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In conversation with VMLY&R’s Hari Ramanathan

Anand Chakravarthy

Previous: Co-founder, Results and Outcomes; and Managing Director, Essence

Present: Chief Growth Officer, Omnicom Media Group

Omnicom Media Group (OMG) India appointed Anand Chakravarthy as its chief growth officer. Prior to this, he has led many profitable businesses, including leadership stints at Essence Global, Wavemaker and Reliance Broadcast Network. He has worked with global and Indian brands, including several leading D2C (direct to customer) brands in India. In 2021, Chakravarthy, who was previously managing director for Essence India, joined edtech venture Results and Outcomes as co-founder. The company was founded by former Zee5 CEO Tarun Katial.

<a href="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/Corporate-Crossings-New-Series-Logo-258x258-1.webp"><img src="https://images.storyboard18.com/storyboard18/Corporate-Crossings-New-Series-Logo-258x258-1.webp" alt="" width="258" height="258" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1211" /></a>

Kapil Ohri

Previous: Head of Digital Marketing and Deputy General Manager, Dabur India

Present: Head of Performance Marketing and Engagement Marketing, Tata Nexarc

Kapil Ohri, former Dabur digital marketing head, has joined Tata Nexarc’s Tata Business Hub team as head of performance marketing and engagement marketing. In 2018, Ohri moved to the homegrown company Dabur India from Arvind Lifestyle Brands where was head, digital marketing. He has also had stints as partner at GroupM and head – digital of GSK India for Mindshare. Prior to that, he worked with OgilvyOne Worldwide as senior planning director (digital marketing).

Sudhir Das

Previous: Associate Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett

Present: Executive Creative Director, Dentsu India

Dentsu India has appointed Sudhir Das as executive creative director. In his new role, Das will oversee the agency’s Bengaluru office. Over the last two decades, he has worked with brands like Coca-Cola, Nestle, Apple and Airtel. His notable campaigns include ‘Ras-Ras mein India’, ‘Me and Meri Maggi’, ‘Spicejet Democracy’ and ‘Cardekho Back-Off’.

Gauri Awasthi

Previous: Chief Operating Officer - Strategy & Digital; Consultant, STCH Integrated Marketing Solution Pvt. Ltd

Present: Chief Digital Officer, Hashtag Orange

Digital marketing company Hashtag Orange has appointed Gauri Awasthi as the chief digital officer. In her new role, Awasthi will be responsible for managing client relationships, social media, SEO and the generation of digital revenue. Awasthi has worked in organizations like ibibo Group, Cheil India, WPP and iCubesWire, and has been instrumental in driving digital transformation strategies and marketing brand advocacy along with programmatic media for fortune 100 companies.

Anup Govindan

Previous: Executive Vice President and Head of Ad Revenue, Star Sports

Present: Viacom18

Anup Govindan has joined Viacom18. He has led advertising sales revenue for the sports business across broadcast, on-ground and digital platforms. Armed with 25 years of experience, he worked as manager of advertising sales at UTV, as a group manager at Sony Entertainment Television and as a senior director of advertising sales at ESPN Star Sports.

Cherryn Dogra

Previous: Head of Marketing, India Leadership Team, Emaar India

Present: Not known

Cherryn Dogra, who worked as the head of marketing for India at real estate developer Emaar India has decided to move on. During her 17-year long career, she has worked at United Breweries Ltd, Pernod Ricard India, William Grant & Sons, and Lodha Group etc. Prior to joining Emaar India, she worked as the head of marketing at DLF Limited.

Ravyanta Kumar

Previous: Associate Vice President - Corporate Strategy, Pocket Aces

Present: Head of D2C Content Business, Pocket Aces

Digital Entertainment Company Pocket Aces promoted Ravyanta Kumar to the position of head of D2C content business. In this new role, Kumar will lead the company’s D2C content business which houses content channels like short-form fiction channel FilterCopy, lifestyle channel Gobble and infotainment channel Nutshell.

