CXO Moves: Execs move up, in and out at Bacardi, Ogilvy, Bisleri, Havas, Mindshare, and more

Keep up with all the key people movements in the brand marketing ecosystem in Storyboard18’s CXO Moves. Here’s a round-up of the executives who are in, out, and in-between in the past two weeks.

Kavitha Rao

Previous: Country Commercial Manager, IKEA India

Present: Not known

Kavitha Rao, who had served as the country commercial manager for IKEA India has stepped down from her position. At IKEA India, she led the business agenda for India across sales, marketing, home furnishing and retail design, customer experience and food to build the brand. Rao, who has more than two decades of experience has worked across Hindustan Unilever Limited, Infosys BPM, Target, Walmart, Capgemini etc.

Vinay Golkeri

Present: Managing Director, India & Neighbouring Countries, Bacardi

Bacardi announced the appointment of Vinay Golikeri as Managing Director, India & Neighboring Countries. Golikeri will be responsible for leading commercial operations across the market for the company’s portfolio of premium spirits and will continue to ensure ongoing sustainable and profitable growth for the business. In his new role, Golikeri will head the India Leadership Team and will report to Vijay Subramaniam, Regional President, Asia, Middle East & Africa, and Global Travel Retail. Golikeri has been with Bacardi since 2003 and has a long and deep connection with the India market.

Golikeri succeeds Sanjit Singh Randhawa who, after nearly five years as Managing Director, India & Neighboring Countries, will be moving to Dubai, UAE, to take on his new role as Director, External Affairs, Asia Middle East & Africa and Global Travel Retail.

Balachandran V

Previous: National Trading Director, Dentsu Media and Holdings India

Present: Executive Vice President - Buying North, Havas Media

Media company Havas Media has appointed Balachandran V as the executive vice president - buying north. He will be responsible for media investments of all the clients in the North. Balachandran, who has over two decades of experience, has worked across MPG, Mindshare, Motivator etc.

Anjana Ghosh

Previous: Director of Marketing and Business Development, Bisleri International

Present: Chief Executive Officer, Xotik Frujus

Beverage company Xotik Frujus has appointed Anjana Ghosh as the chief executive officer. Ghosh, who had joined Bisleri International in 2006 was responsible for innovating the brand and strategising the engineering of Bisleri from blue to green. Recently, at Xotik Frujus, the brand adopted a youthful and polished design, and packaging.

Bonsy Mehta and Afshaad Kelawala

Previous: Principal Writer & Creative Head, The Wordologists;

Head - Growth Marketing, Clinikk

Present: Lead - branding & consumer-centricity and Content Marketing, Schbang Theta; Associate Vice President- integrated solutions, Schbang

Schbang has promoted Bonsy Mehta to lead the branding and consumer-centricity division of Schbang Theta along with its content marketing vertical. Further, the agency has appointed Afshaad Kelawala as the associate vice president for integrated solutions. Mehta, who has more than a decade experience has worked across Afternoon Despatch & Courier, Copy Mug etc. Kelawala has 15 years of experience and has worked across JM Financials, Concept Communications, Montblanc, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.

Anika Agarwal

Previous: Chief Marketing Officer and Director - Digital Business, Max Bupa

Present: Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer, Orient Electric

Electrical equipment manufacturer Orient Electric, which is a part of CK Birla Group, has appointed Anika Agarwal as the chief marketing and customer experience officer. In her new role, she will be responsible for all aspects of the brand, supporting growth and expansion across business units and scaling up the digital footprint of the consumer electrical business. Agarwal, who has two decades of experience has worked across Agrani Convergence, A Zee Group Company, Indian Cellular Association, Nokia India etc. In March 2022, Max Bupa Health Insurance Company was rebranded as Niva Bupa Health Insurance Company.

Yogesh Rijhwani and Abhishek Deshwal

Previous: Executive Creative Directors, Taproot Dentsu

Present: Creative Director, Wieden + Kennedy

Advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy Mumbai has appointed Yogesh Rijhwani and Abhishek Deshwal as creative heads. Rijhwani, who has more than a decade experience, has worked across Oberoi IBC, Thoughtshop Advertising, Scarecrow Communications Ltd., etc. Deshwal, who has 16 years of experience has worked across Draft FCB Ulka, Saatchi & Saatchi, Contract Advertising, Rediffusion Y&R, Mudra Communications, JWT and MullenLowe Lintas Group.

Keerthi Kumar

Previous: Group Account Director, Foxymoron

Present: Business Head - South, Foxymoron

Independent full-funnel creative and performance digital agency of the Zoo media network Foxymoron has promoted Keerthi Kumar to the position of the business head of the south region. Kumar will be responsible for leading business operations, and fostering business development across the region, contributing to the overall growth of the Zoo Media conglomerate. Kumar will also continue to report into Prachi Bali, national head - client partnerships of the agency. Kumar, who has more than a decade experience has worked across Goldman Sachs, Maximizer e-Services, FireBringer Media, Phantom Ideas, Dentsu Webchutney and HealthCare Global.

Amlan Pati

Previous: Head E-Commerce, D2C and Digital Marketing, CavinKare

Present: Not known

Amlan Pati, who had served as the head of e-commerce, D2C and digital marketing at CavinKare, a consumer products manufacturing company, has decided to move on. Pati started out at CavinKare as marketing head - digital and e-commerce. He’s had stints at Panasonic India and realme.

Sam Thomas, Rehan Ali, Atishay Agrawal, Pratishtha Dehariya

Previous: Sr. VP - National Digital Head, OMD Worldwide; Sr. Director - Digital Strategy and Planning - India, iProspect; AVP - Performance Marketing, Value 360 Communications Private Limited; Senior Manager - Business Strategy, Merkle Sokrati.

