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’ve moved jobs, got bigger roles, switched industries and more.
Debra Crew
Previous: President – North America, Diageo
Present: Chief executive officer, Diageo
Debra Crew, who is currently liquor major Diageo’s chief operating officer, will step into the role of Sir Ivan Menezes—who will retire after 10 years—and join the Diageo Board, effective from 1 July. Women will make up more than 50 percent of Diageo’s executive committee from 1 July. Prior to being appointed COO in October 2022, Crew was the president, Diageo North America and Global Supply. Crew is the former president and CEO of Reynolds American, Inc, and previously served as president and COO, and president and chief commercial officer. Crew, who comes with an experience of three decades, spent five years at PepsiCo, where she served as president, North America Nutrition; president, PepsiCo Americas Beverages; and president, Western Europe Region.
Fred Levron
Previous: Chief creative officer, Dentsu
Fred Levron, chief creative officer of the Japanese advertising and public relations giant, Dentsu, has quit. During his tenure, Levron was responsible for the network’s creative product across the entirety of Dentsu international’s creative, media and CXM agency brands. Levron, who was appointed in November 2021 as the global CCO, is also credited with establishing the foundation of a new global creative network, Dentsu Creative. Armed with an experience of two decades, Levron has worked across Ogilvy & Mather, Creative Artists Agency and FCB Global.
Ajit Gurnani
Previous: Chief client officer, Zenith
Present: Chief business development officer, Publicis Groupe
Publicis Groupe announced that it has appointed Ajit Gurnani as chief business development officer for South Asia. In his new role, the agency said that Gurnani will be responsible for enhancing new business offerings, strengthening client relationships, and accelerating growth for the Groupe and its clients. Gurnani comes with an experience of over two decades and has worked across Rediffusion DY&R, HTA, Starcom Digital, Marico, IFFCO, Mindshare, ZenithOptimedia India.
Ashish Khanna
Previous: COO, Genpact
Present: Global chief executive officer, Dentsu Global Services
Dentsu announced the appointment of Ashish Khanna as global chief executive office, Dentsu Global Services (DGS), a globally networked talent capability that delivers high quality services across Dentsu’s creative, media and customer experience management (CXM) businesses.
In this role, Khanna will lead DGS’s 8,500+ strong networked team across the globe. He will also work closely with the global leadership and brand teams to drive growth and operational excellence for Dentsu’s clients around the world. Along with this, Khanna will also be responsible for operationalising a globally networked talent capability that enables clients to access high-quality, consistent, cost-competitive services, combining the right expertise with the right technology from the right locations.
Khanna has worked for companies such as Genpact, Accenture and PwC.
Nikhil Chand
Previous: Managing director, Nestle
Present: Senior vice president, head of food strategic business unit, Nestle
Nikhil Chand will now head the Swiss multinational food and drink corporation Nestle as the senior vice president, head of the food strategic business unit. Chand started his career at Nestle as marketing director. Over a period of 13 years, he has held various roles in multiple capacities.
Ajay Raghuvanshi
Previous: Head – sales, Skoda India Volkswagen
Present: Executive vice president – 2W domestic business, Piaggio Vehicles
Italian motor vehicle company Piaggio Vehicles has appointed Ajat Raghuvanshi as executive vice president – 2W domestic business. Raghuvanshi’s mandate will include managing the overall 2-wheeler domestic business that includes the Vespa and Aprilia brands. He comes with an experience of more than three decades and has worked across Times of India, Blow Plast, Titan Industries, Whirlpool India, LML, Yamaha Motor India, Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor India, Nissan Motor India and Nissan Middle East.
Pallavi Nayak
Previous: Senior vice president – business design, DY Works
Present: EVP – strategy, L&K Saatchi & Saatchi
Publicis Groupe’s L&K Saatchi & Saatchi has announced the appointment of Pallavi Nayak as executive vice president – strategy. Her appointment comes as part of L&K Saatchi & Saatchi’s ongoing expansion and investment in its planning and strategy capabilities.
In her role, Nayak will partner with clients to solve their business growth and marketing challenges, ground upwards. This will be followed by co-creating effective creative work by leveraging the Publicis Power of One to meet, impacting and persuading the consumer across his or her decision journey.
