MAM
DAN Consult ropes in Shashank Sharma as principal – FMCG
MUMBAI: DAN Consult, the consulting division from the house of Dentsu Aegis Network, has roped in Shashank Sharma as principal – FMCG. Based out of New Delhi, Sharma will report to DAN Consult CEO Lalit Bhagia. His chief mandate is to help build a client-facing FMCG consulting practice.
Prior to joining DAN Consult, Sharma has driven growth across diverse categories in leading FMCG companies like Nestle, Dabur, and Pernod Ricard. From food, healthcare and dairy to luxury segments, he has led brand transformations with revenues over $100 million to achieve accelerated growth through rapid and continuous innovations in product, promotion and distribution.
On his new role, Shashank Sharma said, “I am looking forward to contributing growth hacks across FMCG clients, leveraging today's tech and DAN Consult’s growth hacking toolboxes and expertise. Consumer centricity remains the core driver of long-term value and this new era of doing business has completely redefined the underlying process. Real-time actions of consumers in the digital world now lead to much more meaningful and actionable insights than any simulated research method of the past. I look forward to helping our FMCG clients become successful in today’s VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) world.”
Commenting on the appointment, Lalit Bhagia said, “Shashank’s rich experience in FMCG and new-age marketing will be a huge advantage for us. With Shashank coming on board, we have started our journey to move from a horizontal only consulting organisation (customer relationship management & loyalty, martech, customer experience etc) to creating vertical industry-focused practices too. Our FMCG clients will see an increase in value with this rich confluence of horizontal and vertical expertise.”
Sharma is an IIFT (Delhi) MBA alumnus with a keen passion for the digital transformation of businesses. He has also published several research articles on decoding consumer behaviour in the digital space.
Brands
Ujjwal Jain steps down from PhonePe’s Share.Market to start new chapter
Founder behind WealthDesk and OpenQ exits after decade-long fintech journey
BENGALURU: Ujjwal Jain, the entrepreneur behind platforms such as WealthDesk and OpenQ, has stepped down from his role as chief executive of Share.Market, the investing platform backed by PhonePe, marking the end of a decade-long journey in India’s capital markets space.
In a reflective note, Jain described his journey from launching WealthDesk in 2016 to building a broader ecosystem that eventually became part of PhonePe. Over the years, his ventures focused on bringing data-driven investing tools and model portfolios closer to retail investors, a space that has seen rapid evolution alongside the rise of discount broking.
WealthDesk introduced curated “WealthBaskets” to simplify portfolio investing, while OpenQ expanded access to quantitative research and analytics. Both platforms were later acquired by PhonePe, forming the backbone of Share.Market, which Jain helped scale as a mass-market investing product.
Calling the experience “brutal” yet deeply fulfilling, Jain credited colleagues, investors and industry partners for shaping the journey, highlighting the role of the PhonePe team in building Share.Market into a large-scale platform.
His exit comes at a time when artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape financial services globally. Jain indicated that his next move will focus on this shift, hinting at a renewed push into the intersection of AI and capital markets.
Prior to his entrepreneurial stint, Jain worked with MSCI Inc. on index products and technology, and with D. E. Shaw India Financial Services in algorithmic trading and high-frequency systems.
While he has not disclosed specifics of his next venture, Jain framed the move not as a departure but a reset, signalling that his next chapter will aim to tackle even larger challenges in India’s evolving investment landscape.
With one chapter closed and another underway, the focus now shifts to what Jain builds next in an increasingly AI-first financial world.
