Peter Mukerjea exiting Star Group India?

MUMBAI: Peter Mukerjea, CEO of Star Group India, is said to be heading for the exit.

But Mukherjee dismissed this as speculation, when contacted by DNA Money, but the scuttlebutt in the media circles is gaining decibels by the day.

For the past 2-3 months, speculation has been rife in the media circles about Mukherjea’s possible departure and the fact that he was due to meet Michelle Guthrie, global chief executive officer of STAR in Hong Kong, get some of his contractual obligations waived. It was towards March this year that STAR India split itself into two separate divisions, STAR Group India and STAR Entertainment India.

Earlier, Mukerjea, who was CEO of STAR India,  was named CEO of STAR Group India, while Sameer Nair, who was COO of STAR India and reporting to Mukerjea, was crowned CEO of the other division, STAR Entertainment India. The structure went such that Mukerjea was responsible for STAR India’s joint ventures. STAR India has joint ventures in DTH with Tata Sky; distribution network Hathway; production house Balaji Telefilms, and Hindi news channel MCCS.

Nair was to oversee all the day-to-day operations, including programming, marketing, advertising sales and distribution.

Guthrie spelt it out at the time, that Nair’s new portfolio was a testament to his contribution. The UK-born CEO of media mammoth Star started out with Heinz in the UK, before doing stints with the British Store House (a retailer) and worked with ad agencies O&M (UK office) and DDB Needham (Hong Kong office).