MAM
Mathemedia: Shripad Kulkarni launches podcast for media’s next era
MUMBAI: Shripad Kulkarni, veteran media maven and former ceo of Vizeum, is launching MatheMedia, a first-of-its-kind podcast that promises to crack the code of India’s fast-changing media landscape.
Streaming from 1 September 2025, the long-format series blends a CMO briefing with a masterclass, featuring over 25 industry heavyweights from advertising, tech, publishing, and brand leadership. The opening episode, aptly titled ‘The New Media Code’, will bring together voices such as L.V. Krishnan (TAM Media Research), Puneet Avasthi (Kantar), and Ajay Gupte (WPP Media) to decode the seismic shifts shaking the industry.
“We live in a world of channel chaos, with more platforms and fragmented audiences than ever before,” said MatheMedia, founder, Shripad Kulkarni. “Gone are the days when we could think & work linear & measure with a linear mindset. Today’s marketer faces multiple challenges. With more category entry points, brand assets & personalised messaging needs, brand strategy is being redefined. Brand custodians face growing pressure from a crowded network of channels and partners. It’s time for new rules in strategy, media, measurement, and collaborations.”
The podcast’s 12-episode debut season will tackle hot-button issues: the rise of AI in advertising, quick commerce, evolving consumer journeys, and the urgent need for unified, privacy-compliant measurement systems. Expect candid debates, sharp insights, and a dash of storytelling to simplify complex industry jargons.
Guests lined up include Schbang’s Akshay Gurnani, Google India’s Priya Choudhary, Dentsu Creative Isobar’s Sahil Shah, and India Today’s Vivek Malhotra, to name just a few. Think of it as a roundtable where India’s top media minds redraw the playbook for marketers navigating chaos.
Kulkarni, who has advised marquee brands from Fevicol and BMW to Airbnb and Yes Bank, brings his three-decade expertise and signature wit to the mic. His goal is to help professionals not just adapt to disruption, but shape it.
Episodes will drop every Monday across Spotify, YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram. So, whether you’re a CMO, a curious marketer, or just wondering why your ads keep following you around the internet, MatheMedia might just be the formula you need.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
