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Tag: Chief Operating Officer

  • Wondrlab onboards Sanju Menon as chief operating officer

    Wondrlab onboards Sanju Menon as chief operating officer

    Mumbai: Platform-first start-up Wondrlab has appointed Sanju Menon as chief operating officer to lead the Wondrlab content team. Menon will report to co-founder and managing partner Rakesh Hinduja.

    In his 16-year stint in advertising, Menon has spearheaded some noteworthy marketing and communication integrated initiatives. Keeping data and human behaviour at the center of his thinking, he has built consumer experience journeys that have helped yield compelling results for the brands that he has partnered with and led, said the agency in a statement.

    “We are committed to being a platform first company. And that means first being a master of the human journey and then using the right platform, the right context to craft the right solution,” said Hinduja. “Sanju is a master of that art. Our commitment on the best tools and data will be effectively deployed to create incredible value for our clients. And Sanju will drive the team to create wondrlful.”

    Menon was instrumental in leading the ideation and solutioning of Bajaj V – The Nation’s Bike advertising campaign, and his efforts landed India’s first Cannes Lion for Effectiveness for an Indian brand. The campaign also won multiple golds and the Grand Prix at the India Effies, as well as other celebrated global awards.

    He also drove the launch of the prestigious Jeep brand in India. As integration lead on the business, he steered Jeep’s award-winning activation – Jeep Democracy – during the 2019 Indian elections, the agency stated. He has led several notable campaigns like #wetweet movement for Twitter, relaunch of Medimix, launch of Husqvarna motorbikes as well the Isuzu MUX and recrafted the brand propositions for Bajaj Allianz Life and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. He has worked extensively on brands like Citi, Skoda, Ferrero, Zee, Zee5 and Enamor.

    “It feels fantastic to join forces with Wondrlab on an expedition that will allow me to push forth with my ideas and abilities,” Menon said. “The ambition here is to create notable work and build rewarding narratives for the businesses we partner. With all the investments directed towards this singular purpose, I am excited to take on the responsibility and spark some magic together.”

  • FNP Media appoints Girish Johar as COO

    FNP Media appoints Girish Johar as COO

    Mumbai: Ferns N Petals-housed content production company FNP Media on Friday announced the appointment of Girish Johar as chief operating officer (COO). Johar is a film trade & business analyst, film maven & promising producer.

    In a bid to expand its footprint in the media & entertainment industry, FNP Media said it plans to create content in all formats like short films, ad films, web series, and film originals for OTT & theatricals.

    “Johar will be directly responsible for overseeing the operations, content creation, marketing & business exploitation of all avenues for the company,” it added.

    With an overall experience of over two decades in the film industry, Johar brings with him a deeper understanding of cinema, right from its creation to its appreciation amongst the audiences, across all formats. In his new role, Girish will be responsible for fueling the growth of FNP Media.

    In his previous assignments, Johar has worked with media companies like PVR, Sony, UTV Disney, Balaji, Zee Entertainment to name a few. His professional, multi-tasking & focused approach has won him many laurels & special recognitions.

    Welcoming Johar on board, Ferns N Petals & FNP Media, MD & Founder, Vikaas Gutgutia said, “His rich experience and expertise in cinema will be a great asset to the FNP group and will help in scaling business and growth of FNP Media. We are looking at building a plethora of content library in the next three-four years with an overall investment of Rs 100 crore plus. Ferns N Petals through FNP Media is determined to identify people who demonstrate amazing talent and help them foray that into a long-term career.”

    Commenting on his appointment, Johar said, “I am elated to be a part of Ferns N Petals family. It is a reputed and momentous group to grow with and I am looking forward to taking hold of my role and build a long-term association with FNP Media. Making this an established media entity not only within the fraternity but amongst our ever-growing audiences, across platforms and differentiated formats.”

