MUMBAI: The Walt Disney Company chief regional counsel, direct-to-consumer & international - India, ME & SEA Deepak Jacob has put down his papers. Sources have confirmed that Jacob will be with the company till mid-May, post which he will move on to take up a new role in the fast-growing tech and start-up sector.

During his 13-year-stint at Disney and Star India, Jacob worked in legal, regulatory, government relations, standards & practices, corporate compliance functions at Star TV Network. He managed a team of 75 lawyers and non-lawyers, and was responsible for legal and regulatory aspects of all business verticals across, entertainment (national & regional), sports, digital, distribution (domestic & international), sales and films.

Jacob is a member of the Joint Task Force (JTF) constituted by the ministry of information and broadcasting for the phase-wise implementation of the digitalisation roadmap of the cable TV sector in India. He’s also nominated on the board of Broadcast Content Complaint Council (BCCC), a self-regulatory body for the regulation of content for non-news and current affairs television channels in India.

His prior roles have been as the head of legal for eBay India, where he was responsible for all India related legal, regulatory and law enforcement issues. He’s also had a three-year-stint in the telecom sector as senior legal counsel at Reliance Infocomm in the broadband & corporate wireless division. Before joining the corporate sector, he practiced as a litigation lawyer in the Delhi courts for over six years and served as a corporate lawyer with a leading law firm in Delhi.

Jacob has been a crucial part of Star’s success story and the acquisitions of Asianet, ESPN Star Sports, Maa TV, the creation of MediaPro, and the launch of Hotstar.