Brands
WPP and Universal Music partner for brands and bands
MUMBAI: This could be music to WPP’s clients’ ears. The creative transformation company and music-based entertainment powerhouse Universal Music group (UMG) announced on 12 December that they are planning to work in harmony with each other.
The duo has got into a strategic partnership that will provide clients’ brands with cutting-edge audience engagement strategies leveraging the power of music. The new alliance brings together UMG’s family of artists and labels, and its global data and insights team, with WPP’s creative scale and extensive client network, giving brands new opportunities to connect with audiences through music.
The collaborative partnership offers WPP clients’ new opportunities to connect with some of the world’s most popular artists and their music, and unique access to UMG’s iconic music catalogue to unlock additional areas of amplification through data-driven and technological innovation. In addition, WPP and UMG will work together to responsibly explore new ways that AI can better help brands and artists connect and create authentic cultural moments.
The announcement builds upon the history of successful collaboration between WPP and UMG for Brands (UMGB), as exemplified by their ongoing partnership with The Coca-Cola Co. Working together, WPP and UMG have collaborated on global initiatives such as the award-winning Coke Studio and Sprite Limelight music platforms. Through these programmes, a diverse array of established and emerging artists have amplified brand messaging, galvanising fan communities worldwide while expanding their audiences.
“Music is becoming an even more powerful cultural force, and technology is rewriting how we experience it,” said WPP chief technology officer Stephan Pretorius. “This partnership with UMG will allow us to leverage emerging technologies and data insights to create truly innovative music-driven campaigns for our clients, shaping the future of brand engagement.”
“This collaboration provides benefits to stakeholders of each company. On the one hand, combining innovative new technologies with UMG’s industry-leading data insights, we can create significant new commercial opportunities for our artists and songwriters,” added UMG chief digital officer & EVP Michael Nash. “In addition, working together with WPP, we will harness and amplify the unmatched power and reach of music for WPP’s clients and brands through new strategic initiatives and programmes.”
This initiative is part of WPP’s larger strategy to invest in data and technology-driven solutions and partnerships with the world’s leading companies to drive value for its clients. Hopefully, WPP’s clients have their headphones on and are listening.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
