National Geographic Partners Announces Akilesh Sridharan as Chief Financial Officer

Photo of Akilesh Sridharan

National Geographic Partners announced today that Akilesh Sridharan has been named Chief Financial Officer (CFO), overseeing financial and strategic planning, accounting and budgeting for the organization. He will report to National Geographic Partners Chairman Gary Knell and Ravi Ahuja, CFO of Fox Networks Group.

“We’re seeing tremendous momentum at National Geographic Partners and have an even greater growth opportunity on the horizon as we prepare to align with The Walt Disney Company,” said Gary Knell, Chairman of National Geographic Partners. “Akilesh will be a fantastic addition to our leadership team, bringing a breadth of valuable experience that will drive the business forward. His work growing business through acquisitions and partnerships and his deep understanding of our organization make him the ideal choice to lead our financial and strategic planning at this important time.”

Prior to joining National Geographic Partners, Sridharan was most recently Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy for Fox Networks Group. In this role, Akilesh helped oversee strategic initiatives across international channels and National Geographic Partners, including the 2017 acquisition of Global Adrenaline for National Geographic Expeditions. Sridharan joined Fox International Channels’ Business Development group in 2008, where he focused on growing the business through a variety of partnerships, joint ventures, acquisitions and channel launches.

Over the last 10 years at Fox, Sridharan has played a key role in major sports and entertainment acquisitions including Eredivisie Media & Marketing in the Netherlands, Fox Sports Latin America, and Latin America Pay Television. Prior to joining 21st Century Fox, Sridharan was an R&D engineer at a medical technology company, Becton Dickinson, in New Jersey and North Carolina. Sridharan has a Master of Business Administration from University of California, Los Angeles, and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Engineering from Columbia University. He will be relocating from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.

About National Geographic Partners LLC

National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic’s media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children’s media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 131 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers … and reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

National Geographic Partners

Anna Kukelhaus, Anna.Kukelhaus@natgeo.com