CXO Moves: Wingreens gets its first group CMO; top executives quit Facebook, OYO & Future Group

Bidisha Nagaraj

Previous: Vice President - Marketing, Schneider Electric India

Present: Global Head of Marketing - Home & Distribution Business, Schneider Electric India

Schneider Electric India promoted Bidisha Nagaraj to the post of the global head of marketing for home and distribution business. She started her career as an account director at Lintas almost three decades ago. She has held marketing positions at various companies and served as the group president for marketing at Cafe Coffee Day. At Intel Technologies and Google, she served as the strategic marketing director - emerging markets, head consumer marketing.

Rohit Kapoor

Previous: Global CMO, OYO

Present: Joining Swiggy

Hotel aggregation platform OYO’s global chief marketing officer Rohit Kapoor has resigned from the company and is expected to join Swiggy in the next few weeks as the CEO of its food delivery business. “A new role has been created for Kapoor in Swiggy’s food business. But it will take a few weeks for him to join,” said a person aware of the developments. In a major rejig earlier this year, Softbank-backed OYO elevated Ankit Gupta to be the India chief executive officer, transitioning then chief executive Rohit Kapoor to the position of company's global marketing head.

Ashish Bajaj

Previous: Head of Marketing, MediBuddy

Present: Chief Marketing Officer, Narayana Health

Ashish Bajaj joined Narayana Health, a chain of multi-specialty hospitals as the chief marketing officer. Bajaj has been a part of GroupM as a business manager. At Microsoft, he worked as the channel / partner marketing manager. He also had a stint at Ola where he was the head of media and brand alliance.

Pawan Sarda

Previous: CMO, Future Group

Present: Group CMO & Head of D2C, Wingreens World

Pawan Sarda joined farm-to-retail company Wingreens World as the group chief marketing officer and head of direct-to-customer (D2C). The company has been on an acquisition spree, with the latest being cereal brand Monsoon Harvest. During his stint at Future Group, Sarda strategized and managed group-wide digital and marketing initiatives which included digital commerce for all retail formats. Sarda, who has more than two decades of experience, has worked at Pantaloon Retail India as senior manager - marketing. At Tata Housing and Development Company, he was the head - marketing and product development (domestic and international market) - TATA Value Homes. This was prior to Sarda joining Future Group as the group chief marketing officer - digital, marketing and e-commerce business.

Dipashree Das

Previous: Marketing, India, SEA, Netflix

Present: Head of Partner Marketing, APAC & ANZ, AmazonFuse

Dipashree Das joined Amazon as the head of partner marketing for the Asia-Pacific and Australia-New Zealand region. Das was previously a part of the marketing team at Netflix and looked after the operations of India and South-East Asia (SEA). She shaped the marketing strategy and narrative for the Original & Licensed Films portfolio while at Netflix. Armed with 18 years of experience, Das has worked in Unilever, NDTV, Oak3Films, Channel NewsAsia, and Singtel (Singapore Telecommunications Limited).

Jasleen Kaur

Previous: Head - Marketing, Public Relations & Sustainability (Indian sub-continent), Benetton Group

Present: AVP - Marketing and PR, Reliance Brands

Jasleen Kaur, who had stepped down as head - marketing, public relations & sustainability for the Indian sub-continent at the Benetton Group, joined Reliance Brands, the brand licensing arm of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) as the assistant vice president - marketing and public relations. Armed with more than a decade of experience, Kaur has been a part of organisations like Canon India where she handled the communications strategy for the Office Imaging (B2B) arm of Canon.

Robert Gilby

Previous: President, Asia Pacific, Nielsen

Present: CEO, APAC, Dentsu International

Robert Gilby who had served as the president for the Asia Pacific region at Nielsen, an American information, data and market measurement firm, has been roped in by Dentsu International as the chief executive officer for the APAC region. In his new role, Gilby will be responsible for unifying the APAC region’s 11,600 employees in 18 markets around the company’s ambition to be the “most integrated network in the world.” His appointment follows the global launch of DENTSU CREATIVE, with Dentsu awarded Asia Pacific Regional Network of the Year, and Dentsu Creative India named Global Agency of the Year at Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

Gilby will be taking up the duties of his new role starting from September 5, and will be based out of Singapore. In the past, he has been a part of organizations like PwC, and he was the chief executive officer and founder of Blue Hat Ventures.

