Viacom18 has unveiled major enhancements to its technology leadership team as part of its plan to elevate JioCinema into India’s premier digital content destination. The company’s strategic appointments are designed to boost technical expertise, increase agility, and deliver speed to market. Furthermore, these leadership changes are expected to drive the delivery of world-class digital experiences as Viacom18 scales its operations rapidly.
Bharath Ram has joined as the Chief Product Officer and Ad Tech Platform Lead at Viacom18 and will be reporting to Kiran Mani, CEO of Digital Ventures, Viacom 18. Previously, he worked at Flipkart, where he spearheaded Product and Engineering initiatives, focusing on user growth, new product innovation, retention, and the development of new categories.
Before his tenure at Flipkart, Bharath was part of Instagram’s core product team in the US, where he concentrated on ad revenue, ad personalization, ad auction systems, user experience with ads, and advertiser experience. Additionally, he has also worked at Amazon Prime Video, where he led efforts in personalization and other critical areas. Bharath holds an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Ohio State University and an MBA from the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
Furthermore, Vijay Sheshadri has been appointed as the Chief Technical Advisor at Viacom18. He has a rich background in enterprise security, e-commerce, and large-scale distributed systems and brings over 25 years of industry experience. Previously, he served as an Engineering Fellow at Swiggy and has held significant positions at Amazon and Symantec, where he developed multiple enterprise security solutions and cloud infrastructure services. Notably, Vijay was the lead architect for Symantec’s Reputation-based Security technology, which earned the Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award in 2010.
Shoury Bhardwaj has been appointed as the Engineering Leader for App Experience, Search, Recommendations, Data, and App Backend Platforms at Viacom18. Shoury brings 12 years of experience from Flipkart, where he played a pivotal role in various e-commerce projects. In his latest position at Flipkart, he led the product and engineering teams for new business initiatives. Shoury is known for his passion for developer productivity, agile methodologies, and the creation of lasting technical and product frameworks. He holds an engineering degree from NIE, Mysore, and an MS from BITS, Pilani.
A Viacom18 spokesperson said, “We are thrilled to welcome Bharath, Vijay and Shoury to the Viacom18 family. Their expertise and leadership will be instrumental as we embark on the next phase of our ambitious growth journey. These appointments reflect our commitment to building a world-class tech platform that can deliver the best of content and an unparalleled experience to our consumers.”