MAM
MPG India appoints Ruma Sengupta as director of strategy
MUMBAI: Havas Media’s flagship agency, MPG India, has appointed Ruma Sengupta to the post of director of strategy.
Sengupta will report to Havas Media South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar and work closely with the regional strategy team based out Singapore.
She will be based out of Mumbai and will work closely with MPG’s four key offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.
Sengupta will take charge of the agency’s strategic offering and product development in keeping with the vision of ‘leading new thinking’. She will also take custodianship of Havas Media’s proprietary tools and processes.
Sengupta brings with her 15 years of experience across verticals like marketing, branding, sales, strategy, MR and analytics. She comes in from Synovate where she handled the post of director of business insight and was responsible for key international clients across FMCG categories. She has also worked as business head for IMRB International in the past in addition to working in senior marketing roles at Adlabs Films Limited owned by Reliance ADAG and United Spirits Limited at UB Group.
Her longest stint has been with Ranbaxy Global Consumer Healthcare where she launched OTC & DTC business and managed it successfully through marketing and sales-distribution.
Nayyar said, “Havas Media is well-known for the high quality of its strategic product and tools and Ruma has the right credentials and attitude to take control of our strategic offering. Her flair is evident from her extraordinary background having worked with top research agencies like Synovate and IMRB. Her previous experience in spearheading marketing and innovation capabilities with brands is a plus.”
Brands
Hardik Jhaveri named senior director marketing at Colgate-Palmolive Asean hub
Former Hill’s Pet Nutrition general manager returns to the company to steer marketing for South Asean from Kuala Lumpur
KUALA LUMPUR: Hardik Jhaveri has been appointed senior director marketing for the South Asean hub at Colgate-Palmolive, marking a return to the consumer goods major after a three year stint with Hill’s Pet Nutrition. He will be based in Kuala Lumpur and will lead marketing strategy for the region.
Jhaveri joins the role after serving as general manager at Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Taipei, where he led a cross functional team and oversaw the business with full profit and loss responsibility. The role placed him at the helm of operations in Taiwan, managing growth in what he described as a start-up style environment within a global multinational.
Before that, Jhaveri spent over a decade with Colgate-Palmolive across several marketing and innovation roles in Asia. As associate director innovation for Apac excluding China, based in Hong Kong, he led new product development and launches across multiple markets.
His portfolio ranged from developing specialised oral care products such as a diabetes focused toothpaste for the Indian market to launching premium oral care experiences under the Colgate Total brand in Australia. Alongside innovation, he also worked on launch planning, brand strategy and communications for the company’s oral care portfolio.
Earlier in his Colgate-Palmolive journey, Jhaveri held roles including marketing manager innovation, senior brand manager and brand manager. His work spanned urban and rural markets in Mumbai and customer development responsibilities in the Greater Kolkata Area.
Prior to his long association with Colgate-Palmolive, Jhaveri worked as brand officer home care at Unilever, where he helped drive marketing initiatives for the Rin detergent brand, including nationwide relaunch and on ground activation campaigns.
He began his career in advertising with Bates David Enterprise, working on brands such as IDBI Bank, The Leela Hotels and The Times of India.
Jhaveri holds a post graduate programme in management from the Indian School of Business and has also completed a level 4 diploma in wine from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Announcing the move, Jhaveri said he is excited to begin his new chapter at Colgate-Palmolive’s South Asean hub and thanked colleagues and mentors who supported his journey at Hill’s Pet Nutrition.