    FNP Media, general manager, Ahmad Faraz said, “It is indeed a pleasure welcoming Girish Johar to our growing team, I am looking forward to working with him and establish FNP Media as one of the top players of content in the next few years. With his experience and knowledge of the industry, I am sure we will be able to produce good quality content.”

    FNP Media has two verticals, Live By FNP Media and Films By FNP Media. The content in the form of short films, web series, storytelling is hosted on YouTube channels of the respective verticals that showcase performing arts, films & shows, etc. 

  • Nikhil Gandhi joins MX Media as Chief Operating Officer

    Nikhil Gandhi joins MX Media as Chief Operating Officer

    Mumbai: Media veteran Nikhil Gandhi has joined MX Media as chief operating officer.

    An industry leader with over two decades of experience, Gandhi will be based out of Mumbai and Singapore for this role at MX.

    He will be responsible for taking the platforms to its next phase of growth by expanding its geographical reach, enhancing data driven innovation, growing the scope and scale of revenue streams, and building maximum impact for all stakeholders – be it consumers, advertisers, or internal teams across verticals, said the company in a media statement.

    MX Media CEO Karan Bedi said, “Nikhil brings decades of experience in both traditional and emerging media platforms, and will be a huge asset in taking MX to the next level of rocket fuelled growth. We look forward to working closely with him.”

    Gandhi joins the company from ByteDance-owned short form video app TikTok where he was leading its growth in the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, India, and South Asia. Before TikTok, he was the president and COO of Times Television Network. His earlier stints include working in media conglomerates like The Walt Disney Company, UTV Global Broadcasting, and Viacom Media Networks.

    Speaking about this new role, Gandhi said, “MX Player is by far the leader in the video entertainment space. I’m super excited to join the MX team and look forward to the next phase of our growth.”

  • Humour Me names Joy Mohanty its chief operating officer

    Humour Me names Joy Mohanty its chief operating officer

    Mumbai: Entertainment creative agency Humour Me has announced the appointment of Joy Mohanty as its chief operating officer. He will be leading the overall creative function of the agency ahead of the firm’s expansion plans.

    He will be based in New Delhi and spearhead the expansion of the new media creative shop, the agency said in a statement.

    In a career spanning three decades in advertising, Mohanty has worked with agencies like Publicis Capital, Lowe Lintas, FCB Ulka, Bates Clarion, Leo Burnett, and Contract. He has won numerous local and international awards, including the One Show, D&AD, New York Festivals, and Goafest.

    “With Joy coming on board, we want to send a signal to all our brand partners and the marketing/ advertising ecosystem that we’re here to offer up our brand of creative audacity to the world now,” said Humour Me founder Dhruv Sachdeva. “Our plan is to build and invest in one of the most differentiated creative teams, unlike what one might find in a traditional agency set-up.”

    “We are also excited about cementing a new teaching model within Humour Me, wherein we aim to give our creative talent the edge they need by up-skilling them to serve the attention needs of today. The Donald Draper days of advertising are dead, the new creative person needs to be a Twitter ninja, an Instagram poet, plus an independent creator themselves. Humour Me is more a collective of creators wanting to serve the attention economy of today, than an agency,” Sachdeva said.

    “Humour Me is a company created for the post-internet world, one in which marketing, creativity, and tech have coalesced,” said Joy Mohanty. “Today, consumers and culture are always in beta, and so should brands and ideas be forever ready to read the signals and rewire. In this landscape, Dhruv and his team have built something unique, with an enviable list of like-minded clients. I am thrilled to be here, to add my energy to the success of Humour Me.”

  • Zee Media appoints Abhishek Nigam as chief operating officer for digital business

    Zee Media appoints Abhishek Nigam as chief operating officer for digital business

    Mumbai: Zee Media has announced the appointment of Abhishek Nigam as its chief operating officer for the digital business. He was previously associated with Airtel as product head for its B2C platform.

