MAM
DDB Mudra Group elevates Aditya Kanthy & Amit Kekre
MUMBAI: Aditya Kanthy and Amit Kekre, currently senior VPs, DDB Mudra, have been elevated to the role of national strategic planning heads by the agency.
In their new roles, Kanthy and Kekre will jointly take on the national mandate of looking after strategy and planning for all of DDB Mudra offices in the West, North, South as well as Tribal, Rapp and Remedy. Arun Sharma in Delhi and Rajesh Sharma in Bangalore will work closely with Kanthy and Kekre respectively.
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On the elevations, DDB Mudra Group group CEO & MD Madhukar Kamath said, “Aditya and Amit make a formidable team, both thorough with all facets of strategy planning, yet each with their unique worldview. They have both contributed greatly to strengthening the agency’s creative-effectiveness credentials and I am sure together they will take it to greater heights.”
During his decade long stint with the DDB Mudra Group Kanthy has contributed to some of India’s most loved brands and trusted companies and has over a dozen wins across categories (including health & digital) at the Effies.
Kekre began his planning career in 2001, and has worked with agencies in India and abroad. He was featured as one of 10 best planners across Asia Pacific by Media Magazine. On his new role, he said, “Imagination is the beginning of all planning. The last two and a half years I?ve been with DDB Mudra, I am glad this personal belief has found a turf on which it flourishes. Ours is a truly remarkable team – as adept with tools and processes, as it is with the most fundamental aspect of all communications? exploring people, imagining a different reality, imagining newer narratives. I am proud of our unique and in more ways than one, ‘total’ planning offering. Aditya is an amazing mind. The two of us together are only one of the visible signs of DDB Mudra?s core pillars, Together, we are better.”
“DDB Mudra has a legacy of putting strategic thinking at the heart of the work we do. Over the years our management has displayed a serious commitment to planning by investing in an excellent team across the country and it’s been paying off. The product’s improved, our clients vouch for the quality of the thinking and the planners have forged deep partnerships with the creative and account management teams. With top class brand, media and activation planning under the same roof, we could lead the way in shaping the discipline. Amit’s a terrific partner, we enjoy working with each other and we’re raring to go”, said Kanthy.
AD Agencies
WPP Media elevates Dipti Gulati to vp, client growth for APMEA
Singapore-based executive to commercialise AI-powered solutions business across the region
SINGAPORE: WPP Media has promoted Dipti Gulati to vice president, client growth, handing her the mandate to lead the commercialisation of its solutions business across APMEA.
Based in Singapore, Gulati steps up after serving as senior director, client growth, where she drove expansion across APAC spanning programmatic, search, social, CTV, DOOH and cross-channel offerings. Now, she is tasked with translating advanced AI, data and technology ecosystems into scalable growth strategies for global brands across FMCG, luxury, F&B and financial services.
“I commercialise the future of media — at scale, across APMEA,” Gulati said, announcing her appointment. She added that she turns advanced data, AI and technology ecosystems into real commercial outcomes, shifting the conversation “from a pure media play to owning business outcomes”.
Her brief is unapologetically future-facing: addressable, accountable and AI-powered media. She will work with cross-market teams across APMEA, bringing together diverse perspectives and cultures to accelerate growth and build what she calls the “future of media”.
Gulati’s rise caps nearly two years at WPP Media and follows a six-month stint as regional director of growth, APAC, at Mindshare, where she led new business development and expanded capabilities for existing clients. Earlier, as global account director for integrated marketing communications on the Unilever business, she drove communications strategy for multi-million dollar beauty and wellbeing brands across Southeast Asia.
Before that, Gulati spent close to two years as associate director at Warner Bros. Discovery in Singapore. She also served as director, strategic partnerships and market development at TrustSphere, leading go-to-market and growth initiatives across Asia and evangelising relationship analytics to C-level executives. TrustSphere, credited by industry and Harvard Business School case studies as a pioneer in relationship analytics, became a springboard for her deeper engagement with data-driven growth.
Her board and evangelist roles at the Asia Cloud Computing Association and its Asia Analytics Alliance further sharpened her regional policy and analytics credentials. Earlier chapters include marketing consultancy at Blockchain Foundry and a seven-year run at Warner Bros. Discovery in India, where she led ad-sales and business development for HBO and WB across north and east India, delivering record billings. She began her career at Diligent Media Corporation Ltd and Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd..
From ad-sales floors in Delhi and Mumbai to boardrooms in Singapore, Gulati’s arc mirrors the industry’s own shift — from selling spots and slots to engineering outcomes through data and AI. At WPP Media, the brief is clear: scale smarter, move faster and turn algorithms into advantage.
