MAM
Promax&BDA launches Road Show 2005 in six US cities
MUMBAI: Encouraged by its memberships’ growing demand for more local market educational and networking opportunities, Promax/BDA is launching a new 2005 edition of its successful Road Show touring seminars event.
The announcement was made today by Promax/BDA CEO Jim Chabin.
Culling participants from the best and most popular speakers from its June conference, Promax&BDA has organised a series of intensive one-day seminar events chalk full of tips, tricks and inspiration for professionals working in electronic media. This year, the Promax/BDA Road Show will run from 18-28 October and visit New York, Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles.
“We’ve designed the Road Shows so that promotion managers will learn long-term strategies and ideas for communicating to wide and sometimes disparate demographics. Broadcast designers will be inspired by a review of the best of what works in design for broadcast promotion. Local affiliates will learn strategies for making their on-air talent famous. Cable and network promotion teams will learn best practices in combating viewer erosion and loss of allegiance. And all Promax&BDA members attending the Road Show events will also have the chance to network and discuss new trends and issues impacting the business of promotion. By increasing our members’ skills set the Promax&BDA Road Show 2005 will also help increase ratings and revenues for those companies that recognize the value of ongoing education and the association’s return on their investment,” said Chabin.
Each stop of the Promax&BDA Road Show will feature a morning “Best Practices” session conducted by Lee Hunt, one of the world’s foremost strategists for media companies. The session will have Hunt presenting an array of outstanding and adaptable practices and techniques as well as a review of the best current promotion and design work in the local marketplace.
Hunt, who has pioneered a new marketing discipline — “break architecture and audience management” — conducts training workshops for television networks in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia. He has launched and branded networks such as Lifetime, VH1, and TNT. Hunt will also present a second morning session focusing on building a strong collaborative process for promotion executives and designers, a long-term goal of the Promax&BDA association.
Afternoon sessions will vary by location, featuring one of the following speakers: Graeme Newell, Karen Vigurs-Stack and Richard Ayoub.
Among the other topics covered in the afternoon sessions are: Combating viewer erosion and loss of allegiance to your station or network; Review of the best in design for broadcast promotion; Communicating to wide and sometimes disparate demographics; Making your show hosts and news anchors stand out from the pack; Specific techniques for building talent recognition; Promoting talent and show content at the same time, while growing ratings; Long-term promotion planning strategies; Forging local and national alliances; Combating poor lead-ins to your newscast; and Embracing podcasting and other wireless trends.
The Promax/BDA Road Show 2005 will visit New York City on 18 October with Lee Hunt and Graham Newell; Atlanta on 19 October with Lee Hunt and Karen Vigurs-Stack; Dallas on 21 October with Lee Hunt and Karen Vigurs-Stack; Toronto on 25 October with Lee Hunt and Richard Ayoub; Chicago on 26 October with Lee Hunt and Graham Newell; and Los Angeles on 28 October with Lee Hunt and Richard Ayoub.
Registration for the Promax/BDA Road Show 2005 is $299 per day for members and $600 per day for non-members.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