    Nigam will be responsible for the entire digital operations that include 20 brands across 12 languages touching more than 300 million viewers across digital replicas of Zee Media’s 14 linear news channels along with websites such as  India.com, BGR.in, BollywoodLife.com, TheHealthsite.com, and CricketCountry.com, the company said in a statement.

    Commenting on the appointment, Zee group chief strategy and innovation officer Bibek Agarwala said, “Irrespective of the prevailing challenges, Zee Digital has reported exponential growth within last few years through strategic communications and technological advancements. With extensive experience and knowledge in the technology, product, and sales domain, Abhishek Nigam will definitely add value to the company’s vision and the overall implementation and development trajectory.”

    “Moving ahead, we are looking forward to an aggressive growth roadmap that will help achieve a differentiated and sustainable competitive positioning for Zee Media’s digital assets in this dynamically changing digital ecosystem”, he added.

    Commenting on his new role, Nigam shared, “I am delighted to join hands with India’s most diversified digital publishing group. It would be an honour to work with the highly knowledgeable leadership. My endeavour would be to help Zee Media scale new heights across the globe by aligning all the Digital assets and bringing in synergies through strategic measures and latest technological innovations.”

    As a seasoned professional with 15 years of experience, Nigam has worked with Times Internet and Jagran Group across product leadership roles. He also holds expertise in handling the vernacular language market. An IIT-Delhi alumnus, Nigam holds a B. Tech and M. Tech degree. His educational qualification also includes a senior management program from IIM, Calcutta, and AI professional program from Stanford University.

  • BharatPe elevates Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl as chief operating officer

    BharatPe elevates Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl as chief operating officer

    MUMBAI: Merchant payment network BharatPe has elevated Dhruv Dhanraj Bahl as its chief operating officer (COO) with immediate effect. In his new role, Bahl will be leading operations across customer support, deployments – QR, Swipe & Cards, KYC, loan disbursals and lead generation. He will incrementally be responsible for building the distributor-to-retailer lending product for BharatPe. 

    An Insead alumnus with extensive experience across industries and domains, Bahl has worked with renowned brands in consulting, financial services and healthcare during his career. Prior to joining BharatPe in January 2020, he was the chief business officer at Roadzen where he led the organization across geographies.

    BharatPe co-founder and CEO Ashneer Grover said, “Bahl has been one of our top performers who understood our vision from Day 1 and worked as an ‘anchor’ to transform operations and experience for our merchant partners. I am confident that we will set new benchmarks in customer experience and operations in the fintech industry in the times to come, under his leadership.” 

    BharatPe chief human resources officer Jasneet Kaur added, “At a time when companies are exercising restraint in awarding appraisals, we are committed to our talent agenda of recognizing and rewarding our best. Internal growth of people is as important for us as is attracting high quality talent.” 

    Bahl has also worked at Airtel Payments Bank as head – B2B (Institutional & Corporate Sales)/ Value Chain Alliances and at Paytm as AVP-business. He had a five-year-long stint at Fortis Healthcare, where he held multiple roles. He has a consulting background and has also worked with Bain and company.   

  • Zomato appoints Mohit Gupta as CEO of food delivery

    Zomato appoints Mohit Gupta as CEO of food delivery

    MUMBAI: Restaurants Discovery and Online food ordering app, Zomato, yesterday appointed Mohit Gupta as CEO for its food delivery business.

    Zomato has been working on strengthening its leadership team and aims at a long-term vision of “better food for more people”. The company is also experimenting with products that solve for affordability, accessibility, assortment and quality of food for the users, within India as well as globally.

    “We’re thrilled to have Mohit join our team – he is one of the few internet industry veterans who has helped build a formidable transactions business in India. He’s a widely respected leader, and we’re excited to learn from him, and further build our rapidly growing food delivery business with him,” said Zomato founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal as quoted by DNA.

