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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.

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Rajneet Kohli

Previous: President and Chief Business Officer, Domino's India

Present: Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Britannia Industries

Britannia Industries has appointed Rajneet Kohli as the executive director and chief executive officer, effective from September 26. Kohli's appointment to a newly created position of CEO at Britannia, comes at a time when the industry is grappling with margin concerns amid soaring inflation. Kohli, who has more than two decades of experience, has worked with Asian Paints and The Coca-Cola Company, in the past. He will report to Varun Berry, who was elevated to the executive vice-chairman and managing director of the foods major.

Vishal Jacob

Previous: Vice President, Wavemaker India

Present: Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Digital Officer, Wavemaker

GroupM-owned Wavemaker has designated Vishal Jacob as the chief transformation officer. Along with this new position, he will also continue to hold the position of the chief digital officer. In this extended role, Jacob will work with office heads and business leads to structure and create diverse skill sets within business teams to manage current and future business requirements. He will also work along with practice leads to break silos and create more cross functional teams to deliver unified solutions to clients, which is one of Wavemaker’s key focus areas. Further, Jacob will also work on strengthening existing capabilities beyond digital and incubating new ones. In his previous stints, Jacob has worked with Mindshare and Maxus. 

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Burzin Mehta

Previous: National Creative Director, Publicis Worldwide

Present: Chief Creative Officer, Gozoop Group

Independent marketing group Gozoop Group appointed Burzin Mehta as the chief creative officer. Mehta will partner with Samrat Bedi, the chief executive officer to focus on building brands of the future. Mehta, who has more than two decades of experience has worked across Ogilvy, Raka Advertising, DDB Mudra Group, Abans Group Sri Lanka and Indigo Consulting. 

Priya Gurnani and Arvind Menon

Previous: Senior Creative Directors, BBH India

Present: Executive Creative Directors, BBH India

BBH India, which is a part of Publicis Groupe, has promoted Priya Gurnani and Arvind Menon to executive creative directors. Gurnani, who has more than a decade’s experience, has worked across Ogilvy & Mather, Contract Advertising, Leo Burnett, McCann Worldgroup, Amber Communications, Qrious Digital Marketing and Publicis. Menon has worked with PHD Worldwide and FoxyMoron, in the past. 

Two weeks ago, BBH India elevated Radhika Burman to VP, Head Delhi. In her new role, Burman would be responsible for current clients, people, and new business performance in Delhi. Along with that, she will drive strategic thinking across clients.

Abhishek Sen

Previous: Senior Vice President - Integrated Campaigns, Cheil India 

Present: Not known

Abhishek Sen has stepped down from his position as the senior vice president of integrated campaigns at Cheil India. At Cheil India, he led the 360 integrated campaigns across ATL (Above the Line), BTL (Below the Line), digital, social, influencer, publishers, events, e-commerce and community marketing for Samsung India's MX portfolio across smartphones, computing, wearables and community marketing. Sen has more than two decades of experience, and he has worked with agencies such as Rediffusion Y&R, Dentsu, Ogilvy & Mather and DDB. In May, Cheil India had appointed Umesh Bopche as the chief executive officer for its digital agency Experience Commerce.

Sharad Sharma

Present: Chief Business Officer, Boddess Beauty

Multi-brand beauty and tech retailer Boddess Beauty has appointed Sharad Sharma as the chief business officer. In this role, Sharma will be responsible for building and expanding the brand across online and omni channel and hyper-local models across the nation. Sharma, who has 25 years of experience in e-commerce, retail, business consulting and digital marketing, will play a key role in the expansion of the brand in tier 2 and tier 3 markets. Sharma held leadership roles in companies such as Havells, Welspun, Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) and Times Internet.

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Amlan Pati

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

Present: Senior Professional - Product Marketing (IM Biz), Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics has appointed Amlan Pati to the position of a senior professional - product marketing. As he announced his new position at Samsung Electronics, he added, “Will be working on the flagship smartphones product range.” Pati, who has 10 years of experience has worked across Panasonic India, realme, etc. At CavinKare, Pati was instrumental in launching the D2C business and the first D2C brand Buds and Berries. 

Renu Somani

Previous: Executive Creative Director, Thought Blurb Communications

Present: National Creative Director, Thought Blurb Communications

Full-service advertising and design agency Thought Blurb Communications has elevated Renu Somani to the position of a national creative director. Somani, who has two decades of experience has worked with McCann Erickson and Saatchi & Saatchi in the past. Somani now takes charge of managing the creative product of the company that has a presence in Mumbai and Kochi. She will be overseeing a diverse team of creative talent in these cities, helping in the development of brands across the country and also in planning the creative strategy for new clients here on.

Asheesh Malhotra

Previous: Executive Vice President, Branch head, Dentsu Aegis Network

Present: Executive Director, NEXT

NEXT by Rediffusion, an agency with focus on startups, fintech, e-commerce, edtech, and eHealth, has appointed Asheesh Malhotra as the executive director. Malhotra, who has 25 years of experience in the advertising industry, has worked with Lowe Lintas, Ogilvy & Mather and Bates CHI&Partners. 

