MAM
Lodestar UM wins 11 Media Abbys; HT Media takes home 6 publisher awards
GOA: The ninth edition of GoaFest has come as a good surprise for Lodestar UM. The agency won 11 Media Abbys and has thus come out as the clear winner in the crowd. Mindshare with seven Media Abbys came second, while Milestone Brandcom and PHD India won five Media Abbys each to secure the third position.
Of the total 50 Media Abbys which were given out on Day 1 of GoaFest, PHD India emerged as the only agency to have received a Grand Pix. The agency bagged the award for its ‘Be Beautiful’ campaign. This year GoaFest received 619 entries from agencies for Media Abbys out of which 150 were shortlisted. 50 of them made it to the winners list.
The final judging process was done only in the presence of media agencies heads. Only one representative from a network group was taken on board, who couldn’t vote for any of its agencies’ entries. There were two preliminary rounds before the finalists were chosen. The shortlisted entries were put on the official website of GoaFest for easy access and transparency.
The other set of awards that were given out on Day 1 were from the publisher category which is a new entrant in Abbys this year. The category received around 63 entries. In this category, while BBCL got five awards, Hindustan Media Ventures received six.
The Advertising Club and chairman of the Awards Governing Council president Pratap Bose mentioned that the effort to add publisher category is to reward the work coming from a platform that connects the media and advertising agencies.
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Click here for to the Media Abby result Sheet
Brands
Boeing appoints Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering function
Seasoned finance leader to steer budgets and strategy across global centres
BENGALURU: Boeing’s finance cockpit has a new pilot, and he is no stranger to turbulence or transformation. Boeing has appointed Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering, placing him at the centre of financial strategy for its worldwide engineering and technology operations.
Based in Bengaluru, Barun steps into a role that is as expansive as it is critical. He will serve as the primary finance lead for Boeing’s Engineering and Technology Centers globally, working closely with executive leadership to shape financial decisions, manage complex budgets, and design scalable finance processes that support the company’s growing engineering footprint.
In a note announcing his move Barun said, “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Boeing Global Engineering. This opportunity is incredibly meaningful to me not just from a professional standpoint, but also for what Boeing represents globally.” He added that he looks forward to contributing to an organisation that continues to shape the future of aerospace and innovation.
Barun’s mandate spans strategic financial leadership, operational oversight, and stakeholder engagement. From directing large-scale budgets and schedules to influencing long-term organisational goals, the role blends financial discipline with business foresight. He will also lead cross-functional teams and partner with finance colleagues worldwide to support engineering programmes across geographies, including India.
The appointment caps a long stint at Juniper Networks, where Barun spent over a decade, most recently as finance senior manager. There, he led FP&A for global product business units and G&A functions, driving budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning. He also played a key role in enterprise-wide transformation, including spearheading an Oracle to SAP ERP migration and building advanced analytics capabilities using tools such as Tableau and SAP Analytics Cloud.
His earlier career includes finance leadership roles at Sony India Software Centre, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Mphasis, where he focused on financial planning, governance frameworks, and operational efficiency across global delivery centres.
A chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Barun brings nearly two decades of experience across financial planning, digital transformation, and analytics-led decision making.
His appointment comes at a time when global engineering operations are becoming increasingly complex and distributed, requiring sharper financial oversight and agile planning. With Barun at the helm of FP&A for engineering, Boeing appears to be tightening its financial playbook as it looks to scale innovation with discipline.
