MAM
BasicFirst appoints Ravi Kapoor as head of sales
Mumbai: BasicFirst Inc, a Jharkhand Innovation Lab-selected ed-tech startup, on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ravi Kapoor as head of sales for its India operation.
Kapoor is joining the startup with close to three decades of diverse experience in sales, service excellence, order management, and business operations and will drive the expansion of BasicFirst’s sales team across the country.
“We have had a long-standing relationship with Ravi as one of the key distributors for BasicFirst. We are delighted to welcome him to our leadership team,” stated BasicFirst Inc founder and CEO Randhir Kumar. “He comes with an exceptional capability of developing and implementing organisational strategies, and we are confident that his skills and expertise will aid BasicFirst to embark on the next phase of growth and realise our mission to provide one-of-a-kind best possible education to five million students by mid-2022.”
Kapoor is a seasoned professional with a proven track record in local market strategies and programmes for the execution of the business. He holds strong business and financial acumen with a deep understanding of the economic drivers of various sized and startup businesses including experience and success in managing a large P&L budget.
Before joining BasicFirst, he worked with various known brands like Deutsche Quality System, Aircel, Tata Communications Ltd, and Eureka Forbes.
“I am excited to be associated with BasicFirst. As a partner, I have been associated with BasicFirst for a long time, and over the years I have personally observed the constant growth and expansion of the startup across markets,” stated Ravi Kapoor. “I look forward to contributing to the organization’s progress and helping build, scale, and make BasicFirst the most preferred e-learning platform for students across the country.”
MAM
Dentsu appoints Sumit Kohli head of investment – APAC
Former Publicis Media executive to drive client-first, data-led media investment strategies across the region
SINGAPORE: Dentsu has bolstered its Asia-Pacific leadership bench, appointing Sumit Kohli as head of investment – APAC, as the network sharpens its focus on disciplined, outcome-driven media spending in a volatile advertising market.
Kohli, a media veteran with nearly two decades of experience, steps into the role after an 11-year stint at Publicis Media, where he most recently served as APAC executive director, investment, accountability and partnerships. His mandate at dentsu is clear: align investment decisions more tightly with client priorities while delivering measurable, high-impact results.
Based in Singapore, Kohli will steer regional investment strategy across both digital and offline channels, with a strong emphasis on accountability, transparency and performance metrics. His appointment comes as agencies face mounting pressure from clients to justify every rupee spent amid shifting consumption patterns and the rapid rise of data-led media buying.
At Publicis Media, Kohli led initiatives around measurement frameworks and ROI-driven planning, working across key markets including Singapore and Thailand. He also handled marquee clients such as Coca-Cola, Samsung, Mars-Wrigley and LVMH, building long-term partnerships and driving efficiencies in media investment.
Earlier stints at MediaCom Singapore, VivaKi and MEC saw him cut his teeth across planning, trading and negotiation, managing 360-degree media mandates and scaling digital spends for key accounts. He began his career as a media planner at Percept, steadily moving up the ranks as the industry pivoted towards integrated, cross-platform strategies.
Kohli’s move underscores dentsu’s push to double down on strategic investment leadership as advertisers demand sharper returns and greater accountability. With media fragmentation accelerating and digital commanding an ever-larger share of budgets, the battle is no longer just about reach—it is about precision, performance and proof.
In that race, dentsu is placing its bets on Kohli to turn every media rupee into a measurable advantage.
