MAM
FCB Kinnect elevates Kejal Teckchandani to EVP – Influencer Outreach
Mumbai: FCB Kinnect has announced the elevation of Kejal Teckchandani from senior vice president to executive vice president of influencer Outreach. The agency has also elevated Mala Sharma to AVP – Influencer Outreach.
Kejal has played a pivotal role in building Kinnect Outreach, now India’s largest and most efficient influencer, celebrity and partnerships desk. Under her guidance, the agency has consistently been ranked as the ‘Influencer Marketing Agency of the Year’ at Campaign Asia and has also bagged three consecutive titles at ET BrandEquity.
Kinnect Outreach is also the only influencer desk in the country to have won global accolades such as Cannes Lions, Clios, One Shows, D&ADs, and more for campaigns like Vigil Aunty (HDFC Bank) and Chatpat (SOSCVI).
During Kejal’s seven years at FCB Kinnect, she has established a data-centric team that transcends traditional influencer buying, marrying data and creativity with a brand-building strategy. She’s also added a dedicated creative team that tackles end-to-end influencer briefs to the existing influencer desk of 50+ at FCB Kinnect.
Together they have worked for the top brands in the country like Amazon, Asian Paints, Google, Intel, Lenovo, ITC Foods, SBI, HDFC Bank, Tata EV, and more. This strong portfolio of work and clients makes Kinnect Outreach the strongest influencer service provider in the country, which has also become the preferred partner of choice for Google and Meta.
What sets Kinnect Outreach apart is its ability to match the right brief with the right creator and ensure the perfect brand fit.
With over 13 years of experience in Finance, Kejal possesses a deep understanding of the critical importance of ROI and value addition for clients. In a highly unorganized market, this has helped her build an influencer business model that delivers cost efficiencies to brands through strong relationships with the influencer community, from top-tier celebrities to localised micro-influencers.
To enhance transparency among clients, she developed KinnectFluence, a proprietary tool and live dashboard that oversees the entire lifecycle of influencer marketing campaigns.
Speaking on the elevation, FCB Kinnect and FCB/SIX India CEO Rohan Mehta said, “With India’s influencer marketing sector projected to reach INR 33.75 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 18 per cent, the impact of influencer marketing is undeniable. For every consumer-facing brand, implementing an influencer strategy is essential. Kejal has done a fantastic job in building and growing Kinnect Outreach, shaping her team to think like a creative agency and execute like a media agency. Under her leadership Kinnect Outreach powers influencer marketing capabilities not only for FCB Kinnect but for the entire Group.”
Influencer executive vice president Kejal Teckchandani added, “Building the leading influencer desk in the country and giving our clients a competitive edge has been incredibly gratifying. Although I come from a background in finance, I found my true calling in advertising, and I couldn’t be happier with this transition. Our goal has always been to harness creativity in influencer marketing to drive economic value for brands. It has been a fantastic journey, and we will continue to invest in data, tools, and people to elevate Kinnect Outreach to even greater heights.”
Brands
Unilever appoints Reema Jain as chief information officer
AI-driven transformation takes centre stage as Jain steps up
MUMBAI: Unilever has appointed Reema Jain as its new chief information officer, signalling a sharper push towards AI-led transformation across the business.
Based in Bengaluru, Jain steps into the role after serving as global vice president digital technology and site lead for Unilever’s global capability center in India. Her appointment marks both a homecoming and a strategic move, placing a seasoned insider at the helm of the company’s global technology agenda.
“Thrilled to step into the role of chief information officer at Unilever,” Jain said in a statement. “This is a powerful moment to accelerate how AI and technology will shape and power our business. I am a true believer that technology can be a powerful force for transformation, for people, for teams, for the way we work and create impact at scale.”
With nearly two decades of experience spanning ERP modernisation, digital supply chains, cloud transformation and enterprise architecture, Jain brings a rare blend of operational rigour and digital ambition.
Before returning to Unilever, she served as chief information and digital officer at Hero MotoCorp, where she spearheaded a sweeping digital overhaul. From building a platform-product structure to launching direct-to-customer plays and a finance aggregator platform, she turned technology into a revenue engine rather than a back-office utility.
She also held the role of chief digital officer at Vodafone Idea Limited, where she helped shape the company’s transition from telco to techco, crafting a digital roadmap designed to unlock new value streams.
Jain’s earlier tenure at Unilever saw her lead digital integration and ERP application management globally, overseeing business-critical SAP systems supporting the company’s multi-billion euro turnover. Her work on API-first platforms and cloud-enabled operating models laid much of the groundwork for the agility the business now seeks to scale with AI.
Her career began at GE, where she rose through roles in oracle technology leadership, operational excellence and lean six sigma, building the foundation of process discipline that continues to underpin her digital transformation philosophy.
Industry observers see her appointment as part of a broader shift across consumer goods companies, where CIOs are no longer simply custodians of systems but architects of intelligence, insight and innovation.
For Unilever, the message is clear. Technology is not just supporting the business. It is shaping it. And with Jain at the controls, the company is betting that AI will move from pilot projects to enterprise-wide impact, faster than ever.