    Gupta, who has about 20 years of experience joined MakeMyTrip in 2008 and worked in several senior positions in the company. As the chief operating officer he was responsible for the business delivery, growth and profitability of the entire online business for Makemytrip India. In between, he also worked with e-commerce website like Zovi.com for one year. Before joining Zovi.com, he worked with PepsiCo for about seven years where he last served as vice president marketing.

    He holds an MBA degree from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and has studied mechanical engineering from Sardar Patel University.

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  • Sony to bring Pictures, TV division under one roof

    Sony to bring Pictures, TV division under one roof

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures TV is set to merge international TV operations to bring its television networks, home entertainment and distribution businesses together. This shuffle may lead to some job cuts, with many senior executives from Sony having already departed.

    Sony Pictures TV chairman Mike Hopkins has reportedly sent out an email to the staff informing them of the company’s plans of merging the businesses, which so far have been operated separately.

     “The aim is to bring together the various and often quite disparate, divisions, and to  create a stronger and more agile organisation, one that is better able to pivot and capitalise on opportunities in a fast-changing and increasingly complex global marketplace,” Hopkins wrote in the email, according to a report on Advanced Television.

    He went on to add that the new territory management model brings together businesses that have been historically separate. 

    “With this approach, we gain a more efficient structure giving regional leaders, along with their direct reports in each country, the ability to make smart, strategic business decisions, while keeping local consumers at the core of what we do,” he wrote.

    Hopkins was named chairman of Sony Pictures TV in October 2017 after running the streaming video service Hulu as its chief executive officer for four years.

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  • Payback appoints Rijish Raghavan as COO

    Payback appoints Rijish Raghavan as COO

    Mumbai: Payback, India’s largest multi-brand loyalty program, today has announced the appointment of Rijish Raghavan as the new chief operating officer to oversee its India operations. Raghavan will also continue to lead business development and partner management portfolios while taking on additional responsibilities that would encompass business intelligence and compliance.

    He has over two decades of experience in leadership roles across industries. He believes in taking the organisation to the next level with expansion across new service categories and customer segments.

    Speaking on his new role Raghavan said, “I have been fortunate to be part of Payback’s journey in India and am excited to take on this new role that will help drive the next phase of growth for the business and will help the brand achieve many milestones. I am committed to bring in new ideas that will lead to the fulfilment of business objectives of our shareholders and partners along with creating more rewarding experiences for our members.”

    Prior to Payback, Raghavan was associated with companies like American Express and Cox & Kings. He has been instrumental in leading business development and driving growth for Payback in the country for last four years. He holds a post graduate diploma in business management from Xavier’s Institute of Management and has a deep understanding of marketing, analytics and technology functions.

    Also Read:

    Payback adopts new brand positioning with ‘Nothing is pointless’ campaign

    Oxigen Wallet partners Payback to maximise customer benefits  

    Payback inks strategic partnership with MobiKwik

  • Gaurav Gandhi to head Amazon Prime Video India

    Gaurav Gandhi to head Amazon Prime Video India

    MUMBAI: The man behind building Viacom18’s digital venture Voot into a giant OTT platform in India is all set to head rival international player Amazon Prime Video as its director and country manager, India. A source tells Indiantelevision.com that Gandhi, who was on the top priority list, will be taking up the charge very soon.

    When Nitesh Kripalani quit in mid-2017, the position, which Gandhi will now fill, was empty and Vijay Subramaniam was roped in for the interim period.

    Gandhi was with Viacom18 for eight years in various roles. He joined Viacom18 in 2010 as COO and, within 11 months, he became the head of distribution and international business. After this, he was COO of Sun18 North before moving to IndiaCast Media Distribution (a joint venture between TV18 and Viacom18. Gandhi’s mandate was to monetise all channel and content assets across media, platforms and geographies.

    He is credited with growing its franchise overseas, establishing a strong distribution business at IndiaCast and leading the commercial function during the early days of the organisation.

    Before joining Viacom18, Gandhi was with NDTV Imagine as executive VP of business operations and content sales and Star Group as VP commercial and business planning.

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