MAM
Ethos appoints Vijay Ratnam as India’s managing director
Mumbai: Ethos, the number one online life insurance provider in the U.S. today announces the appointment of Vijay Ratnam as the new India managing director. In this role, Vijay will lead the company’s organizational culture, strategic resource management and planning for growth and expansion in India.
Vijay has over three decades of experience in the tech and IT industry across leading companies in India and overseas. He has been deeply involved in mentoring talent and talent management, as well as collaborating across departments, all with an eye on keeping organizational processes efficient and effective.
Vijay spent more than a decade operating and managing in the tech sector across companies in the U.S. Prior to joining Ethos, Vijay held leadership positions at Cohesity, Dgraph Labs, ThoughtSpot, Citrix, NetScaler and Oracle among others.
Ethos CEO Peter Colis said, “Last year Ethos established its India footprint and launched a full-stack office in Bengaluru. We have onboarded a team of high-quality tech talent that is contributing to our overall product innovation, new product launches, and customer experience. The response has been remarkable, and we are excited to see the progress made so far.”
“Our plan is to continue to grow our world-class Engineering and Product teams in India by leveraging the incredible pool of technical talent available locally, and Vijay will be instrumental in helping us achieve this. Ethos India is a strong component of our global workforce, representing nearly all parts of our business. Together, we are poised to achieve remarkable milestones and contribute to Ethos’ continued success on the global stage.”
Ethos India managing director Vijay Ratnam said, “I am thrilled to join the team and embark on this exciting journey at Ethos India. What began as a modest team in 2022 has now evolved into a significant force. India hosts one of the world’s largest reservoirs of tech and analytics talent. Our strategic vision involves establishing a significant business delivery team in India and assembling a cadre of specialists. We aim to achieve our mission of making life insurance accessible and affordable for all, positively impacting the lives of millions.”
Ethos follows a technology-first approach that integrates complex decision flows with a radically simple consumer experience, to get high-quality insurance closer to its customers. In just a short time, the company has become the insurtech leader that continues to transform the life insurance space across the U.S. Headquartered in Austin, it has employees in key technology and startup hubs including Bengaluru, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore and more.
With nearly 95 per cent instant approvals, Ethos has been growing at a significant rate and increasing its year-over-year momentum, and now aims to further expand its technology and product offerings by capitalising on the vast tech, IT, and data analytics talent pool available in India.
As an insurtech company, Ethos has secured significant funding from leading investors in the U.S. and continues to gain customer trust with its unique modern tech approach. Ethos was founded with the goal to simplify estate-related decisions and provide life insurance online in the U.S. Ethos has raised over $400 million from an all-star cast of investors, including – Softbank Vision Fund 2; Sequoia Capital; Accel; GV (formerly Google Ventures); General Catalyst; Jay-Z’s Roc Nation; and the investment vehicles of stars Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr. In 2022, Ethos acquired Tomorrow Ideas and was able to fully integrate its critical financial instruments such as legal wills and trusts, free for its insurance customers, into the Ethos platform.
MAM
WPP appoints Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer
Former Estée Lauder executive to lead operations, technology and culture overhaul under WPP’s three-year growth plan
LONDON: WPP has appointed Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer in a newly created role tasked with delivering the group’s Elevate28 strategy.
Choueiri joins from The Estée Lauder Companies, where she led enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, including the “One ELC” operating model and major upgrades to enterprise marketing, data and analytics capabilities. She also led the redesign of enterprise technology teams and served on the company’s AI taskforce, driving AI strategy, adoption and value realisation across the business.
At WPP, she will be responsible for designing, implementing and embedding the operating model behind Elevate28, the company’s three-year growth plan unveiled in February 2026. She will lead efforts to improve innovation, efficiency and integration across WPP’s client offerings, with a focus on delivering agile, outcome-driven solutions and measurable growth.
Choueiri will oversee organisational transformation across the group, working closely with product and enterprise technology teams to deploy AI, data and technology to build new capabilities and improve operational performance. She will also work with the people function to embed cultural change, strengthen an agile performance mindset and support talent development across the organisation.
Before joining Estée Lauder, she held senior roles across consulting and digital agencies, including at Accenture, Masaï (a Bain & Company spin-off), and Kearney, with experience spanning strategy, data and digital marketing transformation.
Cindy Rose, chief executive officer of WPP, said Choueiri brings a strong track record of leading large-scale transformation across operations, technology and culture, adding that her appointment will help accelerate the group’s next phase of growth under Elevate28.
Choueiri said WPP’s strategy represents an ambitious opportunity to reshape how the company operates and delivers for clients, adding that she looks forward to building integrated solutions and fostering a culture of innovation and change.
She will be based in New York and will join WPP’s executive committee.