Chetan Mane

Previous: Business Director, BBH India

Present: President, Idealake

Chetan Mane joined digital transformation agency Idealake. In his new role, Mane will be responsible for driving growth across verticals and managing operations of the company. Previously, Mane was with BBH India as the business director for a period of two years and ten months. He has also worked in Triton Communications as the executive brand services and business development and at Contract Advertising where he was a strategic planner. He worked at integrated communications agency Whyness Worldwide as vice president - business and strategy.

Karan Kumar

Previous: CMO, DLF Limited

Present: Group CMO and Growth Officer, ART Fertility Clinics

Karan Kumar joined ART Fertility Clinics as the group chief marketing officer and growth officer. Kumar, who has two decades of experience, served as the chief marketing officer at DLF Limited, a real estate company. In his role as the first-ever CMO at DLF, he led marketing for the entire residential (homes) portfolio for DLF. He did this while handling additional responsibilities for the corporate brand and DLF Foundation. He held the position of head of marketing, e-commerce, portfolio strategy, digital experiences in retail at ITC Limited. After that, at FabIndia Limited, he was the chief brand and marketing officer - retail marketing, digital marketing, loyalty programme, advocacy.

Ankur Garg

Previous: Senior Creative Director, Dentsu Impact

Present: Executive Creative Director - Art, Kinnect

Digital marketing agency Kinnect appoints Ankur Garg as the executive creative director for the art department of Delhi and Bengaluru branches. Garg joins from Dentsu Impact where he spent a decade. His last position at Dentsu Impact was that of senior creative director. Armed with more than 15 years of experience, Garg has served as art director at JWT Worldwide and FCB Ulka.

Bala G

Previous: Senior Creative Director, BBDO India

Present: Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett

Leo Burnett appointed Bala G as executive creative director. Previously, he was with BBDO India for seven years where he worked as the senior creative director. He started his career with FCB Ulka in 2006 as an associate art director.

Hitesh Malhotra

Previous: CMO, Lenskart.com (India, SG and USA)

Present: CMO, BitOasis

Hitesh Malhotra quit as Reliance Brands' vice president, marketing - beauty and luxury, less than a year after joining the company. Malhotra has joined BitOasis, a Middle East-focused crypto exchange based in the UAE, as its chief marketing officer. BitOasis was founded in Dubai in 2015 and serves English and Arabic speaking customers in the Gulf and Middle East. Malhotra has worked with Levi Straus and MakeMyTrip.com. He also headed marketing at beauty and fashion ecommerce platform Nykaa from 2015 to 2020. He joined omnichannel eyewear manufacturer - retailer Lenskart.com in 2020 as CMO, leaving the company after a little over a year to join Reliance Brands.

Sandeep Bhushan

Previous: Director - Business Group India, Meta

Sandeep Bhushan, who served as the director of Facebook-owned Meta’s business group in India, has decided to move on. Bhushan, whose stint at Meta lasted for seven years and four months, had joined the organization as the director and head of India GMS. As he made an announcement of his departure via a LinkedIn post, it read, “I am keen to go deeper into the social sector and build new learning muscles that can guide my contribution over the next 25 years.” Bhushan is also actively involved in working with the industry as a board member of Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and MMA India. For a decade, he held multiple leadership roles across sales and marketing in Hindustan Unilever Limited.

Prakash Sikaria

Previous: Senior Vice President, Flipkart

Present: Starting up

Prakash Sikaria, who worked at Flipkart as a senior vice president - growth and monetisation, and as Shopsy’s head, is leaving the company. He announced, “As I thought about the next 10 years and where the Indian digital ecosystem is headed, starting up seemed right. Hence, I have decided to move on from Flipkart to startup. Over the next few months I would be transitioning my existing responsibilities to new leaders at Flipkart.” As SVP, he built a new business portfolio for Flipkart. He led the acquisition of Adiquity, Mechmocha, Cleartrip & Yantra. He further scaled Supercoins, Flipkart Ads, Flipkart Travel and Recommerce business unit.

Adarsh Menon, who currently serves as the senior vice president and head - Flipkart Wholesale & Walmart India will also take up the responsibility Shopsy and Cleartrip once Sikaria exits.

Ammar Millwala

Previous: Vice President, IdeateLabs

Present: Partner, Mindshare

Media agency Mindshare has roped in Ammar Millwala as partner. His new role will see him lead the traditional and digital investments for Disney Star. Armed with 16 years of experience, Millwala has been the media marketing lead at VIP Industries Limited and has also worked at Omnicom Media Group as associate media director. He served as media manager at Percept Limited and Starcom.