Nayak comes with an experience of over two decades and has worked across Lowe Advertising, Ogilvy & Mather and Contract Advertising.
Saurabh Nath
Previous: Head of brand marketing, Swiggy
As per a media report, Saurabh Nath has moved on from his role at the online food ordering and delivery platform Swiggy. During his stint, he led for brand marketing across Swiggy masterbrand and delivery business. Nath has worked across TNS Global, Kimberly-Clark Lever, Kellogg Company, Ola, Ola Foods and OZiva.
Priyanka Sethi
Previous: Head – brand, public relations and digital marketing, NEC Corporation India
Present: Head of marketing, Haier India
Haier India, home appliances and consumer electronics company, has appointed Priyanka Sethi on board as head of marketing. Sethi will be responsible for developing and implementing marketing strategies that will drive growth and increase market share for the company. Further, she will also be responsible for strengthening the brand’s positioning and enhancing its customer engagement.
Sethi will look into spearheading Haier’s brand image, conceptualising its growth strategies, strengthening the product narrative, increasing demand for product offerings and engaging collaboratively to deliver 360-degree integrated marketing solutions. In the past, Sethi has held leadership positions at Panasonic, Discovery and NEC Corporation India.
Deepak Sharma
Previous: Senior vice president, L&T, integration leader, Schneider Electric
Present: Zone president – Greater India, and managing director and chief executive officer, Schneider Electric
Deepak Sharma will now head Schneider Electric as zone president – Greater India, and managing director and chief executive officer. Sharma will take over from Anil Chaudhry and his role will be effective starting from May 1. Sharma is armed with an experience of three decades and he started his career at OSNA Electronics. He spent 24 years at Schneider Electric where he joined as product manager of greater India.
Karthik Gurumurthy
Previous: Head – Instamart (Senior Vice President), Swiggy
As per a media report, Karthik Gurumurthy, who is the Head of Swiggy’s quick commerce delivery service Instamart will be stepping down from his position by the end of April. Phani Kishan Addepalli will step into his shoes who has been the chief executive officer of SuprDaily, its subscription based milk and grocery delivery service. Gurumurthy is likely to head a new business in the broader ecommerce space which would be called Instamart Max. During his tenure, Gurumurthy built Instamart business grounds up and scaled the business 100X in two years. He managed product, business, operations, CX, growth of Instamart with a team-size of 500+. He comes with an experience of over a decade and has worked across DaimlerChrysler Research Center India, Oracle, A.T.Kearney, Mondelez International and Cipla Health.
Gaurav Mehta
Previous: Chief marketing officer, Zupee
Present: Chief marketing officer, Noise
Noise, a connected lifestyle tech brand has announced the appointment of Gaurav Mehta as its chief marketing officer to fortify its overall effort to expand as an organisation.
In his role as chief marketing officer, Mehta will be leading the marketing function through his strategic initiatives. Further, he will also be responsible for devising strategies and overseeing overall marketing efforts that will in turn reinforce strong brand building and revenue growth in the long run.
Working alongside the founders, Mehta will identify key marketing opportunities and have responsibilities that range from creative influence to marketing strategies.
He is armed with an experience of over two decades and has worked across Elephant Design, JWT, Brand DNA, iSmart Panache, Yahoo, OLX South Asia, GirnarSoft.
Mihir Palan
Previous: Vice president – media, Kinnect
Present: Senior director – planning, EssenceMediacom
GroupM’s EssenceMediacom has appointed Mihir Palan as the senior director – planning. In his new role, Palan will manage strategic media planning initiatives for Google SMB business across APAC region. He has worked across Best Practices, The Glitch, WATConsult, MSLGROUP India and adMixt.
Saad Khan
Previous: Chief strategy officer, FCB Ulka
Present: President and managing partner – growth and strategy, DDB Mudra
DDB Mudra Group on Monday announced the appointment of Saad Khan as president and managing partner – growth & strategy. He will lead business and build on strategic capabilities for the West region of the Group. With more than two decades of experience under his belt, Khan has worked with brands such as Coca-Cola, Amul, Reckitt Benckiser, Tata Motors, ITC Foods, Volvo Cars, Honda, and Nerolac among others. He has been a part of companies like Leo Burnett, Dentsu Marcom and Euro RSCG.