Ashutosh Bhatt

Previous: Director, India Beverages, PepsiCo

Present: Operating Partner and Chief Growth Officer, Ananta Capital

Investment management platform Ananta Capital appointed Ashutosh Bhatt to the position of an operating partner and chief growth officer. In his new role, Bhatt will work closely with Ananta’s board of directors and all portfolio companies to formulate and execute growth plans. This includes growing existing distribution channels, driving brand-level synergies across channels and building systems and processes for sustainable top-line and bottomline growth. While at PepsiCo, he led West India and Sri Lanka Varun Beverages (VBL) Geographies. He also held the additional responsibility of being second- in -command for all of VBL geographies in the India region for PepsiCo. He has held positions at HSBC, The Coca Cola Company, and Ola.

Vishwanath Ambadipudi

Previous: Manager - Corporate Communications, HSIL Ltd

Present: Head of Marketing, Next Education

Vishwanath Ambadipudi is the new head of marketing of edtech company Next Education. In this role, Ambadipudi will drive strategic partnerships, branding, marketing campaigns, and corporate communications.

Cheuk Chiang

Previous: CEO, Greater North, Dentsu APAC

Present: CEO, Dentsu Creative Asia Pacific

Global creative network Dentsu Creative has appointed Cheuk Chiang as the chief executive officer for its Asia Pacific region. He still continues to be the CEO for the Greater North region at Dentsu APAC. Armed with an experience of more than three decades, he has had stints at agencies like Leo Burnett, Y&R Mattingly, Omnicom Media Group, and M&C Saatchi Australia.

Santosh Kumar K and Mothi Venkatesh

Previous: Senior Sales Manager, AppsFlyer; Senior Marketing Manager, Recko

Present: Director of Product Sales and Head of Growth, Qoruz

Influencer marketing and intelligence platform Qoruz has appointed Santosh Kumar K and Mothi Venkatesh as the director of product sales and head of growth, respectively. In their new roles, Kumar will be responsible for driving the growth of the platform. Venkatesh will drive the growth of the creator management platform in India. He has held marketing positions at Myntra, Gympik, and has also worked on a freelance basis at Ikea. Kumar has been associated with organisations like InMobi and Spentacorp.

Vishal Ahluwalia

Previous: Senior Vice President, McCann Worldgroup

Present: Head - South Operations, McCann Worldgroup

McCann Worldgroup has promoted Vishal Ahluwalia to head of south operations. Ahluwalia will step into the shoes of Dileep Ashoka. Armed with 27 years of experience, he has worked with agencies like Leo Burnett, JWT, Contract, TBWA/India, Grey Group and Cheil India. At Grey Group, he led the Southern market. Further, he launched B'Natural from ITC, and President butter and cheese in India.

Aayush Arora

Previous: AVP Marketing, Testbook

Present: Vice President - Client Business, Hiveminds Innovative

Marketing agency Hiveminds Innovative has appointed Aayush Arora as the vice president of client business. Arora has experience across digital marketing, client servicing and strategy. He has held positions at Merkle Sokrati, AdGlobal360, and is the founder of online marketing and advertising firm Social Cutlet.

Lada Guruden Singh and Shony Panjikaran

Previous: Marketing and PR, Sony Pictures Network India; Director and Head, Marketing, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Present: General Manager and Head of Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP); GM and Head of Sony Pictures Releasing International

Sony Pictures Entertainment announced elevations of Lada Guruden Singh and Shony Panjikaran. In their respective roles, Singh will oversee SPIP India’s local film development and production slate. He will also look after its expansion in regional cinema. Panjikaran will manage Sony Pictures’ theatrical releasing business across the Hollywood and local cinematic slate in India. This includes all distribution, sales, and marketing efforts.

Raka Sinha

Previous: Global Brand Director - Marketing and Digital, L’Oreal, and Sustainability Director

Present: Consumer Healthcare, Sanofi

Raka Sinha, who served as the global brand director of marketing and advertising and a sustainability director at L’Oreal has decided to move on to Sanofi, a pharmaceutical industry company, and work in the consumer healthcare category. Sinha has experience across general trade, pharmacy, luxury, travel retail etc. She started her career as a strategic account executive at FCB Ulka, and worked as a brand manager and CMI manager at Marico Limited. At Unilever, she joined as the regional brand manager for Knorr—for the Asia region—and rose to become the global brand manager of Dove for the UK region.

