MAM
Shaadi.com’s ex-CTO Siddharth Sharma onboards with InVideo
NEW DELHI: Online video editing platform InVideo has appointed Siddharth Sharma as its new chief technology officer. An IIM alumnus, Sharma has contributed to the growth of several start-ups and big brands in his career. His latest stint was in matchmaking portal Shaadi.com.
InVideo CEO Sanket Shah said, “We are building the best tech team in India. With SVS coming in, I’m looking forward to a rock-solid tech team and culture.”
Sharma said, “I am really excited to become a part of this team. InVideo is solving a very hard technical problem in a blue ocean space. The startup energy is unbeatable and coupled with the rigour of the process, it makes for very thrilling engineering and to lead this team is a great privilege. I am humbled with this opportunity and look forward to contributing to InVideo’s skyrocketing growth.”
He added, “I believe that people in the trenches should be fully autonomous, able to take decisions that align with the company’s goals by serving the user better. And it’s the job of leadership to set the context, the guardrails, and then get out of the way.”
The development comes after the brand launched a unique hiring initiative that featured popular stand-up comic Rahul Subramanian. In probably a first, InVideo leveraged LinkedIn’s algorithm to reach out to engineers from all over the country.
AD Agencies
Omnicom Advertising Asia assembles new regional leadership team
The group is betting that a blend of creative talent, cultural intelligence and AI-driven data can help brands stay relevant in the world’s most complex marketing region.
Asia has long been the market that humbles the overconfident. Omnicom Advertising Asia is determined not to be among them.
The group announced on Monday the formation of a new regional leadership team of six senior executives, reporting to Sean Donovan, president of OA Asia. The structure is designed to help brands navigate a fragmented, fast-moving consumer landscape and build what Donovan calls “long-term cultural relevance” — the kind that survives a news cycle, a platform shift and an algorithm update.
The team
The six appointments span creativity, innovation, strategy, intelligence, business development and marketing, covering the full arc from brand idea to commercial outcome.
Peter Khoury takes on the role of chief creative officer for OA Asia, Melissa Daniels becomes chief innovation officer, and Emmanuel Sabbagh steps up as chief strategy officer. All three take on expanded regional responsibilities while retaining their leadership positions at TBWA\Singapore.
Andreas Krasser broadens his remit to chief client partner for OA Asia, continuing simultaneously as chief executive of OA Hong Kong. Ellie Brocklehurst joins as chief growth and marketing officer, drawing on her previous stint as chief marketing officer for Asia at TBWA. Rounding out the team is S. Subramanyeswar, known in the industry as Subbu, who was appointed chief knowledge officer for OA Asia alongside his role as chief strategy officer of OA India, a position that followed the close of Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG.The pitch
The team will work in close collaboration with leadership across TBWA, McCann and BBDO throughout the OA Asia network, with a brief to cut through the noise of today’s consumer landscape and deliver creative solutions that, in the group’s framing, prove short-term performance while building long-term brand health.
Underpinning the new structure is OMNI, Omnicom’s AI-driven marketing intelligence platform. The platform draws cultural intelligence from across the group’s agency brands, with the stated aim of ensuring that data is not merely accurate but grounded in context — reflecting how people actually think, feel and behave, rather than how a spreadsheet might prefer them to.
Donovan frames the proposition in straightforward terms. “Asia is one of the most complex regions for marketers, but the opportunity here is immense,” he says. “We’ve built a team that simplifies the landscape, combining top talent with an Asia-first, future-focused mindset, and unprecedented access to resources.” The model, he adds, is designed to be plug-and-play, responding to client needs in collaboration with agencies and markets across the region. “More than expertise, it’s about giving clients the perspective, ambition and access to think beyond the next campaign.”
The new structure also strengthens connections across the broader Omnicom family, including its media, production and PR operations — a post-acquisition suite of capabilities that the group is evidently keen to deploy as a single, coherent offering.
In a region where consumer attention is fractured across dozens of platforms, languages and cultures, the real test will not be the org chart. It will be whether six smart people with the right tools can actually make brands matter. Omnicom is putting its money on yes.
