ITV

Category: People

  • Leo Burnett appoints Rakesh Hinduja as EVP

    Leo Burnett appoints Rakesh Hinduja as EVP

    MUMBAI: Leo Burnett India has appointed Rakesh Hinduja as executive vice president.

    He will be based at the agency’s Mumbai head office and in his new role he will have overall responsibility for one of the biggest units in the Mumbai office.

    Speaking on the appointment, Leo Burnett India CEO Suarabh Varma said, “Rakesh is a result-oriented leader. Our endeavour is to create sustainable growth for our clients and Rakesh’s appointment is aligned with that objective. His experience spans from local to regional clients, from conventional communication to integrated solutions and from brands to business management, thereby making him a vital addition to Leo Burnett and to our clients.”

    Hinduja’s experience spans over 14 passionate years in the business of telling stories that cuts across categories like consumer products, retail, financial services, consumer durables, IT and service sector, which has given him the multi-dimensional knowledge and perspective required to grow brands and businesses.

     Hinduja said, “I’m truly excited to join Leo Burnett and be back to play on home pitch, India. Leo Burnett’s vision and integrated approach to business solutions absolutely resonates with the kind of agency and passion I want to be part of. Current evolution in India presents enormous opportunity across mediums and audiences, which I would like to leverage using my experience of working across categories and channels. I look forward to working with the talented team at Leo Burnett and its prestigious portfolio of brands to do some great work for our clients.”

    He joins Leo Burnett from Publicis Singapore, where in his role as regional business director – ASIA, he partnered clients like P&G, L’Oreal and Citibank to name a few. He was instrumental in strengthening their regional footprint in markets like Australia, India, ASEAN, Japan and Korea. Prior to this, he has worked at Publicis Ambience, McCann Worldgroup, Ezeego1.com (digital interface for Cox & Kings) amongst others and partnered various clients – Marico, P&G, JK Helen Curtis, Unilever, Western Union, Balsara, UPS, Paypal, Tata, Emami, Godrej , Videocon and more.

     

  • Dhunji Wadia is Rediffusion Y&R president

    Dhunji Wadia is Rediffusion Y&R president

    MUMBAI: Rediffusion Y&R has announced the appointment of Dhunji Wadia as president of the agency, effective immediately. This is in addition to his role at Everest Brand Solutions.

    Wadia had joined Rediffusion Y&R Group in 2010.  On his new role, he said, “The group has given me the opportunity to use my experience and skills towards making a positive difference to our clients. I am looking forward to writing an exciting new chapter in the history of Rediffusion Y&R.”

    Rediffusion Y&R chairman Diwan Arun Nanda said, “Dhunji has strong business acumen, great entrepreneurial instincts and affinity for our clients’ businesses. What makes it all work is his ability to motivate and inspire people on all sides of the business. He’s an ideas guy who gets that great creative work and strategic insights are inextricably connected.”

    Wadia holds an MBA from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and has over 25 years of industry experience. Brands he has worked closely on during the course of his career include Parle, Tata, Unilever, Nike, Levi Strauss, Diamond Trading Co, Kellogg, Aditya Birla Group, Sony Entertainment Television (MAX and SAB), and Kotak, among several others.

     

  • Rajiv Mishra to hold charge of CSR in addition to media in Samsung

    Rajiv Mishra to hold charge of CSR in addition to media in Samsung

    NEW DELHI: Senior journalist Rajiv Mishra, who had joined Samsung Electronics in August as vice president (media) of its south west Asia office in Gurgaon has been given the additional charge of heading the CSR division in India.
     
    Samsung said it lay strong emphasis on corporate social responsibility, which involves extending the company’s legacy of innovation to create value for society by addressing societal needs and challenges. Through the CSR initiatives Samsung hopes to open newer possibilities that positively transform people’s lives.
     
    Speaking about the development, Samsung south west Asia senior vice president H W Bang said: “At present, our CSR programmes focus in the areas of education, culture, sports, social welfare and community development. I am confident that under Rajiv’s leadership, Samsung’s CSR initiatives will cross new milestones.”
     
    Samsung has, over the years, leveraged its legacy of technology innovation through philanthropic initiatives focused on helping communities lead healthier, smarter and more sustainable lives. In addition to skill development among youth, Samsung also places substantial focus on providing underprivileged children a chance at quality education and in helping bridge the digital gap that exists in India.

