MAM
Wavemaker India announces key leadership changes
NEW DELHI: In a major rejig, Wavemaker India has announced changes in executive leadership roles.
Kishan Kumar MS is elevated and has taken on a larger role as chief growth officer. Along with his new mandate, Kumar continues to lead Wavemaker South businesses across Bangalore, Chennai, Kerala and Hyderabad. Kishan has been with Wavemaker for the last 14 years and has played an instrumental role in building Wavemaker as one of the biggest media agencies in South India. Kishan’s vast experience across categories clubbed with his passion and innovation for brand building; make him well-suited to take on the new role.
Premjeet Sodhi transitions into chief strategy officer from his earlier profile of chief growth officer. Sodhi had joined Wavemaker in April this year after a 2-year stint with Mindshare Fulcrum as the agency head. He has rich experience of over 25 years spanning across many leading agencies where he has managed clients like Amazon, Reckitt, Kraft Heinz, Infoedge, and many more. His understanding of evolving media and managing core client capabilities will continue to be a great contributor to his new role.
Vishal Jacob returns to Wavemaker India as chief digital officer after close to 2 years with GroupM as a principal consultant – change planning & transformation. Jacob has been in the GroupM ecosystem for over 14 years and has played a key role in anchoring the digital initiatives at Wavemaker and GroupM. He is also an author and a certified executive coach with a keen interest in behavioural sciences. His rich experience across brands, industries and markets will further propel Wavemaker’s leadership position in the digital space.
Sandeep Pandey, who leads product and strategy has been elevated as global head of analytics where he will be driving Wavemaker’s global practice on analytics. Sandeep has been with GroupM for the last 15 years in leadership positions across APAC markets. Sandeep came on board with Wavemaker in 2014 as Asia Pacific head of marketing effectiveness. Pandey has served clients in automotive, pharma, banking, consumer goods, food & beverages, technology and other industries across India, Singapore, Australia, China, Malaysia, Japan, and other key markets in the Asia Pacific. He will continue to be based out of Gurgaon as he transitions into his global role.
Wavemaker CEO south Asia Ajay Gupte said, “This has been an extraordinary year that has challenged us in many ways. These changes are designed to enhance our position and enable us to drive continuous growth for our clients, teams and other stakeholders. I am excited about these changes and look forward to creating some positive disruptions in the near future”.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
