OMD India has onboarded Udhayakumar Pasupathi as new Lead at the company’s Chennai office, reporting to Sulina Menon, Chief Client Officer, OMD India.

“Udhaya is an MBA graduate in marketing and joins with 12 years of diverse and prolific industry experience. He spent the last 9 years at Mindshare where his most recent role was that of cluster lead in Bangalore. Udhay has also worked with Lodestar UM, and has worn multiple hats as a planner, team lead, strategist, and media consultant. His roles have pivoted around providing integrated strategic solutions to brands, including marquee names such as Max Fashion, Lifestyle, Home Centre and Eenadu, among many others,” the agency said.

Commenting on the new appointment, Sulina Menon said, “We’re extremely pleased to have someone like Udhaya, with his experience and expertise, join our Chennai team, and are confident that we will benefit greatly from the insights he brings to the table. I’m especially excited about the growth journey ahead and look forward to collectively pursuing a host of new opportunities.”

Priti Murthy, CEO OMD India welcomed Udhaya Pasupathi on board saying, “All of us at OMD are eagerly looking forward to Udhaya’s fresh new perspectives combined with the rich repertoire of industry knowledge he’s gathered over the years. There are some exciting growth avenues ahead, and we can’t wait to unlock them together.”

Speaking about this new step in his career, Udhaya Pasupathi reflected, “It’s been over a decade of experience, learnings and leadership in the realm of media strategy & planning, and surely there’s no better place to mark 12 years than OMD. With its vast global network and its growth-driven environment, I’m delighted to be in a space where together we quite literally make better decisions, faster!”

OMD India has onboarded Udhayakumar Pasupathi as new Lead at the company’s Chennai office, reporting to Sulina Menon, Chief Client Officer, OMD India.

“Udhaya is an MBA graduate in marketing and joins with 12 years of diverse and prolific industry experience. He spent the last 9 years at Mindshare where his most recent role was that of cluster lead in Bangalore. Udhay has also worked with Lodestar UM, and has worn multiple hats as a planner, team lead, strategist, and media consultant. His roles have pivoted around providing integrated strategic solutions to brands, including marquee names such as Max Fashion, Lifestyle, Home Centre and Eenadu, among many others,” the agency said.

Commenting on the new appointment, Sulina Menon said, “We’re extremely pleased to have someone like Udhaya, with his experience and expertise, join our Chennai team, and are confident that we will benefit greatly from the insights he brings to the table. I’m especially excited about the growth journey ahead and look forward to collectively pursuing a host of new opportunities.”

Priti Murthy, CEO OMD India welcomed Udhaya Pasupathi on board saying, “All of us at OMD are eagerly looking forward to Udhaya’s fresh new perspectives combined with the rich repertoire of industry knowledge he’s gathered over the years. There are some exciting growth avenues ahead, and we can’t wait to unlock them together.”

Speaking about this new step in his career, Udhaya Pasupathi reflected, “It’s been over a decade of experience, learnings and leadership in the realm of media strategy & planning, and surely there’s no better place to mark 12 years than OMD. With its vast global network and its growth-driven environment, I’m delighted to be in a space where together we quite literally make better decisions, faster!”

OMD India has onboarded Udhayakumar Pasupathi as new Lead at the company’s Chennai office, reporting to Sulina Menon, Chief Client Officer, OMD India.

“Udhaya is an MBA graduate in marketing and joins with 12 years of diverse and prolific industry experience. He spent the last 9 years at Mindshare where his most recent role was that of cluster lead in Bangalore. Udhay has also worked with Lodestar UM, and has worn multiple hats as a planner, team lead, strategist, and media consultant. His roles have pivoted around providing integrated strategic solutions to brands, including marquee names such as Max Fashion, Lifestyle, Home Centre and Eenadu, among many others,” the agency said.

Commenting on the new appointment, Sulina Menon said, “We’re extremely pleased to have someone like Udhaya, with his experience and expertise, join our Chennai team, and are confident that we will benefit greatly from the insights he brings to the table. I’m especially excited about the growth journey ahead and look forward to collectively pursuing a host of new opportunities.”

Priti Murthy, CEO OMD India welcomed Udhaya Pasupathi on board saying, “All of us at OMD are eagerly looking forward to Udhaya’s fresh new perspectives combined with the rich repertoire of industry knowledge he’s gathered over the years. There are some exciting growth avenues ahead, and we can’t wait to unlock them together.”

