MAM
Lintas’ Northpoint rolls out first batch of media professionals
MUMBAI: Lintas’ management school Northpoint Centre of Learning has rolled out its first bunch of media planners/buyers. A group of 25 received their post graduate program in advertising media management (PGPAMM) degree yesterday.
A point to be noted here is that all 25 students have been placed in media agencies across the country and the minimum package they have been offered is Rs 250,000 per annum. (Any agency that offered less was not entertained.) The certificates were given out by Madison Communications CMD Sam Balsara, who was the chief guest for the evening.
Four special awards were given out to the brightest students of the lot. Three of them were sponsored by NDTV and one by Lintas. The Northpoint-NDTV Award for academic excellence was given to Akanksha Sanwal. The Northpoint-NDTV Award for strategic excellence in media was bagged by Priya Deshpande and the Northpoint-NDTV Award for consistent all round performance was given to Preeti Ramachandran. All three winners received a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each from NDTV, given away by NDTV Media vice-president strategic planning and marketing services Avinash Kaul.
On the other hand, the Northpoint-Lintas Award for innovation and thoughtful leadership went to Sameer Khandelwal, who received a cash prize of Rs 75,000 from Lintas.
Other professionals present from the media frat were Lintas chairman and managing director Prem Mehta (whose brainchild the Northpoint Centre of Learning is), Tam India CEO LV Krishnan and MRUC technical committee chairperson Roda Mehta, amongst others. The entire team of Lintas Media Services comprising Lynn de Souza, Raj Gupta, Sudha Natarajan, Kartik Iyer and Premjeet Sodhi were present at the convocation.
Addressing the students, Balsara said, “India is the focus of the world at present and for all the right reasons. There has been a tremendous growth in the GDP and it is you who will maintain the eight per cent consistent growth rate. There is no other more exciting place to be in other than the media today. When I started working, the entire media business was worth Rs 100 million. Today it is worth Rs 120 billion. We’ve added a zero to our industry every decade and it is now up to you to take that forward.”
Prem Mehta on the other hand, urged the students not to forget the institution that will make them big in the world. He also made a special mention of his colleagues Chetan Maniyar, Shahrukh Mundse, Sunil Thakur, Allan Rebello and in particular de Souza, who headed the entire initiative.
“The idea to start this school was so that we don’t beg, borrow, steal from other agencies and vice versa. There is so much of job hopping going on that it is really difficult to find good people and retain them as well. My conviction is that what makes a difference is knowledge, skill and hard work and that was the reason why Northpoint was set up,” Mehta said.
Highlighting the promise of the program de Souza said, “It has been created with the objective of providing a rigorous academic platform along with industry exposure. And is a unique initiative to build talent for the media service industry.”
The Northpoint Centre of Learning is located in the verdant hill station of Lonavla which lies between Mumbai and Pune.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
