Facebook Inc appointed Ajit Mohan as MD and Vice-President of India operations.

Mohan will join Facebook early next year, the company said in a statement on Monday. Prior to Facebook, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Hotstar, the online streaming platform launched by Star India.

This comes a year after Umang Bedi resigned as the Facebook India head last October and at a time when the social media giant has come under scanner for data breach issues. In his new role, Mohan will be responsible for Facebook’s India strategy and for driving the company’s continued investment in India.

He will lead a senior leadership team in India that will strengthen Facebook’s relationships with people, businesses, and government and intensify the company’s efforts to help people in India connect with the people and things they care about most, according to the statement. This is a new structure for Facebook India of having a senior leader reporting into Menlo Park and not Asia Pacific, the statement added.

“India is one of the largest and most strategically important countries for Facebook. As we think about what it will take to achieve our mission of bringing people together and building community, we know that investment in India is critical. Ajit’s depth of experience will help us continue to have a positive impact in India across communities, organisations, businesses and with policy makers” said David Fischer, Vice-President of Business and Marketing Partnerships, Facebook Inc.

Mohan said: “It is an exciting charter to shape the agenda of a company that, between Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram, has brought the world closer together in one of the most exciting markets in the world. I look forward to championing India in Facebook, to helping accelerate the country’s big leapfrog in technology, and to building deep and meaningful communities across the country.”

“It has been the ride of a lifetime for me at Star and Hotstar. Building Hotstar has been the most fulfilling mission of my professional career to date. The last 6 1/2 years at Star were spent working with the brightest minds and the best of teams. I am truly grateful for my team at Hotstar that has expanded the frontiers and shown that the future is still exciting for media companies. It is a rockstar team that I am certain will continue to blaze new trails.”

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