Devyani Ozarde

Previous: Founder and Director, nxtnew Digital Business Consulting

Present: Managing Director - Media and Entertainment, Accenture

Accenture appointed Devyani Ozarde to the position of managing director - media and entertainment. Ozarde started her career at Rediff.com as senior art director, and then worked at Reliance Games as digital marketing manager. At Bennett Coleman, she held the position of a digital marketing lead, and then she moved to Sony Pictures Network India where she was the associate vice president - digital technology.

Dr. Bhaskar Das

Previous: Group President, Republic TV

Present: Chairman, IdeateLabs

Digital-first marketing agency IdeateLabs appointed Dr Bhaskar Das as the chairman. Das will mentor the senior leadership team in augmenting the company's offerings across data, content, and community solutions. Commenting on his new role, Das said, “I look forward to working cohesively with the senior management to sketch growth strategies for the group's expansion in the Indian and international markets.”
Armed with more than four decades of experience, Das started his career with The Times Of India Group, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL), where he spent three decades and went on to serve as the president and board member. From there, he moved to Zee Media Corporation, where he served as the group chief executive officer, and then, at Republic TV, he worked as the group president. Currently, he holds the position of the director of content creation at Unica Token Pvt Ltd, an NFT startup.

Rachit Mishra

Previous: Specialist - Marketing Revenue & Yield Management (International Markets Group, Ford Motor Company

Present: Marketing Head, CJ Darcl Logistics Ltd

Transport and logistics company J Darcl Logistics Ltd appointed Rachit Mishra as marketing head. In his new role, he will manage and expand the team for brand marketing and public relations, creative and content marketing, digital and social media marketing, and marketing data analytics. At CNH Industrial, he held the position of CE brand marketing and communication manager for the Asia, Middle East and Africa region.

Rajat Abbi

Previous: International P&L Management, Marketing & Sales leader (Asia), Valvoline Inc

Present: Vice President - Global Marketing, Greater India, Schneider Electric

Rajat Abbi joins Schneider Electric as the Vice President – Global marketing, Greater India. In his new role, he will be responsible for running the marketing function for the company, driving brand, digital and commercial excellence of the company. He will be a part of the Schneider Electric Global Marketing International Operations Leadership team, Schneider Electric India Management team and Schneider Electric India Private Limited (SEIPL) Leadership Council. He started his career with Apollo Tyres, and has worked across B2C and B2B businesses in Valvoline International, Philips Lighting and Carrier Air-conditioning.

Nishant Nayak

Previous: Director of Product and Design, Zenjob

Present: Chief Product Officer, FanCode

Digital sports destination FanCode has appointed Nishant Nayak as its chief product officer. Nayak will lead the product strategy to realise FanCode’s vision of becoming the largest sports fan platform in the country. Armed with 19 years of experience, Nayak has worked at eBay, Future Bazaar and Flipkart. He is experienced in marketplace ecommerce, fashion, staffing industry, international expansion, Product vision, strategy and leadership, user experience and design, agile software development, growth, matching, product operations and program management.

Ravi Rao

Previous: CEO, GroupM, MENA

Present: Not known

Ravi Rao has quit GroupM as CEO of MENA after a stint of more than three years. Confirming his departure on LinkedIn, Rao said "Thank you all. Not the end, tbc."
Rao joined GroupM MENA from Mindshare MENA where he was the CEO. Before becoming the Mindshare MENA CEO, Rao was the Chief Client Officer at the agency. In his three decades in the business, Rao has worked at Lintas India, Impact BBDO, OmnicomMedia Group and at Mindshare.

Bhavin Shah

Previous: Head of Performance Marketing, Outbrain India

Present: Not known

Bhavin Shah, who served as the head of performance marketing at Outbrain India, a tech company has decided to move on. In his past role, he spearheaded Outbrain's marketing activities in India, which included local marketing strategy, planning, and execution of events. He has been a part of orgnaisations like IGATE, Nykaa, Baggit India, Wealth Tree Advisors and Money Care Solutions.

