ITV

Category: People

  • R Jeswant joins Funskool India as CEO

    R Jeswant joins Funskool India as CEO

    MUMBAI: Funskool (India) Ltd, recently welcomed R Jeswant as its chief executive officer on board, following the retirement of John Baby.

    Baby, who was the CEO of the company from 2006-2020, was responsible for boosting exports by setting up the company’s third manufacturing facility in Ranipet from where the factory caters entirely to the export market.

    Jeswant succeeded Baby as the new CEO with effect from 1 April 2020.

    Prior to Jeswant’s appointment as CEO, he was the company’s senior vice president (sales and marketing) and has been associated with Funskool (India) for over 20 years. Prior to joining Funskool in 2000, Jeswant had worked with TI Cycles of India as senior product manager and with Blue Star Ltd as general manager (sales).

    Jeswant said, “At Funskool, we will continue pursuing our plans actively with utmost optimism to build a global toy brand from India, while strengthening our product lines in every category in India.”

  • Industry veteran Jim Hamilton appointed as new OmniActive CEO

    Industry veteran Jim Hamilton appointed as new OmniActive CEO

    MUMBAI: OmniActive Health Technologies MD Sanjaya Mariwala announced that OmniActive’s board of directors has named Jim Hamilton as its new global CEO. The appointment becomes effective on 1 June and Hamilton will be based in the US.

    For the past 15 years, OmniActive, with its mission of improving lives through enhancing nutrition, has grown under the leadership of its founder, Sanjaya Mariwala, who becomes executive chairman.

    Hamilton has spent over 35 years in the nutrition products industry, serving in a wide range of executive positions. Most recently, he served as president and CEO of Neptune Wellness Solutions, where, during his five-year tenure, he planned and delivered a significant turnaround of the business through acquisitions and timely divestures. Prior to this, he was a member of DSM Nutritional Products Human Nutrition’s global business management team holding responsibility of its North American operations.

    Mariwala commented, "I’m delighted to announce Jim’s appointment and believe that he’s the right leader for OmniActive for our next phase of growth. He has a proven track record of successfully driving businesses forward and positioning them for success." 

    "I’m excited to join OmniActive, a company with an impressive history and an exceptionally bright future. I’ve known OmniActive for many years and have great respect for what it has accomplished, it’s fantastic products, deep relationships with its customers and its great team. It is uniquely positioned for success in an industry that provides great health and wellbeing benefits and whose role has never been more important than now," shared Hamilton.

  • Vikram Singh Gulia joins Amalgamated Plantations as MD and CEO

    Vikram Singh Gulia joins Amalgamated Plantations as MD and CEO

    MUMBAI: Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd (APPL), one of the leading Tea selling companies in Eastern India, welcomed Vikram Singh Gulia as MD and CEO to the board of its company. 

    With more than 33 years of experience in the Indian tea industry, Gulia has served for 32 years at Camellia Plc, UK-owned Goodricke Group Ltd. After a brief stint as the chief operating officer at Assam Company India Ltd, Gulia joined APPL as CEO-designate in September 2019, for a planned eventual assumption of the MD and CEO role from June 2020. 

    As a successful business leader and trailblazer,  Gulia has led several market-leading tea brands to their milestone moments, with his deep understanding of consumer behavior and preferences, as well as his vast experience in marketing and strategy. Following the retirement of Jagjeet Singh Kandal, former MD of Amalgamated Plantations, Gulia will look after the management of day-to-day business of the company and contribute his excellence and decade-long expertise in leading and developing APPL’s future growth.

    Gulia said, “Amalgamated Plantations  has to sustain and further build the stature it occupied in the industry, in its former avatars of James Finlay, Tata Finlay and then Tata Tea. The renewed focus on quality in terms of our produce, human resource, compliance, sustainability, environment and welfare will be the foundation for Amalgamated Plantations in its pursuit for excellence” 

  • PepsiCo appoints Wern-Yuen Tan as APAC CEO

    PepsiCo appoints Wern-Yuen Tan as APAC CEO

    MUMBAI: PepsiCo has appointed Wern-Yuen Tan as the CEO for the APAC region, it shared in a press statement. Tan will begin his new role on 15 June 2020 and will be based in Singapore. He will report directly to PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta. He will be replacing Ram Krishnan who will now transition fully to his previously announced role as global chief commercial officer of PepsiCo. 

