MAM
IndiaFirst Life elevates Dr. Poonam Tandon as the Chief Investment Officer
IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Limited (IndiaFirst Life), promoted by Bank of Baroda (BoB) and Union Bank of India (UBI), announced the elevation of Dr. Poonam Tandon as the firm’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO), effective August 1, 2020. As one of the earliest members of IndiaFirst Life, Poonam has significantly contributed to the organisation’s commitment to continuous improvement.
IndiaFirst Life has had a steep growth curve since its inception in November 2009. It has ended FY20 with an AUM of INR 14,723 crore. IndiaFirst Life offers both, Group and Retail policies that offer customers exposure across Debt and Equity funds. In her new role, Poonam will oversee IndiaFirst Life’s investment division and manage asset allocation and investment strategies across asset classes.
Congratulating Poonam, RM Vishakha, MD & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Limited, said, “Poonam is a highly qualified and experienced investment leader in the Financial Services sector. She has been instrumental in the advancement of IndiaFirst Life’s growth by bringing in the right combination of investment discipline and passion for innovation. Poonam’s elevation as the CIO is a reflection of IndiaFirst Life’s strong HR policies and people practices. In her new role, Poonam will contribute immensely to our commitment to optimise returns to all stakeholders through appropriate investment strategies.”
In her decade long association with the organisation, she has managed several portfolios across Corporate Group Funds, Traditional and ULIP Debt Funds, Asset Allocation for Equity Investment. She has been instrumental in her contribution to Asset Liability Committee (ALCO) and to Product Pricing.
With an illustrious career spanning over 26 years in the financial services sector, Poonam is an accomplished veteran with experience and insight into financial markets and investment management in the banking and financial services sector. A B.Com (Hons) graduate, Poonam is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, with a PGD in Business Management. She has earned a PhD in Financial Management from NMIMS, Mumbai
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
