Hires & Promotions: Snapdeal, Dentsu, BCW, Mates, Mosaic Wellness

Snapdeal ropes in Himanshu Chakrawarti as President

Snapdeal has appointed Himanshu Chakrawarti as President of the company. Himanshu will lead various functions at Snapdeal to drive the company’s Bharat-focused, value commerce strategy and steer various growth-related and operational initiatives.

Prior to joining Snapdeal, Himanshu was the CEO of Unlimited Fashion-Arvind Lifestyle Brands’ value fashion retail chain with a focus on affordable fashion apparel and accessories for men, women, and children. Earlier this year, V-Mart Retail acquired Unlimited Fashion, adding its nearly 75 stores in West and South India to its national footprint. 

At Unlimited Fashion, Himanshu was responsible for setting the strategic direction and overseeing entire operations including curating brands & assortments, guidance on product designs, and pricing strategy. He also led the direct integration of over 75 stores with top e-commerce platforms and enabled real-time inventory visibility and fulfilment. 

Before joining  Unlimited Fashion, he was the CEO of Hi-Care Services, which was backed by the leading PE Fund, True North. As the CEO of Essar-owned The MobileStore from 2011-2015, he had a ringside view of India’s fast-growing retail market for smartphones. 

Speaking on his appointment, Rohit Bansal, Co-Founder & COO, Snapdeal said, “We are delighted to welcome Himanshu to the Snapdeal family. He brings an in-depth understanding of value retail and Omni-channel distribution operations in India. Additionally, his success with building brands will add immense value to Snapdeal's Power Brands program. We look forward to benefiting from his experience and leadership as we collectively continue to build our Bharat-focused, value commerce platform.”

“Himanshu’s experience in building teams, processes, and businesses will be invaluable as we continue to deepen our capabilities to serve value-conscious buyers across Bharat” added Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO,  Snapdeal.

Speaking on his appointment, Himanshu said, “It is a great time to build a contemporary retail ecosystem that celebrates the aspirations and meets the needs of India’s vast value segment and is designed to serve them across both digital and physical channels. I am excited about the opportunity that lies ahead at Snapdeal. I am delighted to join an exceptionally talented and experienced team at Snapdeal.”

An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore, Himanshu brings over 30 years of rich experience in the retail sector in building lifestyle brands. Snapdeal also recently named Priyaranjan Kumar as Vice President and Business Head, and made key additions earlier this year, including Girish Koppad as Vice President and Head of Technology and Saurabh Bansal as Chief Merchandising Officer, who returned to Snapdeal for his second stint at the company.

Dentsu India onboards Ramsai Suriyanarayanan as Managing Partner – Trading, Media

Dentsu India has appointed Ramsai Suriyanarayanan as Managing Partner- Trading, Media. In his new role, Suriyanarayanan will lead media investments for Reckitt and play an integral role in developing dentsu Media’s investment model and portfolio.

Suriyanarayanan has over 25 years of experience, with almost 14 years at senior positions across Procurement, Sales and Marketing functions in the media industry. In the past, he has driven many industry-first innovations across multiple clients and sectors.

Speaking on the appointment, Divya Karani, CEO Media South Asia, dentsu said, “We are elated to welcome Suriyanarayanan to the team. He will collaborate with our agencies and media partners to create ROI and deliver value to our clients across media in today's dynamic media industry.”

Commenting on his new journey, Ramsai Suriyanarayanan added, “I am excited to join one of the world’s fastest-growing client-centric networks, dentsu. It is a privilege to join this team that combines the needs of the clients with consumer intelligence insights, unlocking unique possibilities for sustainable value and lasting change.  I look forward to the association and contribute to the greater objectives of dentsu and our clients.”

BCW elevates Deepshikha Dharmaraj to BCW India Group CEO

BCW has named Deepshikha Dharmaraj as Chief Executive Officer, BCW India Group, effective immediately. Dharmaraj will retain her current role as Chief Executive Officer, Genesis BCW, in addition to managing the overall business interests of BCW in India and implementing its growth strategy encompassing people, clients and partners.  

