MAM
Wunderman Thompson South Asia elevates Tarun Rai to ED, strategic initiatives, APAC
Mumbai: After an illustrious 25 years in advertising in India, Wunderman Thompson South Asia chairman and group CEO Tarun Rai will move into a new role as executive director (ED) – strategic initiatives, APAC, effective 1 January 2022.
Rai will report directly to Wunderman Thompson international CEO Ewen Sturgeon. Details on Rai’s successor will be announced shortly, said the agency.
In the seven years as chairman and CEO, Rai has successfully steered the company through significant changes at an organisational and cultural level – most recently leading the successful and seamless transition to Wunderman Thompson.
“We would like to thank Tarun for his leadership and efforts as group CEO of South Asia, and are pleased that Tarun will continue his strategic guidance and support for the agency as he moves on to serve as our APAC executive director of strategic initiatives,” said Ewen Sturgeon.
Previously with JWT, Rai returned to the agency in 2015 after a long stint in media, and quickly put the company back on an aggressive growth path, diversifying the organisation’s capabilities to better serve clients, many of whom have been partners for a long time and remain so. He built an excellent leadership team and has fostered a culture of collaboration across the various group companies. Throughout the pandemic, he has led the organisation with sensitivity and empathy without compromising on the quality of the work, said the cocompany
“The last seven years have been very exciting and rewarding. The unprecedented changes in these years required nimble leadership,” said Rai. “I also had the opportunity to lead the transition to our new company, Wunderman Thompson, which has a powerful mix of creativity and technology. I am extremely proud of our people and of our leadership team for their fantastic work through these years. We partner with some of the best clients in the industry and I value their friendship and support. I now look forward to stepping into my new role in an expanded geography.”
Brands
IICT partners with Gativedhi to bring studio production tools to students
New MoU lets students explore AI-driven production pipelines for AVGC-XR
MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) has teamed up with Gativedhi Technologies to give students a front-row seat to modern studio production. The collaboration will integrate Gativedhi’s AI-powered production intelligence platform, Shotrack, into academic programmes, letting students experience the workflow systems used by animation, VFX and gaming studios.
Under the MoU, faculty, students and researchers will get hands-on access to Shotrack through beta programmes, pilot deployments and academic evaluations. This will allow them to explore simulated production pipelines, understand asset management, track tasks and monitor schedules, essentially seeing how complex projects come together behind the scenes.
Shotrack is designed to tackle a key industry challenge: when multiple studios work on the same project, differing internal systems often create bottlenecks, slow approvals and complicate version control. The platform provides a unified production environment, enabling smoother collaboration across distributed teams while generating operational insights and predictive analytics to optimise crew allocation, forecast schedule risks and manage costs.
The collaboration also opens doors to Gativedhi’s wider ecosystem. Upcoming tools include StudioTrack, for studio operations management covering budgeting, recruitment and IT infrastructure, and WorkTrack, which measures workflow efficiency and team productivity across industries.
IICT plans to embed these tools into programmes covering animation pipelines, VFX workflows, gaming production and media project management. Students will also benefit from guest lectures, masterclasses, workshops, internships and research projects that connect academic learning with real-world studio practices.
IICT CEO Vishwas Deoskar, said the partnership provides “An environment where production pipeline tools can be explored, tested and refined while students gain insight into how large-scale productions are organised.”
Gativedhi Technologies founder & CEO Senthil Kumar added, “This collaboration introduces students to real-world studio management tools and helps us improve our platform with academic feedback.”
With Shotrack in classrooms, India’s future animators, VFX artists and gaming producers will get a taste of studio life long before they step into one.