     
    This is done through Samsung Smart Schools, set up in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas across the length and breadth of the country. The Smart Classes are equipped with an interactive Samsung whiteboard, Samsung laptops for the students, a printer, wi-fi and a power backup since power outages are common. Over 198 Smart Schools have been set up to date in India, benefitting 75,000 secondary class students. Samsung continues to expand the programme based on positive feedback received from the schools on the impact on students learning and attendance.

     
    Before joining Samsung, Mishra had been chief executive officer of Lok Sabha TV for about three years.

     
    Mishra had begun his 21 year long career in media at Hindustan Times before switching over to the electronic media.

     
    He began as manager –programming in Star, then joined as senior manager – corporate in Zee TV, Reliance Infocomm as general manager – corporate affairs, News 24 (BAG Films and Media), as COO and director, India News as COO. He launched Times Now of the Times of India group in USA as India Now while working for CineMaya Media of USA.

     
    Mishra was with Lok Sabha TV as CEO in an official rank and status of additional secretary.

     
    Mishra is also the founder and first president of Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI). AROI is the industry representative body of all FM radio broadcasters/stations of India. He also founded Association of Regional Television Broadcasters of India

  • Soho Square Mumbai names new senior CD

    Soho Square Mumbai names new senior CD

    MUMBAI: Soho Square Mumbai has appointed Pramod Sharma as its senior creative director.  

     

    The agency’s executive CDs and creative heads Anuraag Khandelwal and Satish deSa said, “In Pramod we found the ideal mix of maturity and crazy ideas. He is very ambitious, and yet very down-to-earth. We believe we have found one more member of our tribe.”

     

    Moving from Everest Brand Solutions, Pramod enters Soho Square with over 14 years of experience at Ogilvy, Dentsu, Percept-Hakuhodo  and DDB Mudra.

     

    During this time, he has  delivered successfully on brands such as Parle Products, Sony Sab TV, Sony Pal, Pantaloons, Maxx Mobiles, Fedex, Reliance Communications, Readers Digest, Cisco, and Raymond Apparels. 

     

    Sharma said, “Soho is packed with young blood and some of the best creative brains. Some outstanding work is taking shape here, with the promise of some exciting times ahead. Satish and Anuraag wanted me to be a part of this journey. I happily agreed to partner them.”

     

  • FCB Ulka appoints Tushar Pal as creative director

    FCB Ulka appoints Tushar Pal as creative director

    MUMBAI: Tushar Pal has joined FCB Ulka as creative director. Pal, started his career at Euro RSCG (now Havas), has over 12 years of experience in mainline advertising.

     

    He has had successful stints at Mudra, Leo Burnett, Rediffusion Y&R and Ogilvy. Over the years, he has worked on iconic brands like Onida, Godrej, Future Group, HDFC Bank, Sony Entertainment Network, Sony Max, Zandu, Times Group, Air India, McDonald’s, LG and Vodafone to name a few.

     

    Commenting on his appointment, Pal said, “I’m very excited to work on FCB Ulka’s vast portfolio of clients. I look forward to some great opportunities and help raise the creative bar on our key clients.”

     

    FCB Ulka executive creative director Haresh (Harry) Moorjani said, “We are happy to have Tushar on board. He brings with him diverse experience on a varied set of brands. We look forward to him adding value to an important set of accounts he is aligned to.”

  • Sumeer Mathur joins DDB Mudra North

    Sumeer Mathur joins DDB Mudra North

    MUMBAI: DDB Mudra Group has announced the appointment of Sumeer Mathur as DDB Mudra North strategic planning senior VP and head.

     

    Based out of DDB Mudra North’s Gurgaon office, Mathur will work closely with national strategic planning head Aditya Kanthy, to lead planning and brand management for the agency.

     

    Before joining DDB Mudra North, Sumeer was associated with JWT (Delhi). During his tenure at JWT, he led award winning campaigns for Airtel Money and Microsoft. Apart from JWT, he has also worked with Rediffusion Y&R, Lowe Mumbai, Contract and SSC&B Lintas.

     

    On joining DDB Mudra North, Mathur said, “I am quite excited by the opportunity DDB Mudra North offers. While many agencies talk about the change in communication landscape, DDB Mudra Group seems to be the only one that has multiple disciplines working together to build brands under one roof. Too often the area of influence of the planner remains constricted to cracking an insight that turns into a TV campaign. I was also drawn to the culture of the agency which came through during my interactions with Madhukar, Aditya and Vandana.”

