MAM
Tata Motors’ Shubhranshu Singh earns spot on Forbes’ 2025 list of world’s top CMOs at Cannes
MUMBAI: Some marketers chase trends.
Others shape them.
At the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Forbes tipped its hat to the latter by naming Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles CMO Shubhranshu Singh to its coveted World’s Most Influential CMOs list. Singh’s inclusion marks a high point in a career defined by strategic clarity, brand building, and sharp cultural insight.
Forbes announced the list this week, spotlighting global marketing leaders who go beyond campaigns to redefine culture, drive purpose, and deliver business impact. It assessed contenders on digital engagement, campaign effectiveness, media visibility, and community resonance—placing Singh among the likes of Apple’s Greg Joswiak, Google’s Lorraine Twohill, and L’Oréal’s Asmita Dubey.
“Being named to the Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs List is more than an accolade—it is a recognition of marketing’s evolving role as a driver of business value, social relevance, and global reputation. CMOs on this list are not only architects of brand strategy but also leaders who influence culture, champion innovation, and create lasting business impact across industries and geographies”, Forbes noted.
Known for leading transformative brand campaigns at Tata Motors, Singh has positioned the commercial vehicle division as a symbol of trust and innovation. His digital-first approach and focus on aligning business goals with societal narratives have drawn industry-wide admiration. His leadership reflects the new breed of marketers—part strategist, part storyteller, and full-time change-maker.
“Shubhranshu Singh, stalwart marketeer, columnist and thought leader currently serving as chief marketing officer of Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles, has been named to this year’s prestigious list, placing him among the most influential voices in global marketing today”, the announcement added.
Singh’s recent appointment to the inaugural board of the Effie Lions Foundation further signals his growing influence. The nonprofit, headquartered in New York, aims to nurture diverse marketing talent worldwide. As a board member, Singh will help shape the future of industry leadership with a lens on inclusivity and global impact.
“As a member of the board of directors, he will have a unique opportunity to: Have a voice in shaping the marketing industry’s future talent; Help ensure that the marketing industry attracts the diverse talent needed for its future success”, said the foundation.
Over the last decade, Forbes’ annual list has recognised the likes of Disney’s Asad Ayaz, Coca-Cola’s Manolo Arroyo, and Netflix’s Marian Lee—each redefining how brands connect with a fast-evolving world. Singh’s addition not only adds an Indian voice to that conversation, but underscores the rising global relevance of purpose-led marketing from the subcontinent.
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.
