MAM
Ashwanii Dandonaa joins Brut India as chief commercial officer
NEW DELHI: Brut India has brought a familiar rainmaker into its corner. Ashwanii Dandonaa has been appointed chief commercial officer, tasking him with sharpening the digital publisher’s commercial edge while staying true to its distinctive editorial tone.
With over two decades of experience across digital media, branded content and business development, Dandonaa arrives with a reputation for turning conversations into commerce. Most recently, he served as business head for branded partnerships at Fork Media Group, where he helped scale revenue across platforms including Curly Tales, Mashable and IGN, while also building a pan-India government business vertical from the ground up.
In his new role, Dandonaa will focus on driving sustainable revenue growth, forging meaningful brand partnerships and ensuring Brut’s commercial ambitions move in sync with its bold storytelling. Announcing the move, he said he was excited to begin the next chapter at Brut India and thanked Mehak Kasbekar, Elsa Darquier and Claude Lesterlin for the opportunity.
From television heavyweights like Star India, NDTV and Viacom18 to digital-first newsrooms such as The Quint and Arré, Dandonaa’s career has spanned nearly every shade of the media spectrum. At Brut India, that breadth of experience now finds a new stage, one where culture, content and commerce meet in the scroll.
MAM
Beacon Group appoints Dr Rajesh Patel as Group CEO
36-year healthcare veteran to lead Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek, Biogeny.
MUMBAI: A new chief, a fresh diagnosis and a sharper prescription for growth. Beacon Group has appointed Dr Rajesh Patel as its Group Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1, 2026, signalling a decisive push to scale its presence in the diagnostics and IVD space. Patel steps into the role with 36 years of experience across the healthcare and diagnostics industry, bringing a career shaped by leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, business development and operational strategy. His mandate is both expansive and precise: to steer the group’s overall strategic direction while tightening coordination across its three core entities Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek and Biogeny Diagnostics.
In practical terms, that means driving cross-company synergies, accelerating market expansion and strengthening organisational capability areas increasingly critical as diagnostic players compete for scale in a fragmented yet rapidly evolving healthcare ecosystem. The group is positioning itself to capture unmet demand across chain laboratories, key accounts and standalone labs, segments that remain underserved despite growing diagnostic needs.
The appointment comes at a time when the In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) sector in India is entering a more competitive and innovation-led phase, with companies focusing not just on product pipelines but also on service delivery, integration and customer-centric models. Beacon’s leadership appears to be betting that Patel’s execution-focused approach can help translate ambition into operational momentum.
Welcoming the appointment, Chairman Dr D K Joshi described Patel’s induction as a strategic move aligned with the group’s long-term vision, emphasising the role of leadership depth in navigating the next phase of growth.
For Beacon Group, the message is clear, in a sector where precision matters, leadership is the new differentiator—and this appointment is intended to set the tone for what comes next.
