MAM
Kantar appoints Efrain Ribeiro as chief research officer
MUMBAI: WPP’s data investment management arm Kantar has appointed Efrain Ribeiro as its chief research officer (CRO), effective 1 November.
Ribeiro takes over the role from Renee Smith, who is leaving to join the Colorado-based research company GutCheck.
He was previously CRO of Kantar subsidiary Lightspeed Research.
As Kantar CRO, he will drive both quality and innovation across its 12 operating companies, especially in the fast-developing area of mobile research, and act as a catalyst for collaboration with the operating company teams on the development of new products and solutions.
Kantar president Wayne Levings said, “In Efrain, we have the ideal replacement for Renee. He has almost 40 years of experience and will be able to both pick up and continue to drive our research agenda, which includes putting mobile first and bringing technology to the heart of what we do.”
“I’d like to thank Renee for her valuable contribution over the past five years. She has been an inspirational CRO and a very popular colleague and we all wish her well for the future,” Levings added.
MAM
Gurpreet Singh named President of DishTV Alumni Network
Former Dish TV executive to lead community building and collaboration.
MUMBAI: Back to the dish, but this time it’s about connections, not channels Gurpreet Singh is returning to familiar territory with a new mandate that swaps subscribers for relationships. Singh has been appointed President of the DishTV Alumni Network, a move aimed at strengthening ties among former employees and building a more engaged professional community around the Dish TV ecosystem. The initiative reflects a growing trend among large organisations to formalise alumni networks as platforms for collaboration, mentorship and business opportunities.
The appointment draws on Singh’s deep-rooted history with Dish TV, where he held multiple leadership roles over nearly a decade. As National Business Head between June 2019 and September 2020, he oversaw profit and loss as well as operations, managing revenues of Rs 6,000 crore and leading a team of around 1,250 employees across the country. His tenure included working alongside two regional business heads and 16 circle heads, underscoring the scale of operations he handled.
Prior to that, Singh served as Executive Vice President and National Head for Sales and Revenue from 2016 to 2019, and earlier as Senior Vice President and National Head for Sales and Revenue. He also briefly led international operations as Country Head for Sri Lanka, further expanding his exposure across markets.
His broader career spans leadership roles across telecom and consumer businesses, including a stint as Chief Operating Officer at Bharti Airtel’s Malawi operations, senior leadership roles at Reliance Communications, and earlier positions at Hindustan Sanitaryware and Kodak India, where he spent over a decade.
In his new role, Singh is expected to focus on reconnecting former employees, fostering collaboration, and building a structured alumni ecosystem that leverages shared experience and industry networks. As companies increasingly recognise the long-term value of their extended workforce, the DishTV Alumni Network appears set to turn nostalgia into a strategic asset, one connection at a time.
