Firework India expands leadership team with 3 senior hires

Silicon Valley based short video platform Firework has announced the expansion of its India Leadership with three key positions – Joyce Andrade as Head of Operations, Sudarshan Kadam as Head of Business Development, and Sunder Venketraman as Head of Content Monetisation and Revenue. They have joined the Firework India Leadership Team to strengthen and grow its India business.

Commenting on the new appointments, Sunil Nair, CEO, Firework India, said, “A strong team can scale a business exponentially, especially at the early stages in a geography. This team forms the core from which a diverse and successful business will emerge soon” he added. 

Joyce Andrade has been appointed as Head of Operations, India. With over a decade of experience in the video OTT space in India, she will be responsible for setting up operations across product, content, talent management and talent success. She will work closely with the Firework HQ based in Redwood City in Silicon Valley to ensure its on par with International operations Previously, Andrade was the Head of operations at ALTBalaji and was instrumental in launching the platform in 2017. She led teams across engineering, product, operations and account management to ensure business delivery. She has also worked with Star India, Ditto TV (Zee Entertainment) and Spuul. 

Sudarshan Kadam joins Firework as Head of Business Development. He will be responsible for Strategic & Content Partnerships, Growth and overall Business Development activities for Firework in India. Prior to Firework, Kadam was the Head of Alliances and Partnerships at ALTBalaji, where he was responsible for over 50 partnerships, establishing ALTBalaji’s presence in a short duration. With 16 years of experience, he has previously worked with Indiagames, Disney India and Reliance Jio.

Sunder Venketraman will Head the Content Monetisation and Revenue section for Firework. He will be responsible for creating revenue streams for Firework India that goes beyond the regular advertising. With over 16 years of experience, he was the Vice President and Product Head at Times Television Network. He has also headed the Programming and Content at 9X Media. His last role was at Trigger happy Media as Director, Business and Content. 

On joining Firework, Andrade said, “Setting up operations for a global company and working with teams across time zones and countries is challenging. I will take the experience that I have gained over the years of running operations for Indian companies and combine it with the standards set by the founding team to ensure that there is business continuity at all times for the product and the business.” 

Speaking on his appointment, Kadam said, “The short format medium has not yet been explored completely in India. There is a steep learning curve that is required to be able to work with partners to make them understand the value of what Firework brings to India.” He added that he was thrilled to see users already experimenting with the features available to the creators and hoped that his experience would bring a wide variety to the service and partners/ creators. 

Venketraman added here, “Joining the Firework family at this stage of the India business is a privilege for me. India has the fastest growing smartphone market in the world and it is exciting to be part of this revolution.” He further said that his responsibility would be to look at content creation from the revenue point of view and bring the experience that he has gained working with some of the largest TV networks in India to Firework.