Speaking about this new step in his career, Udhaya Pasupathi reflected, “It’s been over a decade of experience, learnings and leadership in the realm of media strategy & planning, and surely there’s no better place to mark 12 years than OMD. With its vast global network and its growth-driven environment, I’m delighted to be in a space where together we quite literally make better decisions, faster!”

Tata Communications, a leading global digital infrastructure provider, has named Pathmal Gunawardana as its Head of Americas. In his new role, Gunawardana will be responsible for accelerating customer adoption of Tata Communications’ hybrid WAN, cloud enablement and business collaboration services across North and South America.

This appointment reinforces the company’s growth strategy in the U.S., which focuses on leveraging its global technology capabilities and partnerships with the world’s leading cloud players to support multinational enterprises’ digital transformation. According to McKinsey Global Institute, over the last decade, the global flow data has accounted for $2.8 trillion of the world’s GDP — exerting a larger economic impact than the trade in physical goods. To keep up, companies are replacing traditional private networks with next-generation hybrid WANs that give them better visibility and control, and boost application performance, while reducing networking costs.

“As businesses become more and more dependent on cloud and mobile applications to operate effectively on a global scale and stay competitive in the digital economy, we’re seeing a growing demand for our capabilities,” Gunawardana said. “We have a differentiated value proposition in the U.S. market, which consists of the reach of our global network and the cloud connectivity, mobility and UCC services it underpins; our strategic partnerships; and our knowledge of regulatory issues across emerging and developed markets. This unique combination puts us in an ideal position to address our customers’ increasingly complex and rapidly changing technology needs.”

At present, the U.S. is Tata Communications’ largest market outside of India, and the company is seeing increasing adoption for its business collaboration and mobility expertise, as well as its IZO™ SDWAN, IZO™ Internet WAN, and IZO™ Hybrid WAN cloud enablement services. These services enable businesses to build an innovative enterprise network that combines the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the public Internet with the resilience and reliability of a private network.

To future-proof its capabilities, the company continues to invest in its offering in the Americas. For example, it is part of a consortium of leading technology companies building the new Hong Kong-Americas (HKA) cable system between California, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which will bring enhanced speed and reliability of connectivity between the business hubs of Asia and the U.S. Through its global network and cloud, mobility, IoT, collaboration and security services, Tata Communications today carries around 30% of the world’s internet routes and connects businesses to 60% of the world’s cloud giants.

Gunawardana has been with Tata Communications since 2015, serving previously as the company’s Vice President of Sales for the Americas. In this role, he was responsible for driving the development of near and long-term go-to-market strategy in both the service provider and enterprise segments in the region. Prior to joining Tata Communications, Gunawardana was Head of Global Mobility Vertical Sales at Juniper Networks. He has also held positions at Nokia Siemens Network, Alcatel Lucent Technologies, and Bell Labs.

Sumeet Walia, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Tata Communications, said: “The Americas is our second biggest market in revenue terms, but it still has considerable growth potential too. I am confident that with Pathmal at the helm, more and more multinational enterprises in the region will look to us to meet their cloud networking, hybrid WAN and business collaboration needs. Furthermore, Tata Communications is a business that values greatly our ‘DRIVE’ company culture, and we see our employees’ success as a key driver for our business success. That’s why it’s so great to see talented, ambitious individuals like Pathmal rise through the ranks and become one of our regional leaders.”

Balancehero India Private Limited(BHI), the wholly owned subsidiary of Balancehero Co. Ltd., Korea which runs and operates mobile App “True Balance” has appointed Victor Choi as its new CEO. Choi has 18-year rich and diverse global experience in the business and mobile value-added sector. In his new role as the CEO, he will help drive growth and increased penetration for the company in a market that has significant untapped potential.

Speaking on his new role, Choi said, “I am looking forward to this association with Balance Hero India. We have a huge possibility to make a mark here because of the tremendous untapped potential which we are excited about. The company’s strong brand recognition represents a compelling opportunity, both globally and in the Indian market. Having spent most of my career in the marketing sector, I believe strongly in the value proposition of the model and its relevance in emerging economies. I look forward to working with the team to capture these opportunities."

Before Balance Hero, Choi worked in the Argentina, Seoul and Singapore offices of LG Electronics and has also served as Managing Director for PT. Access Mobile Indonesia. In addition to holding key roles across regions handling functions including R&D, product planning and marketing, Choi’s core competency lies in managing skills at the corporate level and establishing strategy and managing organisation while also identifying skills for new opportunities. He has an excellent understanding of both technology development and consumer trends and will be an invaluable resource at Balance Hero India.