Bhairavi Rangarajan

Previous: Head - Digital Business and Marketing, Hero Insurance Broking

Present: Head of Digital Marketing, Branding and MarComm, Kohler Co.6

Kohler Co has appointed Bhairavi Rangarajan as the head of digital marketing, branding and marcomm, and he will be based out of Gurgaon. Rangarajan has also worked as the head of digital marketing at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd.

CXO Moves: Ad executive returns after edtech stint, Dentsu Creative gets a CEO, Dabur loses its digital head

Achint Setia 

Previous: Head, Marketing and Social Commerce Business, Myntra  

Present: Not known

At Myntra, Achint Setia, who served as the head of marketing and social commerce business put in his papers at the end of May. Setia, who had joined Myntra in 2018, was responsible for brand marketing, performance marketing, loyalty business, and research.

Anand V 

Previous: Associate Vice President, Posterscope - Dentsu International India 

Present: Vice President, Posterscope - Dentsu International India

Dentsu International India announced the elevation of Anand V to the position of vice president at Posterscope, the OOH communications agency from Dentsu. He joined the agency in 2013 as the associate vice president.

Sai Ganesh 

Previous: Brand Lead, Dunzo 

Present: Not known

Sai Ganesh, who served as the brand lead at the quick-commerce delivery platform Dunzo, resigned from his position. During his four-year stint at Dunzo, he played a role in the development of Dunzo Daily - the app’s quick grocery delivery division. He played a key role in developing Dunzo’s brand personality and some of the buzziest ads and hyper-local campaigns.

Narayan Devanathan

Previous: Chief Client Officer, Dentsu International India

Present: Not known

One of the most recent exits in a long line-up of executives leaving the group, Narayan Devanathan, Dentsu International India’s chief client officer, decided to move on to pursue other interests outside the advertising industry. A few weeks before his departure, Devanathan as the company’s CCO spoke to the media about a new chapter for Dentsu in India.

Vijay Swaminathan 

Previous: Senior Marketing Manager, The Kraft Heinz Company 

Present: Head of Marketing, The Kraft Heinz Company

Vijay Swaminathan, who headed The Kraft Heinz Company as the senior marketing manager, was promoted to head of marketing. Prior to this, he was associated with Unilever as the brand manager, personal care for the South Asia region.

Oindrila Roy 

Previous: Head of Strategy, Essence India

Present: Not known

Oindrila Roy, who headed media company Essence India as the head of the strategy for the last three years, has made a move. In a global move, WPP-owned GroupM merged the operations of Essence with its other agency MediaCom.

Anuj Sharma

Previous: Country Director, Poco India

Present: CMO, Xiaomi India

Anuj Sharma, who headed Poco India as the country director, rejoined Xiaomi India as the chief marketing officer, a few months after the departure of its previous CMO. Jaskaran Singh Kapany moved out of the Chinese smartphone company in April, within a year of joining.

Anindita Das Veluri

Previous: Deloitte

Present: Head of Marketing, Adobe India

Anindita Das Veluri joined Adobe as the head of marketing where she will oversee the operations for the India region. Previously, she was associated with Deloitte where she was responsible for building the Adobe alliance and scaling the company’s business in India.

Havas Worldwide Media 

Arthi Basak, EVP and Planning Head - West

Esha Datta, and Saugata Kundu appointed Vice President - client servicing

Havas Worldwide Media has been on a hiring spree, as it has been picking up pace in past two years to go up against other holding company networks. The company roped in Arthi Basak, Esha Datta, and Saugata Kundu. Basak was Strategy Consultant, Landor & Fitch, Datta was AVP at Grey Group and Kundu was AVP and CSD, Wunderman Thompson.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy.

CXO Moves: The in’s, outs and in-betweens in marketing and adland

Logistics and grocery app Dunzo’s head of brand Sai Ganesh has resigned, confirmed a spokesperson from the company. His next move remain unknown.

Storyboard18 has reached out to Dunzo for the official statement; this story will be updated with their response.

Ganesh joined the delivery startup three years back and worked on building brand Dunzo. His mandate included marketing and brand-building of Dunzo and its recently launched quick commerce service Dunzo Daily.

