MAM
Rabinder Thirumurthy is Wavemaker MENA CEO
MUMBAI: Wavemaker, the media, content and technology company, has named Rabinder Thirumurthy as CEO for the MENA region.
Also known as Rabe Iyer, he joins from GroupM India’s media agency Motivator where he was managing director in Delhi. He will shift to Dubai officially from 10 June.
Commenting on the development, Wavemaker global president of marketing development Ajit Varghese said, “I’ve known Rabe since he joined Motivator and I’ve always been impressed by his commitment to excellence. He’s a proven leader with strong business acumen and I’m sure that he, together with our fantastic leadership team across the region, is perfectly positioned to make Wavemaker MENA a formidable future-facing agency.”
GroupM MENA CEO Filip Jabbour said, “Rabe is a great plus for Wavemaker; he has the skill, the vision and the deep understanding of our industry to lead and grow our business in the region.”
Iyer added, “Wavemaker’s ambition, it’s obsession with the purchase journey and desire to connect and scale its capabilities, is exciting. I believe that MENA has a large potential for growth and I look forward to working with the talented team here to deliver on the agency’s ambition across the region.”
His successor at Motivator will be announced soon.
MAM
Kantar appoints Biswaroop C as Southeast Asia growth chief
Former Toluna MD to lead commercial growth across Southeast Asia markets.
MUMBAI: In a world chasing algorithms, growth still seems to come down to one thing, understanding people better than spreadsheets do. Biswaroop C is stepping into that very equation, joining Kantar as chief growth officer for Southeast Asia. The mandate is clear drive commercial growth across the region at a time when the insights industry is being reshaped by artificial intelligence and evolving client expectations.
Biswaroop shared the update via LinkedIn, signalling both a career move and a shift in focus. While acknowledging the growing influence of AI in how insights are generated, he underscored that the fundamentals of the business remain unchanged: trust, context, and the ability to decode what clients really mean not just what they say in a brief.
Drawing on his experience across APAC and Africa, he noted that businesses ultimately value partners who can go beyond formal mandates and engage with underlying concerns. It is a perspective that aligns with Kantar’s push to blend data-driven intelligence with deeper human understanding.
He joins from Toluna, where he served as managing director in Singapore, bringing regional leadership experience and a track record in scaling insights-led businesses.
As Kantar sharpens its growth play in Southeast Asia, Biswaroop’s role will centre on working closely with teams across markets navigating a landscape where technology may be rewriting the tools, but relationships continue to write the outcomes.