Pranav Haridasan
Previous: Managing director and co-head of Equities, Axis Capital
Present: Managing director and chief executive officer, Axis Securities
Axis Securities, subsidiary of Axis Bank has appointed Pranav Haridasan as the managing director and chief executive officer for a period of three years. This move follows the internal succession plan of Axis Group. The current MD and CEO, B Gopkumar, would be transitioning to Axis Asset Management Company in the same roles. Haridasan has worked across ING, IDFC Bank, Credit Suisse and Citi.
Sumit Dewanjee
Previous: Head of performance marketing, Universal Education
Present: Executive vice president, BigTrunk Communications
Sumit Dewanjee has been roped by BigTrunk Communications as executive vice president. Dewanjee comes with an experience of 15 years and has worked across Cipla, Vertical Leap, Indus Net Technologies, Capital Numbers Infotech, The Gate Academy and GroupM.
Naveen Murali
Previous: Vice president and head of marketing, Pepperfry
Naveen Murali was the vice president and head of marketing at online marketplace for furniture and home decor, Pepperfry. During his tenure, Murali managed the marketing team, which comprised brand, social, performance marketing, lifecycle marketing, search engine optimisation, data analytics and commercial. Murali has worked across Hindustan Aeronautics, Ashok leyland, Oracle, Idea Cellular and Asian Paints.
Diphaa Nair
Previous: Lead – SIs & GCPs, India, Adobe
Present: Director – strategic alliances, APAC, DEPT
Technology and marketing services company DEPT has appointed Diphaa Nair as the director of strategic alliances for the APAC region. Nair comes with an experience of over two decades and has worked across Nous Infosystems, MphasiS, Corpus, Microland and CA Technologies.
Vishesh Sharma
Previous: Chief marketing officer, Ashika Group
Present: Chief marketing officer, Bajaj Financial Securities
Bajaj Financial Securities, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finance Limited has appointed Vishesh Sharma as the chief marketing officer, where he will be the company’s first CMO. Sharma has worked across The Hindu, Progressive Media Group, DSIJ Private Limited, Atul Limited, Asymmetrique, Sharekhan and Angel One.
Samir Gokhale
Previous: National brand lead – postpaid and partnerships, Vodafone Idea
Present: Vice president – brand and communications, Vodafone Idea
Mobile network operator company Vodafone Idea has promoted Samir Gokhale as vice president – brand and communications. He has an experience of over a decade and has worked across Worldspace Satellite Radio, Vodafone, American Express, Discovery Communications India and Ogilvy.
Saptarshi Banik and Sunil Gangras
Previous: Associate vice president, Publicis Groupe, and Joint national creative director, Liqvd Asia
Present: National director – business and services, Head of creative services, Liqvd Asia
Digital marketing and advertising agency Liqvd Asia has appointed Saptarshi Banik as national director – business and services, and has promoted Sunil Gangras as the head of creative services. In his new role, the former will lead the charge in elevating the agency’s digital offerings across the country.
On the other hand, Gangras will be the head of the agency’s creative prowess across locations, which extends even beyond India.
Banik comes with an experience of 15 years and has worked across Dentsu marcom, Leo Burnett, McCann Worldgroup, JWT and Ogilvy.
Gangras has an experience of a decade and started his career with Scarecrow Communications as the creative director. Then, she worked as the senior creative director at Leo Burnett Orchard.
Himanshu Gaur
Previous: Creative director, Accenture
Present: Executive creative director, BornHi Digital
Digital marketing agency BornHi Digital has appointed Himanshu Gaur as executive creative director. In his new role, Gaur will lead the creative functions at the agency. He will develop the creative vision and business concepts for clients while working closely with teams across different offices to create impactful content and campaigns. Apart from this, he will also be tasked with developing brand films for clients.
Gaur is armed with an experience of over two decades and has worked across JWT, Speech Blurb Creative, Solutions Digitas, Rabbithole India and Simba Advertising.
(Image source: LinkedIn)
Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy