Mahesh Samat has been named the Managing Director of the Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company (India). Samat over twenty years of experience across India, Asia-Pacific and Europe, and joins from Johnson & Johnson, where he was MD for Southern Europe, based out of London. Before that, he has worked with Kellogg’s for India, Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis and Boots India Limited. He’s an IIM graduate. Samat will be based out of Mumbai, and report to Walt Disney International President Andy Bird. He’ll be responsible for all of the existing Disney businesses in India, except the ESPN-Star Sports joint venture.

Samat takes over after almost seven months after Rajat Jain had quit as Disney MD. Jain has since taken over as CEO of Mobile2Win, and been joined there another Disney exec - Tushar Shah.