BS People: Raj Nayak

The deal striker

He is not a regular corporate honcho. The appointment of Raj Nayak, often decsribed as ‘the people’s person’ and ‘go-getter’ by his peers, as the CEO of Colors, the general entertainment channel of Viacom18, came as a surprise to many.

Last month, his company Aidem was in news after NDTV decided to terminate its contract and join hands with Star India for ad sales of its channels NDTV 24x7, Profit and India. Even after this, Nayak and his associates were busy working out alliances with various people and companies.

His prowess to strike deals, his versatile personality and his entrepreneurial skills as the founder of Aidem Ventures, were talking points amongs media industry officials since Tuesday, when the announcemnt was made.

Most of them believed, given Nayak’s experience in the industry, his ability to hold excellent prolonged relationships with agencies, clients and talent the television space, his move to Colors was good for the channel, after Rajesh Kamat’s exit.

Colors has seen immense success and even catapulted to the top slot in the past three years, with advertising revenues to the tune of around Rs 750 crore last year.

The channel or Nayak are, however, not speaking on this yet. His mandate, according to the channel, is to be responsible for driving the brand and the business towards profitability and growth. Nayak only says: “I’ve always admired Colors for the way it changed the landscape of the Indian GEC space within a short span. I look forward to working with it and create newer benchmarks in the industry.”

After a seven-year stint at NDTV Media as the CEO, Nayak had founded Aidem Ventures, a media knowledge process outsourcing, consulting, sales and marketing company.

He also spent 10 years with the STAR TV group, where he was the executive vice-president (sales and marketing) and was responsible for strategy, packaging and marketing for all STAR channels and revenue for the group. He had also been on the boards of Vijay TV and Indya.com.