MAM
Omnicom Group’s Annalect India elevates its executive leadership team
Annalect India on Thursday announced the elevation of their executive leadership team in India. The company will be completing their 10-year milestone journey in India this August as Omnicom’s delivery and capability centre. Annalect India currently has four centres of excellence in Gurugram, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad, with a strength of over 1200+ employees in the field of Tech, creative services, marketing science, media and global shared services.
Effective immediately, Vishal Srivatsava, former president, Annalect India, will be taking up the role of chief executive officer, Annalect India.
In addition, Annalect India is launching three key organizations to drive growth and efficiency in the business outcomes and promoting leaders to take the charge of each.
Operations Organization: Kiran Guruswami has been a partner in the growth journey from day one of Annalect India’s inception for the last 10- years and he will take charge as the chief operating officer. All business units including media services, marketing science, technology services, creative services, global shared services and governance will report to him.
Client Success Organization: Kaushik Srinivasan will take charge as the chief client officer. This team will be responsible for driving our exponential growth and engaging with clients and Omnicom agencies to drive current and emerging capabilities.
People and Culture Organization: Devya Patney will take charge as the chief people and culture officer. All people-centric units (employee experience, talent transformation, talent acquisition, HR services & tech, Annalect India academy, administration, employer branding & communication) will report to her.
All the above leaders will continue to report to Vishal Srivastava.
Speaking on the occasion, Annalect Group chief financial officer & chief operating officer Steve Tobengauz said, “We will be celebrating our 10-year anniversary this August. So far this year, we have witnessed immense growth in talent, and support from Omnicom Group partners. We are confident of our strategy given the solid results and are going to double this year and expected to quadruple in next few years.
Our vision will require us to rethink our operating model, and ways of working. To help lead through this we are initially focusing on evolving our leadership structure to ensure that our people, agency partners and clients are supported. Vishal and the executive leadership team have been instrumental in the company’s success. I’m inspired by Vishal’s leadership with genuine concern for our people and culture. It goes without saying that none of this would be possible without the support of the entire rockstar Annalect India management team.”
Newly elevated Vishal Srivastava added, “I take immense pride and satisfaction in leading such an amazing group of talent at Annalect India. As I take on the role of CEO, I also believe it takes a team to get the job done and support from everyone as we work towards it. I am privileged and thankful to be surrounded by great leaders in this organization. We are excited about the great future of our organization and the business value it delivers to Omnicom agencies and their clients”
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
