MAM
Pooja Sondhi gets HR handle at Adomantra to drive growth playbook
MUMBAI: She’s not just hiring, she’s here to rewire. In a strategic move to anchor its growth plans with a strong people backbone, Adomantra Digital India Pvt. Ltd has roped in Pooja Sondhi as its new chief human resources officer (CHRO). The appointment signals the company’s intent to double down on its talent-first philosophy while expanding operations across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
Armed with over 20 years of HR experience, Pooja is no stranger to driving scale. A certified POSH trainer and two-time HR award winner “HR Professional of the Year” (HR+L&D Innovation Summit 2024) and one of the “50 HR Innovators” (World HRD Congress 2023) she’s known for her sharp people insights, strategic acumen, and change-making credentials. Her resume spans stints at Dainik Jagran, JCDecaux, Vcommission Media, and Aargus Global Logistics, giving her a ringside view into both legacy and new-age organisations.
At Adomantra, she’ll steer HR across its growing business hubs, with a focus on building a high-performance, inclusive, and agile culture. As part of the company’s FY 2026 roadmap, Adomantra aims to onboard new hires and expand its business footprint placing Sondhi at the centre of this scale-up engine.
“We are thrilled to have Pooja on board,” said Adomantra Digital India and Adotrip Group founder & CEO Vikas Katoch. “Her people-first mindset and strategic sharpness are exactly what we need as we grow across verticals. She brings both depth and direction to our HR vision.”
Sondhi, for her part, is already rolling up her sleeves. “This is an exciting moment in Adomantra’s journey,” she said. “Together, we’ll build a workplace where growth and empathy go hand in hand because a great business starts with great people.”
With her at the helm, Adomantra seems ready to not just chase targets, but to truly humanise hypergrowth, one hire, one culture shift, one strategy at a time.
AD Agencies
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.
