture company, ESPN Star Sports.

ESS is expected to come under Fox International Channels (FIC) for the rest of Asia while the India part will fall under Star India.

Chopra, whose designation is not yet revealed, will report to Star India COO Sanjay Gupta.

Chopra has rich experience in media and FMCG domains in a career spanning 20 years. As CEO of Hindustan Media Venture, he was credited with creating a successful language publishing business for the group.

An Engineer from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, Chopra has spent 12 years in FMCG in Hindustan Unilever in a variety of marketing and sales assignments.