Present: Head – Performance & Product, India; Partner – Performance (North and East); Senior Director – Performance (South); and Partner – Performance (West), Mindshare

Global media and marketing services company Mindshare has roped in Sam Thomas, Rehan Ali, Atishay Agrawal and Pratishtha Dehariya. Thomas will look after the performance business, productizing services and building enhanced capabilities for clients.

Ali will bring in more efficiencies for an existing set of clients and grow the performance marketing portfolio. He will also support teams to bring on board new clients in the northern and eastern markets. Agrawal will help grow the existing business efficiently, and grow the performance portfolio for Mindshare in the South. Dehariya’s role is to lead the performance business for Mindshare West.

Ali, Agrawal, and Dehariya will join Thomas’s team as key appointments. Thomas has over 16 years of experience in digital marketing, and has worked across Accenture, Convonix Inc, Logicserve Digital, PHD India (Omnicom Media Group), Resolution Media etc. Ali has 16 years of experience and has worked across Indiamart Intermesh Limited, Webchutney, Madison Media Plus, Digitas, Reprise Media India Pvt Ltd, Cheil India, Value 360 Communications Private Limited etc.

Agrawal comes with eight years of experience and has worked across KPMG, Talview, ZPX etc. Dehariya has over a decade experience and has worked across iProspect Communicate 2, YouTube, Accenture, Sizmek, PHD, MightyHive etc.

Pravesh Saha

Previous: Head of Sales & Education and Leadership Team Member, Wella India

Present: General Manager, India and South Asia, Wella India

Global beauty brand Wella India has appointed Pravesh Saha as the general manager of the India and South Asia region. Saha, who has more than a decade's experience, was with ITC Limited for 11 years. In April, Wella had announced that it is acquiring Briogeo, one of the fastest growing hair care brands in the world. Further, the brand is also known for being one of the largest independent-black owned brands in the United States.

Mohammedullah Shaikh and Richa Chugh

Previous: Head of Customer success and delivery (VP Technology), Grapes Digital; and Digital Head - West Region, Motivator, GroupM

Present: Vice President - Media; Senior VP & Head – Tech Services, Digitas India

Global marketing and technology agency from Publicis Groupe, Digitas India has roped in Mohammedullah Shaikh and Richa Chugh. Shaikh, who has more than a decade experience, will lead all technology services mandates at the agency. He will work closely with Sonia Khurana, chief operating officer, and Roopesh Pujari, chief technology officer of Publicis Groupe. Chugh, who has 15 years of experience, has worked across IntegralPR, Maxus, Sportz Interactive, Interactive Avenues, Innocean Worldwide, etc. In August, Audio-wearable brand boAt along with Digitas India hosted India’s first K-Pop concert in the metaverse.

Santosh Kumar

Previous: Managing Director, India, HRS Group

Present: Country Head - Indian subcontinent and Indonesia, Booking

Online travel agency Booking has appointed Santosh Kumar as the country head for the Indian subcontinent and for Indonesia. He stepped into the shoes of Ritu Mehrotra. Kumar will play a critical role in driving growth, strategy and operations across the Asia Pacific region. Kumar, who has more than a decade experience, has worked across Lucent Technologies, Deloitte, Collabera, American Express etc. Citi will be launching Citi Travel where the travel booking platform will be powered by Booking.com and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Rocket Travel.

Arthur Sadoun

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe’s Arthur Sadoun will stay on for four more years as the chairman and chief executive officer. In another Groupe moves, Steve King has been appointed as the chairman of Publicis Groupe Europe, where he will continue to work for some major clients. Publicis Groupe also made Jane Lin-Baden the chief executive officer for the APAC region.

Amit Dhawan

Previous: Founding Partner and Business Head, Schbang Delhi; Head Of Media, Schbang

Present: Chief Executive Officer and Partner, Art-E MediaTech

Full service marketing and advertising agency Art-E MediaTech has appointed Amit Dhawan as the chief executive officer and partner in the agency. Dhawan, who has eight years of experience, started his career with Samsung Engineering as a trainee. Then he went to work with digital marketing agencies like Sociowash and Schbang. Art-E was founded by Rohit Sakunia, Tejender Sharma and Animesh Mukherjee in 2018.

Sumanto Chattopadhyay

Previous: Chairman and Chief Creative Officer, 82.5 Communications

Sumanto Chattopadhyay will be retiring from his position later this month at 82.5 Communications India, an advertising agency which is a part of WPP and Ogilvy Group. Chattopadhyay was with the Ogilvy Group for three decades. Anuraag Khandelwal and Mayur Varma will step in as the joint creative officers. Chattopadhyay also held the position of executive creative director, South Asia at Ogilvy.

Jane Lin-Baden

Previous: Managing Partner APAC & CEO North Asia, Publicis Groupe

Present: Chief Executive Officer, APAC, Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe has named Jane Lin-Baden as the chief executive officer of the APAC region, where she will look after the South Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia region. Also, former APAC/MEA CEO Loris Nold has been given the newly created role of CEO for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Here, he will oversee all European operations and markets and will continue to supervise those in the Middle East and Africa. Few weeks ago, Publicis Groupe India had appointed Hari Krishnan as the managing director and head, Publicis Content.

Smitha Narayanan

Previous: Marketing Manager, Wipro Yardley

Present: Head - Sales and Marketing, MM TV India

Malayala Manorama Television (MM TV) has appointed Smitha Narayanan as the head of sales and marketing. Narayanan, who has more than two decades of experience has worked across Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Wipro etc.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy