IBM names Tuhina Pandey marketing chief for Asia Pacific 

BENGALURU: Tuhina Pandey is moving up, and moving fast. IBM has named her vice president, marketing for Asia Pacific, a job that puts her at the controls of the tech giant’s client agenda across one of the world’s most crowded, competitive and consequential markets.

The promotion caps a whirlwind stint at IBM. Pandey joined in April 2020 as communications leader for India and South Asia, was elevated to cmo and director of marketing and communications for the same patch in January 2023, and by April 2025 was wearing two hats: director, apac communications and cmo, India and South Asia, simultaneously. Now, just over six years after walking through IBM’s doors, she runs marketing for the whole region.

Her brief: orchestrate IBM’s full arsenal to solve clients’ thorniest problems, and lean hard on partners to scale that impact across apac, a region she describes, with characteristic flourish, as one that doesn’t just fuel global growth but defines its “anthropology.”

Pandey’s path to the corner office was anything but conventional. Before IBM, she spent over two years leading global corporate communications and public affairs at Tech Mahindra, having earlier run BI and analytics sales across Europe for the same firm. Further back still lies a life in journalism: five years as associate editor covering the technology beat at NDTV Profit, stints running Ananto and Media Training Worldwide as vice president, and a spell curating her own outfit, tuCom. A business journalist turned communications chief turned marketing supremo: the arc reads like a masterclass in reinvention.

She isn’t going quietly. Pandey used her exit note from the India job to thank Bengaluru’s marketing, communications and csr community, and singled out Hans Dekkers, Juhi McClelland and Jen Knecht for backing the move. The message was equal parts gratitude and swagger, a nod to “Namma Bengaluru” here, a rocket emoji there.

One thing is certain: with Pandey now steering marketing for the whole of apac, IBM’s story in the region just got a far louder megaphone.