LinkedIn appoints Mahesh Narayanan as country manager for India wef Jan 7

The Microsoft-owned company had been seeking a new head since their India head and VP of international products Akshay Kothari, quit in August

Global professional networking company LinkedIn on Thursday announced the appointment of Mahesh Narayanan, as Country Manager for India, effective January 7, 2019.

The Microsoft-owned company had been seeking a new head since their India head and vice-president of international products Akshay Kothari, quit in August.

Narayanan is an entrepreneurial business leader with more than two decades of experience in building and growing digital businesses in South Asia, the company said in a statement. 

“I am grateful for the opportunity to further LinkedIn's vision and mission in an important market that is rapidly digitising. LinkedIn has created a meaningful impact on the professional lives of millions of people, including myself, and I am excited to work with the team to deliver even more value to members and customers,” said Narayanan.

Most recently, Narayanan led music streaming platform Saavn as their MD, which he quit in August this year soon after its acquisition by Reliance Industries. He has also been an active advisor for consumer internet, mobile, ad-tech, fintech, content and e-commerce companies and is serving advisory roles to firms like Tonic Worldwide and Agilio Labs.

He had also previously headed the Indian operations of Sociomantic, a German display advertising company, which was acquired by Dunnhumby Ltd in April 2014. Prior to that, he was India head of Google’s mobile division and led its direct sales operations. 

Mahesh Narayanan will report to Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn’s Managing Director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and will join the company’s Asia Pacific senior management team. 

As LinkedIn’s fastest-growing and largest market outside the US, India has seen its member base grow from 3.4 million members in November 2009 to more than 53 million members in July 2018 which scaled up rapidly under Kothari’s five year tenure before his abrupt exit.

The growth in member base in India is the result of a strong members-first focus that has inspired many product innovation initiatives, including LinkedIn Lite (that has now been scaled to 135+ countries globally) and Resume Builder, built specifically to address the needs of the Indian workforce.