New Delhi: Kiran Mani has stepped down from his role as CEO Digital at JioStar and is set to join OpenAI as managing director for the Asia Pacific, according to ET. The appointment indicates a significant change in leadership since OpenAI is speeding up its growth in one of the rapidly developing AI markets in the world.
In June, Mani will be based in Singapore to take up the new position created. He will report to Jason Kwon. His brief is to lead regional strategy, deepen enterprise relationships, and expand operations in Asia Pacific, where the need to use AI tools has been growing rapidly.
OpenAI doubles down on Asia Pacific growth
OpenAI has been gradually expanding its footprint in APAC, where it considers the region a major expansion driver. Already, India has become its second-largest market in the world based on the number of weekly users, with Japan and Indonesia being some of the fastest-growing markets in terms of users. Enterprise adoption is also accelerating, and Japan is already becoming a significant business user of ChatGPT, and India has been experiencing high usage of developer tools such as Codex.
The company has spread its presence by having offices in Tokyo, Singapore, Australia, Korea and India. It is collaborating actively with companies to bring AI into products, processes, and customer experiences, which is indicative of a more pronounced infiltration into regional ecosystems.
Mani’s role in building JioStar’s digital ecosystem
Mani was the key player in the JioStar digital strategy formation. He headed initiatives in the sports and entertainment medium and made JioHotstar a high-end content and live-streaming hub. His work included integration of technology, content and monetisation in order to scale user activity in devices.
In 2023, he joined Viacom18, which was backed by Reliance, and transformed JioCinema into one of the leading digital platforms. After the 2024 merger of Viacom18 and Star India, he played a role in the merging of JioCinema and Disney+ Hotstar, leading to the introduction of JioHotstar in early 2025.
Being a veteran of more than 25 years, Mani has an excellent record of scaling digital platforms. Prior to JioStar, he worked in management positions at Google, where he was Managing Director of Android and Google Play in APAC. He has also worked at Microsoft and IBM and is an entrepreneur who has experience in developing a tech startup.
This change to OpenAI is indicative of the overarching goal of the company to achieve stronger leadership in major global markets as well as cash in on the fast adoption of AI in Asia Pacific.