MAM
Neha Ahuja takes charge as director of growth for Japac at Spotify
MUMBAI: Spotify has named Neha Ahuja director, growth for Japac, tasking her with boosting the music-streaming giant’s user base across Japan, Korea, Australia and Southeast Asia.
Ahuja, a marketing professional with more than 20 years of experience across FMCG, telecom and media, has been with Spotify since 2019. She previously served as head of marketing for India, where she helped launch the service and guided it to market leadership within four years. She also played a key role in building local organisational capability and driving cultural relevance for the brand among India’s youth.
Before Spotify, Ahuja held senior marketing roles at Vodafone and Procter & Gamble, spanning brand strategy, partnerships and consumer marketing. She also sits on the board of Women in Tech India, part of a global movement promoting diversity in Stem.
In her new role, she will oversee strategy, marketing, product-market fit and payments, using data, experimentation and cultural insights to drive both free and premium growth.
“Not every career move is upward—some are outward,” she said. “This one is about building across borders with fresh curiosity and intent.”
MAM
WPP appoints Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer
Former Estée Lauder executive to lead operations, technology and culture overhaul under WPP’s three-year growth plan
LONDON: WPP has appointed Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer in a newly created role tasked with delivering the group’s Elevate28 strategy.
Choueiri joins from The Estée Lauder Companies, where she led enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, including the “One ELC” operating model and major upgrades to enterprise marketing, data and analytics capabilities. She also led the redesign of enterprise technology teams and served on the company’s AI taskforce, driving AI strategy, adoption and value realisation across the business.
At WPP, she will be responsible for designing, implementing and embedding the operating model behind Elevate28, the company’s three-year growth plan unveiled in February 2026. She will lead efforts to improve innovation, efficiency and integration across WPP’s client offerings, with a focus on delivering agile, outcome-driven solutions and measurable growth.
Choueiri will oversee organisational transformation across the group, working closely with product and enterprise technology teams to deploy AI, data and technology to build new capabilities and improve operational performance. She will also work with the people function to embed cultural change, strengthen an agile performance mindset and support talent development across the organisation.
Before joining Estée Lauder, she held senior roles across consulting and digital agencies, including at Accenture, Masaï (a Bain & Company spin-off), and Kearney, with experience spanning strategy, data and digital marketing transformation.
Cindy Rose, chief executive officer of WPP, said Choueiri brings a strong track record of leading large-scale transformation across operations, technology and culture, adding that her appointment will help accelerate the group’s next phase of growth under Elevate28.
Choueiri said WPP’s strategy represents an ambitious opportunity to reshape how the company operates and delivers for clients, adding that she looks forward to building integrated solutions and fostering a culture of innovation and change.
She will be based in New York and will join WPP’s executive committee.
