Guest Column: Time for PR to take leadership role

Surabhi Patodia, former Senior Manager, Corporate Communications & PR at Ola has joined healthcare platform Practo as Head of Communications.

Patodia started her career in Communications with Adfactors PR, where she helped companies going to IPO with their communication plans. She then went on to be a part of Text100, India's premier Technology PR agency, where she worked with brands like Lenovo, Tata Power Solar, to name a few. She joined Ola in 2016, and was instrumental in building a strong narrative for the brand, across India and International markets.

Patodia holds PG Diploma in Public Relations & Corporate Communications from the Xavier’s Institute of Mass Communications, Mumbai and Bachelors in Business Administration from BIT, Mesra.

IndiGo airlines, part of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, has appointed Chhavi Leekha as Director Corporate Communications and Brand Reputation. Prior to this role, she worked with Nokia India as Head of Marketing and Communications. Her role included setting the direction and leading Nokia's marketing strategy, demand generations, brand strategy, event management, advertising, external/internal communications, corporate affairs &CSR.

Leekha has also worked with Uber India as Consulting Director of Communications and also served a stint at Spice Global as Group President, Brand and Corporate Communications.

Leekha has completed her MBA from the prestigious Narsee Monjee Institue of Management Studies and BA from Shri Ram College of Commerce.

Aditya Birla Group has appointed former ET Now Managing Editor Sandeep Gurumurthi as Head of Corporate Communications and Brand.

Gurumurthi who was part of the core team that launched ET Now stepped down from his role as Managing Editor in August 2018.

He was associated with the channel since inception and besides anchoring breaking news and other special shows, he hosted ET Now's flagship debate show India Development Debate weeknights at 9 pm. 

Gurumurthi began his career with national broadcaster DD News, and prior to joining ET Now, he was associated with CNBC TV18,

Rainmaker Ventures-backed Yaap, the digital advertising agency has appointed Deepak Singh as their Chief Creative Officer. Deepak will be based in the Mumbai office and will oversee all creative functions across the Yaap network in Mumbai, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Shillong, Dubai, Singapore & Jakarta.  He will report directly to the Board of Directors at Yaap. 

Singh is one of the most awarded creative talents in the country and has won over 1000 national and international awards at Cannes, One Show, LIA, New York Festival, Goafest, Adfest, Spikes Asia, Young Guns and more. He has also been on the jury of some of these prestigious festivals and led creative teams across agencies including Leo Burnett, Grey Worldwide, McCann Erickson, DDB Mudra, TBWA, Dentsu and The Social Street. 

For the past 3 consecutive years, Singh has led a young team from The Social Street, which has gone on to give an exhilarating performance. He has been instrumental in securing the Creative Agency of the year title for the agency, several times during 2018. 

Commenting on his new role, he added, “Saying yes to Yaap was actually not a very tough decision to make for me. Right from the time we first met, Atul had a clear picture of why he wanted to hire me. I am glad he has chalked out a much bigger role for me. Being a young and vibrant company with expertise in Digital Content, Design and Influencer Marketing, Yaap I believe will be a great learning experience for me. I’m raring to go “

Atul Hegde, co-founder Rainmaker Ventures added “Deepak is a welcome addition to the array of Partners we have at Yaap, which has a unique non CEO model, our aim as investors, is to ensure that we are able to attract the best & brightest of talent into the senior management pool at Yap. Within a short span of fewer than 3 Years, Yaap has grown into 70+ people across 7 offices in South East Asia, India & the Middle East and it was the right time for us to bring in a Senior Creative talent. I wish Deepak all the very best and I’m sure he will be a great asset to Yaap. “

Leo Burnett has announced the promotion of Rakesh Hinduja to Chief Operating Officer, West. He will continue to report to Dheeraj Sinha, Managing Director, India and Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia and Rajdeepak Das, Managing Director, India and Chief Creative Officer, South Asia.

Hinduja has been leading the operations of Leo Burnett’s head office in Mumbai as the Executive Director and Branch Head.

Speaking about the elevation, Dheeraj Sinha said, “Rakesh is the perfect role model for the new-age agency we are building. His leadership on all the three parameters of People, Product and Profit has been stellar. Under his watch, we have consistently seen spectacular work that has won our brands market-share, and glory at platforms such as Cannes Lions, Spikes and Effies. He has delivered high-quality growth for the Mumbai office, leading the teams to win a new business almost every two weeks. The momentum and buzz at Leo Burnett Mumbai are palpable. Rakesh has been an amazing team player, helping push the Publicis Groupe’s Power of One agenda. Leo Burnett Mumbai’s contribution to our services such as Prodigious has helped Prodigious to become the number one ‘agency production house’ in the country within a span of two years. More than anything else, Rakesh has a never-say-die attitude and he always plays the game with a sense of camaraderie that we really value at Leo Burnett.”