Under his leadership, Dunzo created multiple viral advertising campaigns such as “Sri Fridgesh Coolkarni”, #GroceryKaDramaChodo campaign and “Learn Kannada Starter Pack”. The company also created the Dunzo rider mascot - the green helmet and the ‘D’ logo with the lightning bolt are easily identifiable. Interestingly, Dunzo has eight mascots of different genders, each with their own personality.


"We love Sai. We at Dunzo are so proud of everything that he and the Brand team have built over the last 4 years. He leaves behind an incredible legacy in pushing the boundaries on mediums & changing how brands can & should tell a story in today's age. I told Sai on his last day that Dunzo will always be a company that he built. We are very excited about what he does next. So Long, Partner. At Dunzo, we will keep building and challenging the norms from here on. We are in it to build one of the most endearing brands to come from India, and will always keep pushing the boundaries of story-telling," said Kabeer Biswas, CEO and co-founder, Dunzo.

Dunzo’s brand-building so far has focused on content such as memes, short videos and social media posts inspired by socio-cultural events ranging from the Indian Premier League (IPL), and elections to the popular TV show Shark Tank.

This is a classic marketing ploy of Dunzo by creating something deeply intriguing which is bound to be discussed and possibly go viral. That’s how the delivery startup has created a unique brand image by displaying its marketing prowess time and again. All its promotions are done in-house.

In an earlier conversation with Storyboard18, Ganesh said that Dunzo seeks to find human insights that help the company do better for their consumers.

“Especially for targeted digital campaigns, we do seek to understand the relevance of a communication to the user by using clicks and related actions. There’s of course virality, quality of engagement, etc. which determine the efficacy of the communication,” he added.

Before joining Dunzo, Ganesh worked as AVP - marketing at Zomato where he was responsible for the growth and marketing of company’s membership service Zomato Gold (later renamed to Zomato Pro). He was in charge of the India, Portugal and UAE markets. In his more than decade-long career, he also worked at AB InBev India & South East Asia as a senior brand manager, Hanes and TVS Motor company.

Dunzo’s head of brand Sai Ganesh quits

In the last eight days, three top-level executives have quit Dentsu International India. The latest to move on is the company's South Asia Chief HR Officer (CHRO) Rohit Suri. Multiple sources close to the development have confirmed the news to Storyboard18. Suri was not reachable for comment at the time of filing this story. He joined the Japanese ad network in September 2021.

According to sources close to the development, Suri is joining a major global OTT platform.

Earlier today, Narayan Devanathan, the company’s chief client officer <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/features/storyboard18-dentsu-indias-chief-client-officer-narayan-devanathan-quits-8620801.html">resigned</a> to pursue interests outside the advertising industry. Last week, Sidharth Rao, CEO, dentsuMB Group, announced his departure. A press note sent by the company stated that its India market will be led by key leaders like Divya Karani, Amit Wadhwa and Anubhav Sonthalia. There are several vacant spots in the firm; the network company still has no CEO to run the show in India. Senior executives at Dentsu India are approaching the heads of other networks for jobs, the chief of a leading advertising network said on condition of anonymity.

In our bi-weekly column <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/companies/mc-insider-fund-whistleblowers-asian-paints-blues-startup-villas-bad-stock-bets-and-more-8616521.html">MC Insider</a>, which was released today, we indicated that an impromptu management meeting was scheduled by Dentsu’s HQ to share a few updates. A mole told us that a high-profile exit was underway (Narayan Devanathan) and there was one more in line (Rohit Suri). Both the news have been confirmed by several industry sources. Storyboard18 was the first to report about the exodus and has been reporting about people developments with a close lens over the last eight months.

The Indian unit of Dentsu Group Inc has been rocked by a series of senior-level exits since August 2021, potentially causing more departures and deepening turmoil at the advertising company. Storyboard18 has learnt that a few more senior-level executives are on their way out.

n March, Storyboard18 had reached out to Wendy Clark, Global CEO, Dentsu International to understand the company’s plans for getting a CEO for the Indian market and the state of business here. We reached out to her again today for comments. There was no response to the questions that were sent by Storyboard18.

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