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Ex-PepsiCo marketing director Vani Gupta joins Hypersonic
MUMBAI: Vani Gupta, PepsiCo’s former marketing director has joined Hypersonic as a founder member and will lead the consumer innovation practice. Her expertise in marketing consumer-centric innovations will drive the innovation marketing and category management for Hypersonic’s clients across industries that include FMCG, IT, media, telecom, healthcare, real estate, and e-commerce.
On her appointment Gupta said, “I love demonstrating impactful growth through consumer thinking. Hypersonic is an ideal fit at this stage of my career as it allows me to work on multiple innovations and varied marketing challenges, that would benefit from the hands-on intervention of the Hypersonic team,” according to adageindia.in.
Prior to PepsiCo, she had a rewarding stint with Unilever where she led the successful launch of a hair care range for colored hair across South East Asia and South Asia. Before Unilever, Vani worked with Reckitt Benckiser, where she launched Veet in India and crafted a success model for emerging markets.
Hypersonic Advisory was founded in 2017, by a team of leading industry experts with 100+ years of combined experience. They work on site with their client teams, thereby strengthening a company’s own capability to scale and achieve their next level of growth. Hypersonic is unique as it commits to its solutions by linking pay-out to measurable results.
Hypersonic Advisory co-founder Venkatesh Rangachari said, “Vani is a recognised leader in the marketing field and her creative-technical acumen will be a valuable asset to our clients. Vani has a track record of bringing innovations successfully to the market. She compliments Hypersonic’s ethos of being effective doers. We’re excited to welcome Vani to our founding team and are the stronger for it.”
After joining PepsiCo India in 2011, she revived Kurkure and boosted the growth to double digits. Her roles in the two decades has been managing cross-cultural teams, complex brand, and product launches, and developing innovation mixes for different markets.
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Reed Hastings to exit Netflix board as company posts steady growth
Shares dip 8 per cent as cofounder exits; revenue up 16 per cent to $12.25 billion.
MUMBAI- When the man who taught the world to binge decides to log off, the credits don’t just roll, they reset the script. Reed Hastings is set to step away from Netflix, marking the end of a defining chapter for a company that reshaped global entertainment even as its latest numbers suggest a business finding firmer footing.
Hastings, who co-founded Netflix nearly three decades ago and transformed it from a DVD-by-mail service into a streaming powerhouse, will not stand for re-election at the company’s annual meeting in June. While the company offered little detail on his next move beyond philanthropy and personal pursuits, the symbolic weight of his departure was immediate. Shares fell around 8 per cent following the announcement, underlining how closely Hastings remains tied to investor confidence and the company’s long-term vision.
The exit comes at a moment of recalibration. Netflix has been working to stabilise growth after a period of strategic turbulence, including the loss of a high-profile $72 billion deal involving Warner Bros. Discovery to Paramount Skydance, a setback that raised fresh questions about its ambitions in large-scale content consolidation. Yet, if the deal slipped, the fundamentals appear to be holding.
For the first quarter, Netflix reported revenue growth of 16 per cent to $12.25 billion, slightly ahead of expectations, while earnings per share nearly doubled to $1.23 from 66 cents a year ago. The company reaffirmed its full-year outlook, projecting double-digit revenue growth, expanding margins and strong free cash flow signals aimed squarely at calming post-announcement jitters.
In its shareholder communication, Netflix struck a careful balance between legacy and continuity. Its mission, it reiterated, remains unchanged: to serve a global audience with diverse storytelling across languages and cultures. The message was clear—while a founder may exit, the playbook stays in motion.
At the same time, the company is quietly redrawing that playbook. Netflix is leaning into newer formats such as video podcasts and live programming, including events like the World Baseball Classic in Japan, reflecting a broader industry shift where streaming, television and live experiences increasingly overlap. Advertising, once an afterthought in its subscription-first model, is now moving centre stage, with the company projecting ad revenues of $3 billion in 2026 roughly double current levels.
Still, some questions linger in the wings. Chief among them is how Netflix plans to deploy the $2.8 billion termination fee from the collapsed Warner Bros deal. With competition for premium content intensifying, capital allocation decisions in the coming quarters could prove as consequential as the leadership transition itself.
For now, Netflix finds itself in a familiar paradox: a company built on disruption navigating continuity. Hastings may be stepping off the stage, but the show by design goes on.
