Sangeeta Desai

Board Mentor
Criticaleye

Sangeeta is currently Non-executive director at BoatRocker Media, a global content and distribution company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Aurora Acquisition Corp., a SPAC listed on the NYSE, and Executive Director at Anton, an Anglo-French production and financing outfit. She was formely Chair at Mopar Media, a Nordic media production company backed by Bridgepoint Private Equity, and a Non-executive Director on the boards of outdoor advertising business Ocean Outdoor and Middle Eastern broadcaster OSN, where she also served as interim CEO for a year. 

Sangeeta was previously the Group COO and CEO of Emerging Markets of FremantleMedia, a leading content company with production and distribution operations in over 30 countries worldwide. As Group COO, she was responsible for the global operations of the company across all its offices, as well as the central functions of Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions, Legal & Business Affairs, International Co-Productions, Marketing and Social Media. As CEO of Emerging Markets, she was responsible for growing and expanding FremantleMedia's presence in key growth regions, which included offices across Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Prior to joining FremantleMedia, Sangeeta was the COO of HIT Entertainment, one of the world's leading independent kids entertainment producers and rights-owners, where she had global responsibility for all the revenue generating and brand divisions of the business, including distribution, licensing & merchandising and live events, across its offices in the US, Europe and Asia. Sangeeta was a key member of the management team that successfully sold HIT Entertainment to Mattel in 2012. Prior to joining HIT Entertainment, Sangeeta was a Principal at Apax Partners, where she was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing leveraged buyouts in the media sector globally. She has also held positions in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.

Sangeeta has an MBA with Honours from the Wharton School and a BS with Highest Honours from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.