MAM
Criteo appoints Manuela Montagnana as chief people officer
Mumbai: Global technology company Criteo on Thursday announced the appointment of Manuela Montagnana as chief people officer. In this role, Montagnana will lead the company’s people team, driving talent strategy and playing a key role in defining the future of work for Criteo’s global workforce of more than 2,500 employees. Montagnana replaces Denis Collin, who held the role for three years and will assist in the transition.
In her new roleat Criteo, Montagnana will be responsible for leading the people team, ensuring equitable, transparent and inclusive processes and practices to support an engaged and high-performing team. In addition, she will drive the strategy and execution of attracting, engaging, developing and retaining top talent by ensuring that Criteo remains an employer of choice, now and in the future, said the company in a statement.
She will be based in New York with global remit and will report to Criteo CEO Megan Clarken with plans to relocate to Paris, it added.
Montagnana brings more than 20 years of experience as a people executive, leading global teams in the manufacturing, service and technology industries. She has a proven track record of accelerating performance through human capital management in a transformation context in both highly matrixed organisations and those undergoing hyper-growth.
“In the last year, the workplace as we have known it has undergone massive change and I’m thrilled to have Manuela join Criteo to help provide a flexible, hybrid workplace that cultivates a culture of inclusivity, innovation and collaboration,” said Clarken. “She will be a crucial part of our leadership team as we continue to invest in our most valuable asset, our people, in order to power the world’s marketers and media owners with trusted and impactful advertising.”
Most recently, Montagnana was with Compass as vice president, head of human resources for product and engineering division, where she was the business partner to the chief technology and chief product officers. While at Compass, she led major transformational projects including the opening of a new development center in India and completing the talent integration following the M&A of two tech startups.
“What attracted me to Criteo was its people-centric culture, strong company values, global footprint and powerful mission,” said Montagnana. “It’s an exciting time to join the company in a year of growth momentum, and I look forward to optimizing the people program to create an engaged and productive employee experience that attracts top talent and nurtures development in today’s hybrid work environment.”
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
