MAM
Hospitality PR veteran swaps solo consultancy for corporate suite
BENGALURU: After six years and eight months steering her own ship, Gayatri Dravid has docked at Rosetta Hospitality this September as group head for corporate communications and marketing—trading the freedoms of consultancy for the clout of a corporate corner office in Bengaluru.
Dravid launched Gayatri Dravid PR in February 2019, carving out a niche in hospitality and travel communications after a decade-plus climbing the industry ladder. The move followed a near-two-year stint as associate vice president for communications at RMZ Corp, where she honed her skills in corporate messaging for one of India’s largest real estate developers.
Before going solo, Dravid spent over three years as director of PR and strategy at Quo Global’s India operations, the Thai multinational specialising in hospitality branding. There she positioned India’s first Pullman hotel and North India’s first Novotel at New Delhi Airport, orchestrated launches for seven hotels across Asia in three years for Onyx Hospitality group, and developed the complete visual identity—logo, colour palette, tone—for Tiger Palace Resort and Casino’s Nepal debut.
Her CV reads like a greatest-hits compilation of India’s luxury hotel landscape. She led pre-opening communications for the 523-room JW Marriott New Delhi Aerocity in 2012, JW’s first launch in the capital. Before that, nearly three years at The Leela Palaces saw her spearhead PR for the group’s flagship property in New Delhi, manage award-winning resorts in Goa, Kovalam and Udaipur, and launch ESPA spa and Warren Tricomi salon partnerships. She even copy-edited The Leela’s first coffee-table book.
Earlier stops included Genesis Burson-Marsteller, where she handled Channel [v], Royal Bank of Scotland and Lakmé Fashion Week, and a year teaching business communications in Pune as guest faculty for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Now Dravid returns to the mothership—not as consultant, but commander. Rosetta just hired someone who’s spent 17 years learning every trick in the hospitality playbook.
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.