     

    Mathur brings to the agency an experience of over 15 years in communications across brands while being based in Mumbai and Delhi. He has worked with leading brands, across categories ranging from automobiles (Hyundai & Tata motors) FMCG (GSK, Unilever, Colgate Palmolive and Unicharm), household appliances and home electronics (LG and Microsoft), social health (USAID), airlines (Kingfisher airlines, Spice Jet) and hospitality (Taj Hotels & Resorts). He has also undertaken regional and global responsibilities for Unilever Brands (Fair & lovely, Lifebuoy shampoo, Clinic all Clear) for the South East Asian markets.

     

    Kanthy said, “We’re thrilled to have Sumeer on board. He’s an incredible talent. Vandana, Sambit and Sumeer make a formidable team in Delhi. He’s excited about working with all the DDB Mudra Group agencies under one roof and leading our bright young team to create influence and apply creative thinking for business growth. We’ve got a lot to do to be the best agency in the city and he’s up for it.”

     

    Added DDB Mudra North president Vandana Das, “I’m so excited to have Sameer as part of the DDB Mudra group in Delhi. Sumeer is a dynamic leader & brings with him experience & maturity that is required to strengthen existing brands while ensuring that we are on a growth drive. I believe that he is a great asset & we can use his skills and talents in making our agency reach new heights.”

     

  • Seagate appoints MD, sales & marketing for Asia

    Seagate appoints MD, sales & marketing for Asia

    MUMBAI: Seagate has appointed Rex Dong as its managing director of the sales and marketing organisation for Asia, excluding China and Japan. Dong will assume responsibility for sales, marketing and business development for Asia, in addition to his existing responsibilities as the country manager of Taiwan, Seagate Technology.

     

    “We are pleased to announce Rex’s new appointment,” said Seagate Technology senior vice president of global sales BanSeng Teh. “His excellent leadership skills will enable him to organise and manage diverse teams across multiple countries to build a more successful business for Seagate in Asia. Moreover, Rex has exceptional experience in working with the OEM customers and business partners. Rex also has acute business acumen and the ability to identify new business opportunities. We are confident that with Rex at the helm, he will take Seagate’s business in Asia to a higher level.”

     

    Dong was the former OEM manager for Seagate in Taiwan from 1992 to 2000, and he joined Seagate as the country manager of Taiwan, responsible for sales, marketing and the overall leadership of the Taiwan office in 2008.

     

    Prior to this, Dong was the general manager of Portwell, president and senior vice president of Ennoconn Corporation, an embedded solutions provider owned by Foxconn Technology. In addition to that, he held various management, sales and marketing positions at Mitac and Wiso Electronic in Taiwan.

     

    Dong majored in Electronic Engineering at the Tamkang University, Taiwan and graduated from the eMBA of National Chengchi University, Taiwan.

  • Genesis Burson-Marsteller announces senior appointment

    Genesis Burson-Marsteller announces senior appointment

    MUMBAI: Genesis Burson-Marsteller announces the appointment of Vijay Sankaran as Director, Digital Strategy, heading GBM Digital Studio, a Centre of Expertise that provides specialised services and counsel to meet the needs of our clients.

     

     “Vijay’s appointment reflects Burson-Marsteller’s commitment to strengthen focus on building digital strategies that meet the needs of our clients. Vijay is a key addition to our leadership team and he will provide critical support in articulating digital concepts and solutions in a clear and compelling way to our clients.” says Nikhil Dey, President, Genesis Burson-Marsteller, India & South Asia.

     

     Yu Yu Din, currently Head of Digital, is relocating to her home country, Myanmar. She will be moving on from the consultancy by the end of 2014. Vijay will spearhead GBM Digital Studio and drive the opportunity space for Genesis Burson-Marsteller and its clients’ digital presence; creating innovative ideas that bridge digital and public relations as well as digital and marketing, to provide solutions and services that are driven by consumer insights. GBM Digital Studio comprises of a strong team of digital strategists, creative specialists working on digital and social media mandates for clients across corporate and financial, brand and consumer, telecom and technology, and health and wellness practices.