    Prior to PepsiCo, Tan served as President and CEO of Walmart China where he led a team of 100,000 associates responsible for over $10 billion in annual revenue across the Walmart, Sam's Club and eCommerce businesses. During his tenure, he led Walmart China through a time of transformation to become an industry pioneer in omnichannel innovation and retail digitization. Prior to joining Walmart in 2017, Tan served as managing director for McDonald's Taiwan, where he gained valuable experience in the foodservice sector. Earlier in his career, he was a principal at Boston Consulting Group, where he advised retail and consumer clients on growth strategy, innovation and turnarounds. Tan began his career in the Singapore government. 

    PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said, “All of us at PepsiCo are delighted to welcome Wern-Yuen as our new CEO of APAC at this time of unprecedented change and opportunity. Wern-Yuen has driven transformative innovation and results at every step of his career and brings deep experience with consumers in this diverse region through positions in retail, foodservice and consulting. His leadership will be instrumental as we look to accelerate growth by leveraging our scale and creating more localised solutions in these important markets."

    He added, "I also want to recognise and express my deep gratitude to Ram and the APAC leadership team for their phenomenal work managing our business through a historically difficult period while delivering strong results and making PepsiCo Faster, Stronger and Better. Ram will now return fulltime to his role as the global chief commercial officer, a crucial position for PepsiCo's winning with a purpose strategy. His continued leadership will be a tremendous asset as we execute on our global consumer and customer sales agenda, whilst developing and scaling new capabilities and business models based on data and technology to deliver future growth."

    "I am thrilled to join PepsiCo, a truly global company whose products are recognised across the world," said Tan. "With deep roots across this region and an unparalleled offering, PepsiCo is uniquely positioned to expand its market share and existing omnichannel capabilities across APAC. I look forward to working with Ramon and the entire leadership team to drive growth and localised solutions in this dynamic part of the world."

  • NxGn Sports Interactive appoints Sunil Chhetri as brand ambassador for Twelfth Man

    NxGn Sports Interactive appoints Sunil Chhetri as brand ambassador for Twelfth Man

    MUMBAI: Sunil Chhetri has been announced as the official brand ambassador of Twelfth Man – a fantasy football platform by NcGn Sports that allows users to compete in a large variety of contests against other users for free or by paying entry fees to join a prize pool. Contest types include DFS, league and trivia, with more contests and features to be added soon.

    NxGn Sports Interactive Pvt Ltd founder and CEO Kush Desai said, “When you think 'Indian football', you think of Sunil Chhetri. I was clear from the very beginning that, if we want to grow Twelfth Man as an overall football community, he has to be the face of the app. It has been a wonderful experience working with India’s best football icon on this venture. I’m looking forward to an exciting journey ahead as we enable Indian football fans to truly live the game through fantasy football!”

    Twelfth Man is a response to the rapidly growing Indian football community. It gives the fans an opportunity to actively engage with the game. They can create a team of their favourite players and make transfers, sign fresh talent, and compete in national as well as international leagues.

    And who better than Indian football legend Sunil Chhetri as the face of the brand.

    Popularly known as Captain Fantastic, Chhetri primarily plays as a striker and captains both the Indian Super League side Bengaluru FC and the Indian national team. He has scored the second-highest number of goals in international matches among active male players, after Cristiano Ronaldo. He is both the most-capped player and all-time top goal scorer for the Indian national team, with 72 goals in 115 appearances.

    Sharing his experience with Twelfth Man, Chhetri said, “I’m very happy to be a part of the Twelfth Man team. They are doing a commendable job at presenting this platform to the football lovers of the country, and I think our common love for the game is going to result in some impressive developments for the football community.”

    Twelfth Man has appointed White Rivers Media as its digital creative agency. 

    White Rivers Media co-founder and CEO Shrenik Gandhi said, “Fantasy gaming as an industry has seen hockey stick growth in the last few quarters. Having said that, fantasy football as a category is in its sunrise stage of growth. So we look forward to this journey with Twelfth Man to make Indian football shine through this platform, and who better than Sunil Chettri to #LiveTheGame!”

    With the scope and scale of this mandate, the agency will be responsible for crafting the digital experience of the brand using impactful video and social content, programmatic media buying and innovative associations.

    The Twelfth Man app was developed by Inheritx Solutions in a minimal turnaround time while maintaining high standards of quality.

  • Raj Gupta retires after serving Lowe Lintas for 28 years

    Raj Gupta retires after serving Lowe Lintas for 28 years

    MUMBAI: Ending his 28-year-long stint with Lowe Lintas, CEO Raj Gupta has announced his retirement. His replacement is yet to be announced by the network. 

    Gupta was elevated to the post of CEO in April 2017. Prior to that, he had held leadership positions across departments, including media, digital, strategic planning, channel planning, business development and account management. 

