For the first time, Sony India has appointed an Indian as its Managing Director (MD). Sony India announced that Sunil Nayyar will replace Kenichiro Hibi, who will move to head the Brazil operations for the Japanese electronics giant.
Hibi has been serving as the MD of Sony India since 2012. Nayyar joined Sony in 1995 as part of Sony Gulf's sales team in charge of North and East Africa, Russia, Lebanon, Syria and other GCC countries. As of now, Nayyar is the head of Retail Experience in Sony North America, before which he was Sales Head from 2006 to 2015.
"The change of guard marks a historic milestone, with Nayyar being the first Indian to be appointed as Managing Director for Sony India. In this new role, Nayyar will be responsible for spearheading the overall growth and profitability of the company within the region, by driving an integrated business and marketing strategy and directing excellence in market performance across all categories," Sony India said in a statement.
"In this time of transition, I look forward for an insight from our stakeholders and help guide in further strengthening Sony's presence in India. I am confident, that we will continue to harness our energies to expand our footprint and offer the best in-class technology to our consumers," Nayyar said.
When Nayyar joined the company's India operations in 2006, Sony was struggling to compete with Samsung and LG. Nearly a decade later in 2015, however, India had become the fourth largest revenue contributor to Sony. Most of that success was credit to Nayyar for his work in India.
Sunil Nayyar is an alumnus of Institute of Management Technology. Ghaziabad.
(With PTI inputs)