     

     Commenting on his new role, Vijay says, “Digital is a force multiplier for our business of integrated communications. Genesis Burson-Marsteller has successfully embedded digital strategists in each practice to drive campaigns for our clients. My focus is to take our solutions to the next level with strategic and creative programmes that go beyond siloed social platforms. I am very excited about our unique GBM Live! Newsroom – a cross-functional team led service that delivers real-time media and social insights to help create more agile content and act as a crisis management command centre. Digital will also be supported by GBM Content and Design Bureau, another Centre of Expertise at GBM, for multimedia content, with a team of in-house specialists that include graphic designers, former TV producers, editors and videographers.”

     

     A seasoned communications professional, Vijay brings with him a wealth of 25 years’ experience, spanning advertising, digital marketing, public relations and social media. Before joining Genesis Burson-Marsteller, Vijay worked with Social Wavelength, a social media agency as Director, Digital Strategy and Planning. He has also worked with Edelman PR as Head Digital and Nokia Siemens Network as Head Social Media, a global role. At Urja Communications, he started as an advertising Creative Director, reinvented himself as an Interactive Creative Director and digital evangelist during the dotcom era, helping drive the agency’s transformation into a full-service digital agency. He later moved into a pure digital strategy role.

  • Ipsos appoints Deepak Singh as marketing business head

    Ipsos appoints Deepak Singh as marketing business head

    MUMBAI: Ipsos has appointed Deepak Singh as executive director and head of Ipsos Marketing business in India. He will be based out of Ipsos Bengaluru office and will report to Ipsos Research MD Amit Adarkar.

     

    “Ipsos InnoQuest, Ipsos MarketQuest and Ipsos UU WSBL’s under Ipsos Marketing umbrella comprise a significant part of our business. In order to drive Client satisfaction and aggressive business development amongst our Marketing WSBL Clients, we have created a new leadership role in India which Deepak will head,” said Adarkar.  

     

    Singh will be responsible for P&L of Ipsos Marketing business in India except Ipsos Healthcare. Ipsos InnoQuest head and executive director Vidya Sen, Ipsos MarketQuest head and executive director Shubhranshu Das and Ipsos UU head and executive director Rinku Patnaik will report to him.     

     

    “I am delighted to join Ipsos Marketing business, which helps clients to transform insights into a distinctive competitive advantage. Our specialists offer simple, intuitive solutions built on powerful philosophies and always linked to business outcomes,” said Singh.

     

    He added, “Integration of Ipsos Marketing business in India will help us better coordinate and our aim will be to provide our clients end-to-end marketing research solutions in order to help them uncover people insights and motivations on their markets, innovate and position their brands, and maximise sales to get the best return on investments.”

     

    Prior to joining Ipsos India, Singh was officer at Kantar Japan responsible for non-Japanese global accounts based at Tokyo. Immediately before that he was working as TNS India as managing director – south, looking after south India and Sri Lanka business based out of Bangalore.

     

    Singh is not new to Ipsos as he has previously worked with Ipsos India as executive director and country manager based at Mumbai after an internal relocation from Ipsos Singapore in 2007.

     

  • Amarinder S Dhaliwal joins YU as chief operating officer

    Amarinder S Dhaliwal joins YU as chief operating officer

    MUMBAI: Micromax Informatics has appointed former co-founder and CEO of Done By None, Amarinder S Dhaliwal, as the chief operating officer (COO) for its new internet brand, YU.

    With over 20 years of experience in managing and incubating businesses, Dhaliwal has earlier led leading brands including Indiatimes Shopping and Zigwheels.com.

    Dhaliwal’s appointment is a testimony to the vision for YU, which is to bring in the best minds from the internet industry and build a world-class team. He will work closely with co-founder Micromax Rahul Sharma to build an innovative digital brand that engages directly with the user community.

    Sharma said, “These are exciting times for us. With YU, our aim is to reach out to a very unique set of audiences; tech-enthusiasts, digital natives and the developer ecosystem. Amarinder brings a unique combination of expertise with his entrepreneurial and leadership roles in internet & ecommerce space. He will be leading marketing initiatives for building the brand with a community of highly engaged users, driving revenue from product & services and setting-up world class internet operations. His rich experience will give an edge to our business and help us achieve this aim.”  

    “I am very excited with the opportunity to build YU as the first truly global internet and technology brand originating from India. My strong beliefs resonate with the company’s vision to be user centric and build world class products. We are building a brand where the user has the power to co-create and make things happen their way. We will build a strong ecosystem of connected devices thereby creating a revolutionary, new age internet brand,” said Dhaliwal.