MAM
Nazneen Kashikar snags GM marketing role at Burger King
MUMBAI: It’s been four months since she has joined Burger King India, but she’s chosen to make the announcement just as Christmas is approaching. Nazneen Kashikar took to Linkedin a short while ago to tell the world that she has been appointed as general manger marketing at Restaurant Brands Asia which runs the Burger King chain in India.
Prior to this, Nazneen was a partner digital at Mindshare India, a position she occupied for nearly three years. The botany graduate and post-graduate diploma holder (in advertising and public relations) began her career as a senior research associate at Communicate2 where she stayed for three years working on return on marketing investment and performance marketing and digital campaigns.
From there onwards, she got herself going and exposing herself to a variety of roles by doing short stints at companies like Quikr, Sokrati, Equitymaster Agora Research, Liqvd Asia, India Circus, Di-Mentions Studios, Pyxis One, and Asymmetrique. Nazneen has had longer assignments of two years or so with iProspect and GroupM in between the short stints.
Said Nazneen on linkedin: “Excited to contribute, grow, and be a part of this amazing team.”
MAM
Beacon Group appoints Dr Rajesh Patel as Group CEO
36-year healthcare veteran to lead Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek, Biogeny.
MUMBAI: A new chief, a fresh diagnosis and a sharper prescription for growth. Beacon Group has appointed Dr Rajesh Patel as its Group Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1, 2026, signalling a decisive push to scale its presence in the diagnostics and IVD space. Patel steps into the role with 36 years of experience across the healthcare and diagnostics industry, bringing a career shaped by leadership roles spanning sales, marketing, business development and operational strategy. His mandate is both expansive and precise: to steer the group’s overall strategic direction while tightening coordination across its three core entities Beacon Diagnostics, Vector Biotek and Biogeny Diagnostics.
In practical terms, that means driving cross-company synergies, accelerating market expansion and strengthening organisational capability areas increasingly critical as diagnostic players compete for scale in a fragmented yet rapidly evolving healthcare ecosystem. The group is positioning itself to capture unmet demand across chain laboratories, key accounts and standalone labs, segments that remain underserved despite growing diagnostic needs.
The appointment comes at a time when the In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) sector in India is entering a more competitive and innovation-led phase, with companies focusing not just on product pipelines but also on service delivery, integration and customer-centric models. Beacon’s leadership appears to be betting that Patel’s execution-focused approach can help translate ambition into operational momentum.
Welcoming the appointment, Chairman Dr D K Joshi described Patel’s induction as a strategic move aligned with the group’s long-term vision, emphasising the role of leadership depth in navigating the next phase of growth.
For Beacon Group, the message is clear, in a sector where precision matters, leadership is the new differentiator—and this appointment is intended to set the tone for what comes next.