Havas Group has appointed David Angell as Chief Commercial Officer for the Asia Pacific region. In this newly created regional role, Angell will drive cross-regional business growth and go-to-market strategy with the objective of enhancing the network’s competitive advantage and positioning in sync with its “Together” strategy of collaboration and integration. Angell will report to Mike Amour, Chairman & CEO of Havas Group, Asia Pacific and work closely with regional and market leadership teams. The appointment is effective immediately.

Angell joins Havas Group from marketing management consultancy – TrinityP3 – where he held the position of General Manager for the last four years, based out of Melbourne. Prior to that, Angell had a prolific 15-year agency career that included stints at Starcom, Zenith, Ikon, and Mindshare across Australia and United Kingdom. Angell has extensive experience in agency operations, client leadership, new business, strategic consultancy, and in the selection, development of commercial agreements between agencies, marketers and procurement teams.

Commenting on the appointment, Mike Amour said, “David’s experience as a trusted advisor to senior clients covers the entire spectrum of the agency business from brand communications strategy, media trading, diversified agency services, and development of commercial contracts. As such his appointment will help us to boost our service capabilities, bring additional rigour and discipline to client relationships, foster greater collaboration between teams in markets and instill best-practice, strategic approaches to business development at the regional and market level. With his impeccable track record of results-driven excellence, I am confident that he will play a transformative role in demonstrating our differentiated agency value-proposition to clients and key stakeholders and steer Havas Group on a path of further expansion and stability. I am delighted to welcome him to the Havas family.”

“The Havas Group model of breaking silos to streamline the communications process is rooted in a future-forward vision of the agency model – one that clients are increasingly gravitating to. Additionally, Havas Group, by being a part of entertainment powerhouse Vivendi, offers a strong point of differentiation as it is the only network that is embedded in the storytelling narrative encompassing music, films, gaming from within the agency. Apart from market-leading products, Havas Group has great people and it is an incredibly exciting time to be joining the network. I’m delighted to be able to contribute to the ongoing success as well as shape the ambition of Havas Group across the Asia Pacific region,” said Angell on his appointment.

Ipsos India has announced regional roles for two senior honchos. Vidya Sen, Executive Director, Innovation, Ipsos India, will now, in addition to her responsibilities as the Country Head for the Innovation Service Line, play an expanded role stretching across the entire Asia Pacific (APAC) Region for Ipsos Innovation. And Arun Agarwala, IT Director, Ipsos India will take up duties of some of the key markets in the APEC (Asia Pacific Excluding China) region, of Philippines, Indonesia & Vietnam.

Ipsos India is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the region and is defining key benchmarks for specializations.

Vidya Sen’s role will now extend to regionally deploying training and ensuring compliance with the Innovation certification program.  In addition, she will support the rollout and adoption of the New Innovation initiatives across the region.  Vidya will also work closely with Alison Harvey, Senior Director, Global Service Line, Innovation, to ensure full global alignment with all initiatives.

“Ipsos is the world’s number one Product Testing Company. Ipsos Innovation has been engaging with clients in providing counsel and carrying out product tests for innumerable categories and brands across FMCG, Durables, Automotive, Healthcare, Personal Care, Telecom among others, helping clients innovate and reinvent in today’s changing world,” said Vidya Sen, Executive Director, Ipsos Innovation, Asia Pacific Region.

“In the pipeline are new improved tools for Ipsos Innovation,” Sen added.

Ipsos Innovation partners with clients in the end to end requirements on Innovation, ranging from opportunity identification, evaluation, optimization, and launch of their Innovation initiatives with proprietary products for idea screening, concept testing, product testing, full mix testing, pack testing, line optimization, pricing, and sales forecasting.

On the other hand, Arun Agarwala, IT Director Ipsos India has taken up additional responsibilities for the key markets of Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam, with the local IT teams for these markets reporting to him.

“Ipsos aims to strengthen IT service support and IT management in APEC. My remit is to help the countries further increase local IT performance and service quality, including IT services (support and training, knowledge sharing, meet KPIs, resource planning). Support and execute Global IT infrastructure, IT services projects and ensuring IT as an enabler and business partner,” said Agarwala.

Agarwala in his new role reports to Mu Na, IT Director for APEC and China. He joined Ipsos in 2006 in the UK for Ipsos MORI, then moved to Ipsos India in 2011 and was elevated to IT Director in 2014.