MAM
Myntra cmo Sunder Balasubramanian quits after nearly four years
The marketing veteran, who previously held leadership roles at Coupang and Disney+ Hotstar and spent nearly 14 years at Colgate-Palmolive, says he is excited for what’s next
BENGALURU: Fashion’s fearless marketer is calling time. Sunder Balasubramanian is set to exit Myntra, the fashion e-commerce platform, after nearly four years as chief marketing officer. He announced on LinkedIn that this week is his last, with a teaser for what follows: he is excited for what’s next, “but that’s a story for later”.
Balasubramanian brings over two decades of marketing experience across consumer tech, FMCG and advertising. Over that time he has built proficiency in driving the growth agenda, marketing and brand strategy, P&L delivery, new category development, digital marketing, innovation strategy, and team management and leadership. At Myntra, where he has been chief marketing officer since November 2022, he leads the customer growth, marketing, creative and catalogue charters.
His career map is a tour of some of the biggest consumer brands in the business. Before Myntra, he was head, international marketing, at Coupang in Seoul, South Korea, from June 2021 to November 2022, where he managed the marketing launch of Coupang in Taiwan and Japan. Before that, at Disney+ Hotstar in Mumbai, from February 2019 to April 2021, he was head of marketing, leading the brand marketing, content marketing and acquisitions mandate for the subscriptions business.
The foundations were laid in FMCG. Balasubramanian spent 13 years and seven months at Colgate-Palmolive, a stint of nearly 14 years across multiple marketing roles. He rose through the ranks in this order:
- District manager, from July 2005 to September 2006.
- Direct trade manager, from October 2006 to July 2008.
- Shopper development manager, from July 2008 to March 2010.
- Brand manager, from April 2010 to October 2012.
- Marketing manager, from November 2012 to June 2015.
- Head, toothbrush, mouthwash and personal care marketing, from July 2015 to April 2016.
- Category head, toothpaste marketing, from May 2016 to January 2019.
As category head at Colgate-Palmolive India, he was responsible for driving the P&L for the $500 million toothpaste business and leading brand and equity growth. Before Colgate, he started out in advertising: as senior account executive at McCann Worldgroup from October 2001 to April 2003, and as account executive at Goldwire Communications from June 2000 to September 2001.
The exit note is warm, and a little playful. Looking back, Balasubramanian said he is proud of what the team built together: “the problems we chose to tackle, the culture of ownership we nurtured, and the drive to keep pushing further every year”. More importantly, he said, there is much to be grateful for. He thanked the leadership team for its guidance, trust and belief in bold ideas: Nandita Sinha, Sharon Pais, Lakshminarayan (LN) Swaminathan, Venu Nair, Suman Prabiir Saha, Raghu Krishnananda, Santosh Kevlani, Govindraj M K, Pramod Adiddam, Abhishek Gupta, Kannan Ganesan, Ritesh Mishra, Sai Deo, Ashish C and Rajan Prasanna.
He also thanked the larger marketing, customer, creative and comms team for making every day feel like a shared mission, for consistently raising the bar and for making it fun. Named in his post are Deepash Jain, Abhishek Gour, Neha Gulati, Kejal Parekh, Khushboo Baderiya, Aparajita Sengupta, Ila Mahapatra, Vijay Sharma, Rajendran C (Rajan), Jubin Kapasi, Monalisa Panda, Haushang Arora, Anirban Bose and Sipika Khandka. In a light-hearted sign-off to them, he hoped they would all hear less of “Creator and GenZ for everything”.
A special shout-out went to the larger Myntra SPIRIT team, whose collaboration, energy and camaraderie made the journey richer than he had imagined. His closing words were a rallying cry: he will always be cheering for Team Myntra, and urged everyone never to forget to WearYourselfFearlessly.
Cmos who move between fashion, streaming, quick-fire e-commerce and toothpaste are rare. Balasubramanian has done all four, and his next chapter is one to watch.
