MAM
Soumya Sarkar joins MPG as Sr biz director
Mumbai: Havas Media’s flagship brand, MPG India, has appointed Soumya Sarkar as senior business director.
Based in Mumbai, he will report in to MPG – West India executive director Kunal Jamuar.
In his new role, Sarkar will be responsible for managing the planning function across all brands.
Sarkar said, “I am delighted to be joining MPG. The agency has diverse and exciting brands in its portfolio across different categories and I see an enormous potential not only in the offering but the highly energised team under Kunal.”
MPG India MD Mohit Joshi added, “We are pleased to welcome Soumya in the MPG fold. He comes with a solid background in media planning having worked with number of blue chip brands. His presence will be an asset for the Mumbai operations.”
Sarkar comes in with over 10 years of experience in media planning. His last stint was with MEC where he was working as senior business director and was handling clients like Nivea, Novartis and Cox & Kings. Prior to this he has also worked with Lintas Media Group, Starcom, The Media Edge and Carat.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