    About his decision to move on from the agency after a glorious stint, Raj Gupta said, “I retired in January 2020. It was an honour to have started my career at Lintas and now to have retired from there, too. It was a privilege to have served as CEO of this great institution. There is a reason for having spent so many years at Lintas; someone is always coming through here with a new adventure, a new discovery, a new idea, it made me fall in love with communications over and over again.”

    He added, “Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them. I met and worked with many inspiring colleagues who then turned either into mentors or friends. Love you all, love you Lintas so much and I am so proud to have been part of you. Cheers!”

    MullenLowe Lintas Group CCO and chairman Amer Jaleel said, “Raj Gupta ended a long and illustrious career where he played multiple roles and of course ended up being CEO of Lowe Lintas. While a lot is known about Raj and his fantastic contributions to the agency and the industry, there's something he did that is not known at all, and this actually speaks for what Lintas meant to Raj and how forward-facing Raj has been as a professional. Over the last one year of his association with us, Raj actually proposed,  designed, and activated what is possibly the most integrated and comprehensive digital education programme that the industry has seen. As a direct result of Raj's hand in this and because of the role he played in bringing the Lintas Trust's contribution to educating and upgrading the entire Lintas talent force, we are today stronger and a more contemporary strategy and communications company and not just an agency. Hats off to you Raj, Thank You!”

    Follow Tellychakkar for the consumer facing news & entertainment

  • Deepika Deepti joins Bhaane as CEO

    Deepika Deepti joins Bhaane as CEO

    MUMBAI: Community-first brand Bhaane has appointed Deepika Deepti as CEO. With an online shop, three brick-and-mortar stores annexed with cafes; and a cohesive integration with cult sneaker brand VegNonVeg, Deepika’s role will involve managing and strategic expansion of the brand both domestically and internationally while monitoring the bottom-line impact.

    She has a strong understanding of product and consumer dynamics, grasp of marketing levers, an ability to identify and engage emerging talent along with a progressive outlook on what it means to be a global Indian in 2020.

    A former director – brands activations – emerging markets, Adidas, Deepika has an illustrious 11-year-long career. Through clever creative partnerships, skilfully curated influencer marketing and experimental retail formats, Deepika created milestone moments in the brand’s India trajectory. Her international partnership highlights include an experiential campaign with tennis icon Stan Smith and music icon Pharrell Williams; later conducting an exclusive tour during Holi to launch an exclusive design.

    “Deepika has the ability to sync the creative, culture and corporate worlds. We welcome her to the role and together aim to mark a new chapter in strengthening and fuelling the growth of our culture first brand through creative intersection of design, e-commerce, social responsibility and team efficiencies,” said Bhaane founder Anand S Ahuja.

    “I’m excited and committed to drive the power of self-expression, culture, and community that Bhaane stands for. I hope to strengthen the brand’s relatable voice, improve execution while embracing inclusivity across the organization and the people of modern India to whom Bhaane belongs to and thrives with,” said Deepika

    Bhaane’s future is that of growth and deepening – one that is sustainable, sensitive and multi-faceted. Deepika’s immediate goals include sharpening the retail footprint with an enhanced product offering and consumer experiences. This season will see a focus on building retail experiences, starting with a new exclusive store in Bengaluru and an international collaboration with Wolf and Badger, UK. The brand will continue to grow as a dynamic space by hosting like-minded brands, including vegan accessory brand Mat&Nat, fine perfumes by DS&Durga and an ecological French sneaker brand Veja.  Under her leadership, the group will host more independent brands in time.

    She is based in New Delhi.

  • Jim Hamilton appointed as new OmniActive CEO

    Jim Hamilton appointed as new OmniActive CEO

    MUMBAI: OmniActive Health Technologies MD Sanjaya Mariwala announced the appointment of Jim Hamilton as global CEO, as named by the board of directors. The appointment becomes effective on 1 June and Hamilton will be based in the US.

    For the past 15 years, OmniActive, with its mission of improving lives through enhancing nutrition, has grown under the leadership of its founder, Sanjaya Mariwala, who becomes executive chairman.

    Hamilton has spent over 35 years in the nutrition products industry, serving in a wide range of executive positions. Most recently, he served as president and CEO of Neptune Wellness Solutions (NASDAQ—TSX: NEPT), where, during his five-year tenure, he planned and delivered a significant turnaround of the business through acquisitions and timely divestitures. Prior to this, he was a member of DSM Nutritional Products Human Nutrition’s global business management team holding responsibility for its North American operations.

    "I’m delighted to announce Jim’s appointment and believe that he’s the right leader for OmniActive for our next phase of growth. He has a proven track record of successfully driving businesses forward and positioning them for success," said Mariwala. 

    Hamilton commented, "I’m excited to join OmniActive, a company with an impressive history and an exceptionally bright future. I’ve known OmniActive for many years and have great respect for what it has accomplished, it’s fantastic products, deep relationships with its customers and its great team. It is uniquely positioned for success in an industry that provides great health and wellbeing benefits and whose role has never been more important than now."

    Follow Tellychakkar for the consumer facing news & entertainment

  • Criteo appoints Taranjeet Singh as MD for Southeast Asia, India

    Criteo appoints Taranjeet Singh as MD for Southeast Asia, India

    MUMBAI: Criteo, the global technology company powering the world’s marketers with trusted and impactful advertising, has appointed Taranjeet Singh, as managing director, Southeast Asia (SEA) and India, to lead this critical market for the company. Singh will steer Criteo’s business strategy for the region, driving continued growth and building on the company’s current portfolio of customers which include Love, Bonito, Shopback, K&K Fashion, Tugo.vn, Tata CLIQ, and NYKAA.

    Starting in New Delhi, Singh will oversee Criteo’s operations in SEA and India. He will work closely with the company’s regional leadership to strengthen Criteo’s current advertiser and partner relationships and spearhead new business development.

    “Taranjeet brings a rich experience of more than 17 years of leadership experience within the media and technology industry in Asia Pacific,” said Kenneth Pao, executive managing director for Asia Pacific, Criteo. “This pandemic has transformed many businesses. It has caused brands big and small to quickly pivot their marketing strategies to adapt to this new normal and social distancing economy. We are fortunate to be able to add Taranjeet to our leadership bench as we help our customers and partners provide as much value to their customers as possible during this time. We are also excited to have him on board to help propel the company’s vision to power marketers globally with trusted and impactful advertising.”

    “Online commerce is now the lifeblood for consumers. Online retail sales in SEA are experiencing a higher uplift in 2020 compared to last year, with peak sales growth of 141 per cent seen the week of 23 March. According to a consumer survey conducted by Criteo, the India report shows that half of consumers say they’ll purchase more online because of COVID-19 especially the millennials.  The need for the internet is more pronounced than ever during this period. As brands adapt their marketing strategies to meet the current online demand, they need to continue to be customer-centric and focus on providing solutions for consumer concerns and pain points,” added Singh. “I look forward to working with some of the best talents in the industry to leverage Criteo’s scale and expertise to help our customers and partners be trusted brands to their consumers.”

    Singh joins Criteo after nearly two years at ZEE5 India, an online video-on-demand platform. He was Chief Revenue Officer and Business Head, where he helped establish the revenue and business operations in the company. Prior to ZEE5, Singh’s leadership roles included serving as India Country Director for Twitter and Sales Director for BBC News, where he was responsible for commercial operations.

    Criteo ended the first quarter 2020 with over 20,000 commerce and brand customers, adding close to 1,000 new clients (net) compared to Q1 2019, while maintaining close to 90 per cent client retention rate. Criteo’s header-bidding technology now connects to over 4,600 publishers across the Web and App and reaches about 40 per cent of all its publishers via Criteo Direct Bidder.

    Follow Tellychakkar for the consumer facing news & entertainment

  • Monk Media Network elevates Tanya Mathana as COO

    Monk Media Network elevates Tanya Mathana as COO

    MUMBAI: Content 360 agency Monk Media Network has announced the elevation of Tanya Mathana as the COO of the agency.

    Mathana, who was earlier AVP brand strategy, joined the agency in 2017 and since then has played an integral role in the growth of the company.

    In her new role, effective immediately, Tanya will head the agency operations and ensure that all teams are aligned to the singular vision of the agency. In her capacity as the new COO, her key responsibilities will also include overseeing New Venture Strategy and Company Administration.

    Monk Media Network founder and CEO Ashish Patkar said, “We have always believed in elevating home grown talent. Tanya has been a key factor in our success over the past few years. Under her our client strategy offering was immensely strengthened. I look forward to partnering with her and all of our key stakeholders in ensuring a far more cohesive service offering for our clients. This elevation is key to our growth plan which will be announced in the next few weeks.”

    Tanya Mathana commented, “It gives me immense pleasure to embark on this new journey at Monk Media Network. Together, with Ashish and the entire team, I am sure we will continue delivering long term strategies creating value propositions.”

    Mathana is an experienced digital strategist having over 11 years of experience and a demonstrated history of working in the advertising industry. Skilled in brand planning & communication, digital strategy, market research, quantitative and qualitative research, digital marketing, and data and insight mining she has worked with DDB Mudra, Contract Advertising, Mirum and Everest Brand Solutions prior to joining Monk Media Network.