Vishal Malhan

Previous: Senior Vice President - International Business Division, Pidilite

Present: President - Sales and Marketing, Pidilite Industries

Owner of Fevicol, Pidilite Industries has promoted Vishal Malhan to the post of the president - sales and marketing. Previously, he headed Pidilite as the senior vice president of the international business division where he was responsible for business development in SAARC & SEA, and marketing function for business in Africa, Middle East, SAARC and SEA. Malhan, who has more than two decades of experience in sales and marketing across India and international markets started his career with Pidilite over 24 years ago.

Rachin Khanijo

Previous: CMO, Beginnen Media

Present: Marketing Head, Sony Entertainment Television

Sony Entertainment Television appointed Rachin Khanijo as the marketing head. Khanijo joins from Beginnen Media, a media company, where he led the channel as a chief marketing officer. Khanijo is armed with 17 years of experience and headed Eros Now as the vice president - marketing, and ZEEL as the marketing head. He has also worked at Viacom18, SET, and Ogilvy & Mather.

Mohit Dutta

Previous: Head - Trade Marketing and Sales Development, Mars

Present: Sales Director, pladis Global

Global snacking company pladis Global appointed Mohit Dutta to the position of sales director. Dutta started his career at Mars, a confectionery manufacturing company, as an area sales manager. Prior to that, he worked at Hindustan Unilever Limited in business operations and at Shell as a key account manager.

Gurjot Shah Singh

Previous: Executive Vice President, Isobar India

Present: Not known

Gurjot Shah Singh has quit Isobar India, the creative experience agency that’s part of Dentsu International India, as the executive vice president. His next move remains unknown. Singh began his stint with Denstu through iProspect as an account director. From there, he moved to Dentsu Webchutney, where he spent around five years and eight months. He started off as an associate vice president and went on to head the agency as the executive vice president and national media head. He has also been a part of digital marketing company Crayons Communications as an account director/senior business development manager.

Swapnil Singasane

Previous: Deputy General Manager Marketing, Indigo Paints Limited

Present: General Manager - Marketing, APAR Industries

Aluminium and alloy conductor manufacturer APAR Industries appointed Swapnil Singasane as the general manager of marketing. Singasane, who has more than 15 years of experience started his career with Indiacom. From there, he moved to Indigo Paints Limited where he joined as a marketing manager, and then rose to become the senior marketing manager.

Ashish Parikh

Previous: Global Omnichannel and Category Development Director, Reckitt

Present: COO and EVP, Diageo India

Ashish Parikh joined Diageo India as the chief operating officer and executive vice president. Parikh, who has more than two decades of experience, started his career with Agro Tech Foods as an area sales manager. He worked at PepsiCo for three years and three months, and then spent around 5 years and 11 months at Marico Limited where he led the brand as the head of modern trade. He started his career with Reckitt as the head of modern trade and e-commerce and was promoted to sales director. Later he held the position of global shopper marketing director of the health hygiene category.

Rahul Kapuria

Previous: Founder / Director, Brandmakerr

Present: Vice President, Pepperfry

Online furniture shopping company Pepperfry appointed Rahul Kapuria as vice president. Kapuria, who is the founder / director of Brandmakerr, an interior solutions company, has more than three decades of experience. He has worked in organisations like Voltas Limited, STP Limited, Kenstar, Indusind Media & Communications Limited where he was the chief marketing officer.

Abilash Balan

Present: Head of Marketing and Communication, Beyond Key

An end-to-end digital transformation company, Beyond Key has appointed Abilash Balan as the head of marketing and communication. Balan will lead Beyond Key’s global marketing programs. He has also been given the responsibility to leverage marketing to help build scale by working on the intersection of brand communication, digital transformation, and technology. His role will also require him to look into Beyond Key's marketing communications, brand development, positioning, solution marketing, corporate marketing, sales enablement, demand generation, and customer marketing.

Rahul Jagdish Mishra

Previous: Senior Media Manager, Fulcro

Present: Director - Digital, Mindshare

GroupM’s Mindshare appoints Rahul Jagdish Mishra as its director - digital. In his previous role as the senior media manager at Fulcro he headed the media department and pitched for new media business. Armed with seven years of experience, he has been a part of agencies like Havas Media Group, MediaCom, Gozoop Online Private Limited, Mindshift Interactive, Contract India etc.

Sudhanshu Tripathi

Previous: Head ESG, Sterlite Power

Present: VP, Head marketing & Growth, Quick Heal

Software company Quick Heal appointed Sudhanshu Tripathi as vice president - head marketing and growth. He has worked at Tata Consultancy Services, FINO (Payments Bank), and Cyient (multinational technology company).

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy.