Brands
TVS Motor taps Kalpana Unadkat as independent director
CHENNAI: TVS Motor Company has appointed Kalpana Unadkat as an additional director and non-executive independent director for a five-year term, in a move that strengthens the board’s legal and governance heft.
The appointment, effective December 15, is subject to shareholder approval, the company said in a disclosure to the BSE. The board cleared the decision at its meeting held earlier in the day.
Unadkat is a dual-qualified solicitor in India and the UK, with more than 25 years of experience in cross-border mergers, joint ventures and corporate governance. She was formerly a senior partner at Khaitan & Co and co-head of Ashurst’s India practice in London.
She currently serves as an independent director on the boards of Avenue Supermarts, TVS Credit Services and Eris Lifesciences. A leading authority on corporate governance, she advises boards on effectiveness, leadership, organisational culture and decision-making, and has trained more than 200 directors through structured development programmes. Unadkat regularly advises international companies and is ranked among the leading lawyers in independent legal guides.
Her accolades include the Trailblazer Women Achiever Award 2023 from Ficci Flo, Corporate Governance Lawyer of the Year in 2018 and 2019, The Rising Women of the Year Award in 2019, and the Female Lawyer of the Year and Women Super Achiever awards in 2017.
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.
