MAM
Wieden+Kennedy appoints Gautham Narayanan as MD for Delhi biz
MUMBAI: Wieden+Kennedy has appointed Gautham Narayanan as the new managing director for its Delhi office.
Narayanan will work alongside executive creative directors Molona Wati Longchar and Shuchi Thakur.
The position was previously held by Siddarth Loyal, who left the agency earlier this month.
Narayanan, who is currently based in South Africa, will relocate to Delhi and take his post in September. The transition is being managed by W+K alum Patrick Cahill, who spent nearly seven years with the agency in New York and Delhi, where he held the managing director role from 2015-17 before starting his own creative consultancy CAHILL&PARTNERS.
Narayanan has spent the majority of his career at BBDO, most recently as regional director for BBDO Africa and managing director, BBDO South Africa, where he helped land several new business wins, including Google Africa, and focused on talent development across the agency’s four African offices.
Narayanan is credited with spearheading the recent business turnaround at BBDO South Africa by driving revenue growth and doubling profits in just three years.
On his appointment, Narayanan says, “I have always admired the simplicity and smarts of Wieden+Kennedy’s work, from afar. For me, W+K’s ability to infiltrate popular culture has been the key to their success. It’s a simple formula that drives fame for the brands they serve, which in turn, drives commercial success for their clients’ business.”
“I consider myself lucky to have worked for BBDO my whole career, and I can honestly say Wieden+Kennedy was the only agency network I considered leaving BBDO for. W+K’s independent culture and belief in compelling ideas, paired the opportunity to partner with extraordinary clients and lead an office in my country of birth, was too tempting to resist,” he adds.
W+K chief operating officer Neil Christie mentions, “We’re delighted that Gautham will bring his experience, energy and enthusiasm for groundbreaking work to Wieden+Kennedy Delhi. I am confident that under Gau’s leadership W+K will go from strength to strength in India.”
W+K Delhi opened in 2007 and works with a number of blue-chip global and local clients, including Airbnb, Audi, Dalmia, Fabindia Home, IndiGo Airlines, Nike and Royal Enfield. Famous for award-winning work like Nike DaDaDing, creating the potent brand voice that made IndiGo India’s largest airline and telling the authentic stories that helped build Royal Enfield into a global cult brand, W+K Delhi has grown in the past year with the addition of Indian icon Fabindia as well as global clients such as Airbnb. The agency is committed to pushing these clients into new territories in the digital and experiential space, a speciality of the Delhi office.
Brands
Boeing appoints Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering function
Seasoned finance leader to steer budgets and strategy across global centres
BENGALURU: Boeing’s finance cockpit has a new pilot, and he is no stranger to turbulence or transformation. Boeing has appointed Barun as head of FP&A for global engineering, placing him at the centre of financial strategy for its worldwide engineering and technology operations.
Based in Bengaluru, Barun steps into a role that is as expansive as it is critical. He will serve as the primary finance lead for Boeing’s Engineering and Technology Centers globally, working closely with executive leadership to shape financial decisions, manage complex budgets, and design scalable finance processes that support the company’s growing engineering footprint.
In a note announcing his move Barun said, “I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Boeing Global Engineering. This opportunity is incredibly meaningful to me not just from a professional standpoint, but also for what Boeing represents globally.” He added that he looks forward to contributing to an organisation that continues to shape the future of aerospace and innovation.
Barun’s mandate spans strategic financial leadership, operational oversight, and stakeholder engagement. From directing large-scale budgets and schedules to influencing long-term organisational goals, the role blends financial discipline with business foresight. He will also lead cross-functional teams and partner with finance colleagues worldwide to support engineering programmes across geographies, including India.
The appointment caps a long stint at Juniper Networks, where Barun spent over a decade, most recently as finance senior manager. There, he led FP&A for global product business units and G&A functions, driving budgeting, forecasting, and long-range planning. He also played a key role in enterprise-wide transformation, including spearheading an Oracle to SAP ERP migration and building advanced analytics capabilities using tools such as Tableau and SAP Analytics Cloud.
His earlier career includes finance leadership roles at Sony India Software Centre, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Mphasis, where he focused on financial planning, governance frameworks, and operational efficiency across global delivery centres.
A chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Barun brings nearly two decades of experience across financial planning, digital transformation, and analytics-led decision making.
His appointment comes at a time when global engineering operations are becoming increasingly complex and distributed, requiring sharper financial oversight and agile planning. With Barun at the helm of FP&A for engineering, Boeing appears to be tightening its financial playbook as it looks to scale innovation with discipline.
