Brands
Sandeep Walunj joins Equirus Group as chief growth officer
MUMBAI: Equirus Group has brought on board seasoned business leader Sandeep Walunj as its chief growth officer, signalling a fresh push towards sharper positioning and faster, more connected growth across the Group.
In his new role, Walunj will lead Equirus’ growth agenda, strengthen its corporate identity and ensure that the Group’s diverse financial businesses move forward with a shared purpose. The appointment comes as Equirus accelerates expansion across multiple financial services verticals.
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Walunj brings nearly three decades of experience spanning India and the Middle East and North Africa. His career has blended strategy with storytelling, covering brand building, market expansion, digital sales, consumer segmentation and, more recently, data science and GenAI-led growth initiatives.
He is widely recognised for his role on the Financial Literacy Committee of the Association of Mutual Funds in India, where he helped drive the influential Mutual Funds Sahi Hai campaign. The initiative played a key role in reshaping public perception of equity investing and fuelling long-term growth in mutual funds and broking.
Walunj’s work has earned him multiple industry accolades, including CMO of the Year in 2017, 2019 and 2023, and Businessperson of the Year in 2018. Beyond executive roles, he remains closely engaged with the wider ecosystem as a member of the Asia-Pacific Advisory Board of the CMO Council in the US and the BFSI Committee of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, West Region.
Welcoming him to the Group, Equirus Group managing director Ajay Garg, said the timing could not be better. With several businesses entering their next growth phase, Garg noted that Walunj’s mix of financial services insight, brand-led thinking and technology-driven transformation would add valuable depth to the leadership team.
Walunj said Equirus presented a rare opportunity to build customer-first growth across a diverse financial platform. His focus, he added, will be on creating a clear growth narrative powered by data, technology and strong collaboration, with an eye firmly on long-term, sustainable value creation.
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.
