MAM
Saatchi & Saatchi beefs up creative team
Mumbai: Saatchi & Saatchi is strengthening its creative team with the appointment of Anant Medepalli as creative director and Vihar Patkar as associate creative director.
Both will start their second innings at the agency. Medepalli‘s last stint was with Leo Burnett-Nairobi. Patkar has been with Salt Brand Solutions since 2011.
Besides, Saatchi & Saatchi creative director-Mumbai Mithun Mirji has also been elevated to regional creative director. Based out of Singapore, he will handle Ariel and partnering clients in that country. At present, he works with Saatchi & Saatchi ECD Ashutosh Karkhanis and chief creative officer Ramanuj Shastry on P&G brands – Head & Shoulders and Ariel.
Medepalli was with Saatchi & Saatchi from 2004 to 2009. After spending a couple of years at Leo Burnett, Nairobi, he is back with Saatchi & Saatchi. Meanwhile, Patkar was with Saatchi & Saatchi- Mumbai from 2005 to 2008. In 2008, he had joined Rediffusion Y&R.
Brands
Google Cloud names Vaibhav Gawde as head of customer engineering, Apac data management and database cloud
Tech veteran to lead customer engineering for data and database cloud across Apac
SINGAPORE: Google Cloud has elevated Vaibhav Gawde to head of customer engineering for Apac data management and database cloud, expanding his leadership remit across the Asia Pacific region.
In his new role, Gawde will lead teams that work with some of the region’s largest enterprises, helping them modernise their data foundations and adopt advanced database and cloud technologies. His focus will be on enabling scalable data architectures, accelerating innovation and supporting organisations as they navigate complex digital transformation journeys.
Based in Singapore, Gawde will steer Google Cloud’s customer engineering organisation for its database business across Apac. A key part of his mandate includes shaping the company’s “data-to-AI” go-to-market strategy, positioning modern data infrastructure as a stepping stone for generative AI adoption.
He will also work closely with sales leadership to drive cloud consumption among large enterprises while removing technical roadblocks that often slow digital transformation. Internally, he is tasked with nurturing a practitioner-first culture aimed at attracting and retaining top technical talent across the region.
Gawde joined Google in 2021 and previously served as head of customer engineering for financial services in India before moving into the role of principal architect for financial services across Apac. In those roles, he led C-suite engagements with banks and insurers to design AI-led cloud and data strategies.
Before Google, Gawde spent over a decade at Oracle, where he led India sales consulting and worked on technology strategies spanning cloud infrastructure, databases and enterprise systems for large BFSI and telecom clients.
With more than three decades in enterprise technology, Gawde’s career has moved from building mission-critical infrastructure to helping businesses rethink their data strategy in the age of AI. His latest promotion signals Google Cloud’s growing focus on data platforms as the bedrock of the next wave of digital innovation.
