Infosys To YouTube: Know All About Gunjan Soni's Journey To The Top Brass

YouTube Bets On Gunjan Soni: It's been 22 years since YouTube took birth and co-founder Jawed Karim posted the first-ever video on this path-breaking platform. The second-most visited site in the world in yet another major announcement on April 28, 2025, appointed ex-Zalora Group CEO Gunjan Soni as the next country Managing Director (MD) for the India market.

This marks a crucial appointment for the google-owned video-sharing platform. Soni's appointment comes after the exit of former YouTube India Managing Director Ishan Chatterjee, who left the company in 2024 to join JioStar.

YouTube's New Country MD For India

Soni now joins the growing ranks of women leaders at world's top tech firms in India. Preeti Lobana was appointed as Google India's Country Manager and Vice President in December 2024, while Sandhya Devanathan is the present head of Meta's India business as vice president.

Prior to this role, Soni oversaw operations of online fashion e-commerce retailer Zalora for six years in Singapore as the as the Group CEO. During her stint, she introduced fresh categories and business models, meanwhile enhancing user experience through personalization and loyalty programmes, the company said in an official statement.

Overall, Soni has over two decades of leadership experience spanning business, technology, marketing, and e-commerce sectors.

This includes a three-year stint at Flipkart-owned online fashion platform Myntra where she served in several positions, first as Chief Marketing Officer and later as Head of Jabong.

Soni also served as executive-Vice President (VP) at Star India for nearly two years, where he headed several new initiatives in digital content and sports, including playing a key role in the launch of video streaming platform Hotstar in 2015. Before this role, she was a Partner at McKinsey in the Consumer and Marketing practice.

With nearly half a billion users, India is YouTube's largest market and a pertinent region for its long-term growth strategy, especially with its artificial intelligence (AI) efforts.