He had joined the company in June 2020, after leaving Google where he served as managing director of Google Cloud for Games, at the internet giant’s headquarter at Mountain View, California in the US.
K Madhavan, president of The Walt Disney Company India & Star India, informed the staff about Rayan’s exit in an internal memo.
“…Sunil Rayan has decided to leave the company due to personal reasons. As many of you know, Sunil joined us in early 2020 with the intention of relocating from the US to India to lead Disney+ Hotstar. The pandemic halted those plans and he led the team remotely,” the memo read. “However, now that the world has once again opened up, Sunil has made the difficult decision that it is best for his family to remain in the US.”
Madhavan said that under Rayan’s leadership, the Hotstar team has made “incredible accomplishments” in the last two years, and built “phenomenal technology assets” to enhance and grow the Disney+ Hotstar platform.
“Working with many stakeholders and colleagues across Disney|Star and Disney Streaming, he and his team have developed strategies to better serve our consumers and advance Disney’s direct-to-consumer priorities,” the memo reads.
Rayan will serve at the company till May, overseeing a smooth transition while the company will look for a new head.
Prior to Disney, Ryan spent 7.5 years at Google and had also headed its Mobile App ads business till July 2018, before moving to Google Cloud.
Rayan has also worked at McKinsey & Co., IBM, iGate Mastech and Infosys.