Mausami Prasad

Previous: Executive Vice President, Kantar

Present: National Head - Strategy & Insights, Mindshare 

Mindshare has appointed Mausami Prasad as the national head - strategy and insights. In her new role, Prasad will be responsible for contributing to Mindshare’s ‘good growth’ journey by creating exclusive strategies for clients. Prasad, who has more than two decades of experience, has worked across Indica Research, IMRB International, Pantaloon Retail India Ltd and Colgate Palmolive India Ltd etc. At Kantar, Prasad developed client relationships for a global account, consulted client stakeholders and provided consumer insights across the entire brand portfolio of clients. Few days ago, Mindshare strengthened its leadership team by appointing Sam Thomas as head – performance and product, Rehan Ali as Partner – Performance (North and East), Atishay Agrawal as senior director – performance (South), and Pratishtha Dehariya as partner – performance (West).

Rakesh Varma and Abhay Godbole

Present: Vice President & Executive Business Director; Vice President & Client Servicing Director, Wunderman Thompson

Wunderman Thompson has appointed Rakesh Varma and Abhay Godbole. Varma has over 15 years of advertising experience and has been associated with leading brands like Hotstar, Radio City, FBB, Gelusil and Tata AIA, amongst others. Godbole, who has previously worked with Wunderman Thompson Mumbai, during his previous stint with the agency, was instrumental in leading the much lauded ‘Mutual Funds Sahi Hai’ for AMFI. He has close to two decades of experience in marketing communications working across FMCG, Automobile and BFSI. Varma and Godbole will report to Anurag Tandon, managing partner, Wunderman Thompson Mumbai.

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Bhawana Sharma

Previous: Digital Marketing Lead, realme India 

Present: Head of Digital Marketing, CavinKare

FMCG company CavinKare has roped in Bhawana Sharma as the head of digital marketing. Sharma, who has more than a decade’s experience, has worked with HCL Technologies, Cheil India and Hakuhodo, in the past. 

Manesh Mahatme

Previous: Director & Head of WhatsApp Pay, WhatsApp

Present: Director of Product, E-Commerce, Amazon

Manesh Mahatme, who served as the director and head of WhatsApp Pay at the Meta-owned instant messaging platform, has joined Amazon as the director of product for the e-commerce division. As per a media report, his exit comes at a time when WhatsApp is seeking to ramp up its payments service and compete with established brands like Alphabet Inc's Google Pay, Ant Group-backed Paytm and Walmart's PhonePe. Mahatme, who has more than 10 years of experience has worked with Citibank, Mashreqbank and Airtel, in the past. 

Pallavi Mohan

Previous: General Manager, DLF Limited

Present: Head of Marketing and Communications, Elan Group

Real estate company Elan Group has appointed Pallavi Mohan as the head of marketing and communications. Mohan, who has an experience of more than two decades, has worked with Philips Lighting, Britannia Industries Limited, Target, Cafe Coffee Day, Papa John’s International, Royal Orchids Hotel and Samsung Electronics. Mohan has worked across functions like social/digital marketing, sales, business operations, strategic retail, corporate communication, public relations and corporate social responsibility. 

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Girish Menon

Previous: Partner, KPMG India

Present: Chief Strategy Officer, JetSynthesys

Digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys strengthened its leadership team through the appointment of Girish Menon. The other appointments are Pushan Puri and Sheetal Bapat who joined as chief technology officer and head of social impact initiatives. Menon, who has 25 years of experience, has worked with KPMG, Balaji Telefilms and Grant Thornton India, in the past. Online music education platform Artium Academy entered into a strategic partnership with Global Music Junction — the digital entertainment subsidiary of JetSynthesys and Warner Music India. This is aimed at helping these entities to identify, nurture and scale aspiring talents at the Academy while collectively building on content-creation, artist management, revenue generation, digital monetisation, branding, and sponsorships. In June, it was announced that JetSynthesys is in talks to go public.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy

CXO Moves: Britannia gets a CEO; Execs in at Gozoop, Samsung, realme, Rediffusion, Mindshare, CavinKare, JetSynthesys

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. 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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

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

Over the past few months, Metaverse has received a lot of attention. Some brands are viewing marketing in the metaverse as an opportunity to reach a larger audience in an engaging manner. Increasingly, automakers are getting onto the metaverse bandwagon to enhance their customer experience.

Mindshare India recently conceptualised and enabled the first ever electric vehicle (EV) launch in the metaverse for Volvo Cars in a space called Volvoverse. This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration across WPP agencies.

Watch to find out how and why they did it. 

<div data-youtube="true" data-youtube-id="KSSNbLIbIHs" data-youtube-title="In Conversation With Amin Lakhani & Amit Jain On Marketing In Metaverse | Storyboard 18" class="youTubeVideoPlayer" data-youtube-category="News & Politics"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KSSNbLIbIHs" width="100%" height="360"></iframe></div>

Meeting Amin Lakhani and Amit Jain in Volvoverse 

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.

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