Hires & Promotions: DDB Mudra, Wipro

Menaka Menon becomes President & MP - Growth & Strategy, DDB Mudra South

DDB Mudra Group has elevated Menaka Menon, the current National Strategy Head, to take on the role of leading the south office. She will lead operations and strategic thinking for clients based out of the Bengaluru office. Ranji Cherian who successfully ran and scaled the south office for over 16 years will now lead Client Excellence at the group. 

Rahul Mathew, Chief Creative Officer, DDB Mudra Group says, “We believe that everything we do is built on strong strategic pillars; be it our work or how we do our work. In her new role, Menaka will use her strategic background to add more value to our client’s business, while building a strong culture of creativity in the office. Over the last few years, some of our best work has come from our South office and I’m really excited to work with Menaka to push us to newer heights.”

Commenting on her new role, Menaka Menon shares, “I am super excited about this new role and look forward to further strengthening the South operation and building a strong, closely knit team, geared towards creating great work that has the power to move people.”

With over 23 years of experience in business and strategy, she has experience across advertising, broadcast media and strategic consulting. Menon has spent over 15 years in advertising with stints at agencies such as FCB, VML, and Leo Burnett.

Wipro appoints Sanjeev Jain as COO

Wipro has appointed Sanjeev Jain as the Chief Operating Officer, effective immediately.

Sanjeev Jain succeeds Amit Choudhary, who is stepping down to pursue opportunities outside the organisation.

He will report to Srinivas Pallia and will continue to be a member of Wipro’s Executive Committee.

Jain joined Wipro in 2023 as the Global Head of Business Operations. He brings over 30 years of experience in leading large, diverse teams, scaling up global operations, and deploying Lean Six Sigma and design thinking principles to drive operational excellence and business transformation.

As Chief Operating Officer, Jain will continue building Wipro’s journey of building a client-centric delivery organisation focused on driving sustainable, profitable and delivery-led growth. He will oversee Global Business Operations, the Chief Information Office, the Chief Information Security Office and the Enterprise Risk Management function and continue to work closely with Wipro’s leadership teams across the organisation on transformation initiatives.

“In the short time that Sanjeev has been with Wipro, he has developed strong relationships with on-the-ground delivery teams and made a significant impact on our strategic thinking and execution prowess,” says Srinivas Pallia, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Wipro. “Under his leadership, we’ve built out our approach to AI training and upskilling and trained over 225,000 of our people in AI principles. Sanjeev has also been instrumental in devising our career development strategy for next-gen associates and significantly enhancing our utilisation. As COO, he will be responsible for continuing to simplify our operating model, building a client-centric delivery organisation, and driving operational excellence with a focus on execution rigour and speed.

“I would like to thank Amit for his leadership over the last two years and for building a strong operations foundation and structure that will be invaluable as we move forward. Amit will be with us until the end of May, working closely with Sanjeev and me to ensure a smooth transition.”

Commenting on his appointment, Sanjeev Jain comments, “I am honoured and excited to take on the role of Chief Operating Officer. I look forward to further strengthening our operational and delivery capabilities to bring more value to our clients.”

Before joining Wipro, Jain held leadership roles at Kyndryl Holdings (IBM spin-off), IBM, Cognizant, and GE.

He will be based in Bengaluru.