In his new role, Hinduja will drive the Power of One agenda for Leo Burnett in the West. He will help build cross-platform solutions for our clients using our services in Entertainment (Publicis Entertainment), Content (Content Factory), Experiential (Arc Worldwide), Production (Prodigious), Digital (Indigo Consulting and Digitas) and Media (Zenith Optimedia, Ecosys and Beehive). He will lead all the functions of Leo Burnett Mumbai to create world-class work, build a high growth business and create a culture where people come to do the best work of their lifetime.

Commenting on Rakesh’s promotion, Rajdeepak Das said, “Rakesh is always there, backing great creative work and making integrated thinking happen for our clients. He has been an essential part of the journey to get where we are today. This elevation is much-deserved and will take all of us to greater heights.”

Talking about his promotion, Rakesh Hinduja said, “I am happy with my journey at Leo Burnett – a new-age, solution-providing ‘Wave 3’ agency. I’m proud of the brave we have work done and I am hungry for more. Hereon, there are a lot of exciting things to do and in quick time. I want to take a critical pause here to thank all our clients and the Burnetters for their belief in me.”

Publicis India has announced the appointment of Neeraj Bassi as Managing Partner & Chief Strategy Officer. Neeraj will work from the agency’s New Delhi office. Along with Srija Chatterjee and Bobby Pawar, Neeraj will help in fostering collaboration and delivering on the Power of One synergy across the Groupe.   

With over two decades of professional experience, Neeraj has worked with some of the world’s most renowned brands including Coca-Cola, Asian Paints, Cadbury, BMW, KFC, Adidas, Samsung, British Airways, WeChat, Voltas, Audi, HSBC, Max Life and Tata Singapore Airlines – Vistara among others.

He joins Publicis after a brief stint as an independent Consultant where he provided strategic guidance and brand solutions for multiple clients across various categories. Neeraj has worked with some of the top market research networks such as TNS, IMRB, and NFO and led the Strategic Planning function in advertising agencies including Cheil, Ogilvy, JWT, McCann in India and abroad. Neeraj has also won multiple awards across reputed award festivals that recognise effectiveness such as Effies (India & APAC), AMES, WARC, etc.  

Announcing the new appointment and welcoming Neeraj aboard, Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications, South Asia said: “In Neeraj, we found a partner with a shared vision of driving a deeper level of integration within the Groupe by leveraging the Power of One model. Neeraj’s vast experience and media neutral planning approach will help clients in building a holistic brand experience which will aim to create one-to-one consumer engagement, at scale. I look forward to working with Neeraj and wish him the best of luck.”  

Welcoming Neeraj to the Publicis family, Srija Chatterjee, Managing Director - Publicis Worldwide, India said: “Neeraj joins at a time when the Groupe is implementing a profound transformation which puts our clients front and centre of everything that we do. His wealth of experience of working across diverse sectors and with cross-functional teams will help build a narrative around our clients’ business and marketing transformation that connects data, content and technology in an omnichannel world. I’m excited to welcome Neeraj to the Publicis Groupe family, and we look forward to him riding the next strategic wave at the agency.”  

Bobby Pawar, MD & CCO - Publicis Worldwide, India added: “I’ve always believed great work is born out of a strong partnership between strategy, creative and clients. Neeraj Bassi has a history of creating strategic platforms that killer ideas can springboard from. His cross-platform approach to planning will also be a huge asset to our march towards the future of creativity. It also helps that he is fun to be around. I can chat with him for hours; the chemistry is very important when you are going to be more or less living out of each other’s metaphorical pockets.”  

Commenting on his appointment, and his plans for the agency, Neeraj Bassi said: “I am really excited to be part of Publicis India and looking forward to partnering Bobby and Srija to create stellar work that stands out in the market. Working with clients as an independent consultant has given me insight on the primary concerns of CXOs and how communication can help resolve them. Clients today need an omnichannel approach to planning that focuses on identifying and solving their business problems holistically, rather than getting trapped in a discipline-specific approach. I am fascinated by the way all Groupe companies have come together at Publicis to create Power of One, and I look forward to wielding this power to build successful campaigns for our clients.”  

Airbnb has announced the appointment of Aristotle Balogh as Chief Technology Officer, according to media reports.

Balogh is expected to begin his tenure with Airbnb in November and will head the engineering and data science teams. He will also be in charge of infrastructure, information security and IT, as well as engineering for payments and community support.

Balogh formerly served as Vice President of Engineering, Application Storage, Indexing and Serving at Google, where he was instrumental in developing the infrastructure and data platforms of Google Search. He also worked as Chief Technology Officer at Yahoo and VeriSign.

According to reports, the company is expected to file for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) next year and Balogh's appointment comes at a time when Airbnb is still without a Chief Financial Officer after Laurence Tosi stepped down from the role earlier this year.