N P Singh steps into Man Jit Singh's shoes at MSM

Effective today, N P Singh, erstwhile chief operating officer of Multi Screen Media (MSM) India, has taken charge from Man Jit Singh as chief executive officer of the network.

In his new role, N P Singh will report to Andy Kaplan, president, Worldwide Networks, Sony Pictures Television.

In a press note, Man Jit Singh says, "NP and I have worked closely together as equal partners these last five years and the success of the company is largely due to his efforts. The time has come for him to lead the company to the next level." He adds that as non-executive chairman of MSM, he will support N P Singh in his new role and will remain "involved" with the Indian television industry.

N P Singh says, "I am delighted by the confidence Man Jit, Andy and the board have expressed in my abilities to lead MSM. It's been a wonderful experience and a pleasure working with Man Jit these last five years. While much work has been done there is clearly a long way to go before we can fully achieve our vision."

Expressing his confidence in N P Singh's abilities to lead MSM, Kaplan, in a press note, makes special mention of his decision making abilities.

Both Man Jit Singh and N P Singh have been overseeing MSM India's bouquet of channels that includes Sony Entertainment Television (Hindi GEC), Sony Max (Hindi movie and events channel), Sony Pix (English movie channel), Sony Six (sports channel), Sony Mix (Hindi music channel), SAB TV (Hindi family entertainment channel) and Sony Aath (Bengali entertainment channel).

MSM also has under its portfolio MSM Motion Pictures and Sony LIV (digital entertainment channel). Besides, MSM and Discovery Communications India have a distribution joint venture - The One Alliance.

For the record, Man Jit Singh had taken over as interim CEO of MSM (formerly Sony Entertainment Television India) in February, 2009 when Kunal Dasgupta quit the company after a 14-year stint. As the story goes, Man Jit Singh was given the responsibility of recruiting a new CEO for MSM India but after seeing the way Sony grew under his leadership, Kaplan asked him to take up the role in September, 2009. Until then, Singh was the non-executive chairman of MSM and had moved to India from LA in 2007.

Man Jit Singh started his career at Nestle India. Before joining MSM, he served as principal of Diogenes Capital, Los Angeles, California, which he joined in July, 2003. He had also worked with Compete Inc (as president and CEO) and High Circle (as CEO). He held senior positions at various management consulting firms including Sibson & Co, LLP in Los Angeles, The Cast Group AG in Zurich, Switzerland and Los Angeles, and Cresap in Los Angeles.

Man Jit Singh graduated in economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi University and obtained a Masters degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics; he also has a PGDM qualification from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Business, University of California at Los Angeles. He lived in LA for 28 years before he moved to India in 2007.

Meanwhile, with a background of accounts and finance, N P Singh has been with MSM for the last 15 years. Before joining MSM in 1999, he was working as the chief financial officer of Spice Telecom. In his early years, he had also worked with Modicorp (as CFO, telecom) and Hindustan Copper (as senior accounts officer). While working with Hindustan Copper, he completed FICWA, a course in management accounting. He graduated from Delhi University in 1979 with B.Com (Hons), commerce and later completed M.Com from the Delhi School of Economics.