Brands
Clean sweep for style as Specta and Gauri Khan surface a tough truth
MUMBAI: “The designer in me prefers beauty; the mother in me prefers safety.” With one evocative line, Gauri Khan slices straight into the modern Indian homeowner’s dilemma and Specta, the engineered quartz brand, serves it up with a sparkling side of design and conscience. Specta’s latest campaign, fronted by the celebrated interior designer and entrepreneur, poses a deceptively simple question: are your kitchen countertops just pretty to look at, or are they also safe enough to eat off? In an age when style and sanitation are often seen as strange bedfellows, Specta’s quartz surfaces promise to bridge that gap with panache.
In the campaign film, Khan’s voiceover articulates the dual identities of many homeowners aesthetes and caregivers alike and challenges the idea that one must choose between elegance and everyday hygiene. Specta, with its NSF-certified, non-porous, germ- and toxin-free surfaces, makes a compelling case for having it both ways.
“This campaign is about stirring the pot,” said Specta Quartz Surfaces founder Ankit Jain. “We use kitchen surfaces more than we realise and more roughly than we’d like to admit. Yet, the conversation around what’s safe to touch our food, and our families, is largely silent. We wanted to change that.”
Designed with Indian kitchens in mind from oil splatters to hot pots and the occasional atta massacre, Specta’s engineered quartz promises durability without compromising on design. The surfaces have been tailored for both performance and polish, making them fit for fast-paced homes and fastidious designers alike.
The campaign also follows Specta’s continued collaboration with Gauri Khan, including the ‘Gauri Picks’ collection that debuted at the AD Design Show 2024. It reaffirms the brand’s ambition to disrupt the surface segment one hygienic, high-fashion countertop at a time.
So, the next time someone compliments your chic kitchen the only question worth asking might just be: “But can you eat off it?”
Brands
Boeing appoints Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering function
Seasoned finance leader to steer budgets and strategy across global centres
BENGALURU: Boeing’s finance cockpit has a new pilot, and he is no stranger to turbulence or transformation. Boeing has appointed Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering, placing him at the centre of financial strategy for its worldwide engineering and technology operations.
Based in Bengaluru, Barun steps into a role that is as expansive as it is critical. He will serve as the primary finance lead for Boeing’s Engineering and Technology Centers globally, working closely with executive leadership to shape financial decisions, manage complex budgets, and design scalable finance processes that support the company’s growing engineering footprint.
In a note announcing his move Barun said, “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Boeing Global Engineering. This opportunity is incredibly meaningful to me not just from a professional standpoint, but also for what Boeing represents globally.” He added that he looks forward to contributing to an organisation that continues to shape the future of aerospace and innovation.
Barun’s mandate spans strategic financial leadership, operational oversight, and stakeholder engagement. From directing large-scale budgets and schedules to influencing long-term organisational goals, the role blends financial discipline with business foresight. He will also lead cross-functional teams and partner with finance colleagues worldwide to support engineering programmes across geographies, including India.
The appointment caps a long stint at Juniper Networks, where Barun spent over a decade, most recently as finance senior manager. There, he led FP&A for global product business units and G&A functions, driving budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning. He also played a key role in enterprise-wide transformation, including spearheading an Oracle to SAP ERP migration and building advanced analytics capabilities using tools such as Tableau and SAP Analytics Cloud.
His earlier career includes finance leadership roles at Sony India Software Centre, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Mphasis, where he focused on financial planning, governance frameworks, and operational efficiency across global delivery centres.
A chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Barun brings nearly two decades of experience across financial planning, digital transformation, and analytics-led decision making.
His appointment comes at a time when global engineering operations are becoming increasingly complex and distributed, requiring sharper financial oversight and agile planning. With Barun at the helm of FP&A for engineering, Boeing appears to be tightening its financial playbook as it looks to scale innovation with discipline.
