Surya Mantha quits Network18; joins Omidyar Network as director

Mantha was executive director, convergence. Prior to this, he was chief executive officer of Web18 for about four years

Surya Mantha, executive director, convergence, Network18 has moved out of the group. Earlier, he was chief executive officer, Web18, the Internet and mobile arm of Network18, for nearly four years.

For the record, Network18 re-aligned the senior management team of Web18 in January this year. Lakshmi Narasimha, head, special interest publishing and printing business, Infomedia18 was made the chief executive officer of Web18, while Mantha was given the new position of executive director, convergence, Network18.

Web18 runs various online and mobile properties such as the news website, IBNLive.com; financial portal Moneycontrol.com; and horizontal site In.com.

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Confirming his movement to afaqs!, Mantha says, "I have joined the venture capital firm Omidyar Network as director, investments in May. I will focus on investment areas related to digital media, consumer Internet, mobile value added services and mobile payments."

Omidyar Network belongs to Pierre Omidyar, the founder of eBay Inc. and his wife, Pam. The venture capital firm has invested in companies such as Kijiji.com (a classified ads portal), Digg.com (a social media site) and Linden Labs, makers of the virtual platform Secondlife.com.

Mantha has more than 15 years of experience in the industry. Before Network18, he was head of the interactive service business of Sify India. He has worked with companies such as Xerox Corporation and Real Networks.

Mantha is an engineer from IIT Kanpur and has obtained a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City.