Mumbai: Mahesh Narayanan had decided to quit, LinkedIn as Country Manager for India terminating his stint with the professional networking platform in a short span.
Narayanan joined LinkedIn on January 7, 2019 replacing Akshay Kothari. His previously served as the India Managing Director for leading music and audio streaming service Saavn, and led Google India’s mobile advertising business from 2010-2013.
He was reporting to Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn’s Managing Director for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region and he was one among the company’s Asia Pacific senior management team.
Mahesh Narayanan said, “With the Indian digital ecosystem in hyper growth mode, there are unique opportunities and ventures presenting themselves where I can help grow and scale products that both, focus on and are designed for India and Indians”
Narayanan is an entrepreneurial business leader with more than two decades of experience in building and growing digital businesses in South Asia. Previously he 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.
He was also playing advisory role with Tonic Media, an integrated Digital Marketing agency from September 2014 to May 2018. Until December 2018, Narayanan was a partner in Spike Partners, an advisory and consulting firm that helps companies understand, build and grow their digital business.
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.