BCW India Group was formed when Genesis BCW and Six Degrees BCW were integrated under one business group in the market in January 2020. The two brands continue to operate separately, with safeguards in place where conflicts exist. In this new role, Dharmaraj will be supported by BCW India Group Chairperson, Prema Sagar, as well as the leadership teams at Genesis BCW and Six Degrees BCW, including Vandana Sandhir, who now leads Six Degrees BCW.  

“Under Deepshikha’s impressive leadership in 2021, Genesis BCW has achieved one of its best years of revenue growth in its nearly three decades of operation,” said Matt Stafford, President, BCW Asia-Pacific. “Six Degrees has also recorded double-digit growth this year under Rishi and Vandana. The time is right for Deepshikha to take on a wider role overseeing both of our fantastic teams in India.” 

“India is a critical market for BCW and I’m confident in Deepshikha’s ability to lead the formidable talent under BCW India Group,” said Donna Imperato, Global CEO, BCW and CEO, BCW Group. “I am excited to see how, together with the integrated India team, Deepshikha will continue to innovate our Earned-Plus offer to deliver even greater value to our clients.” 

“It has been a great privilege to be part of Genesis BCW’s eventful and illustrious journey over the past 30 years,” said Dharmaraj. “Under BCW India Group, we have faced the challenges of the past two years with our combined assets and come out stronger for it. BCW India Group has ambitious plans for 2022 and I am excited to work closely with both the Genesis BCW and Six Degrees BCW leadership teams to take the business to new heights.” 

Sooraj Bhalla to step down as Founder & CEO of Madison World’s MATES

Content industry expert, Sooraj Bhalla to step down as the Founder & CEO of MATES, the entertainment specialist unit of leading media agency, Madison World. Bhalla founded and helped build MATES into a renowned content agency. Under his leadership of over a decadal experience spanning from content marketing, branded content, film marketing, celebrity solutions, he led MATES to establish a stronghold in the industry across verticals. He was responsible for steering the company towards gaining an industry leadership position and post his 17-year journey with the organization, he sets to complete his term on December 31st, 2021.

Having started his career as an assistant director to Rajkumar Santoshi, he worked on blockbuster projects like Andaz Apna, Damini, Ghatak and Barsaat. Further, he was the Executive Producer of Hindi feature film – Shararat starring Abhishek Bachchan, Amrish Puri etc. After procuring prolific experience in content production and direction, his first independent venture – TeamWorks eventually bought out by Sam Balsara to create MATES and he’s taken the agency to greater heights with his unrivalled work on more than 100 films from the country’s top producers and studios, thus being instrumental to delivering breakthrough communication with engaging content formats. Holding testimony to his estimable contribution, Bhalla has won over 17 accolades in the advertising and media industry.

“So far, my focus has been to work towards driving impact for clients and touch an emotive chord with consumers with the power of content and communication. In this next chapter of my professional life, I am looking forward to taking these years of rewarding experience with MATES and continue delivering value through the various channels of communication in the content space,” says Bhalla.

Mosaic Wellness appoints ex Disney+Hotstar Head of Growth Sachin Singla as Chief Revenue Officer

In a bid to make holistic wellness affordable and accessible to Indians, Mosaic Wellness, a health & wellness start-up running digital health clinic platforms Man Matters (manmatters.com) and Bodywise (bebodywise.com), today announced the appointment of Sachin Singla as Chief Revenue Officer. His duties include overseeing the growth function, leading all the channel teams and ensuring each category of offerings are pushed to the right consumer segments based on the company strategy.

Sachin joins Mosaic Wellness with a rich experience of 15+ years across Finance, Marketing and Analytics. In his last stint, he was leading the growth vertical at Disney+ Hotstar India. He was also part of the MakeMyTrip leadership team wherein his role involved taking care of marketing engineering, customer analytics, performance measurement and attribution. An alumnus of National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra, he has pursued B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 followed by an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode in 2010.

In his role, Sachin will focus on further structuring and accelerating the use and adoption of digital-friendly health platforms across markets, leveraging all possible digital channels and build strong relationships with partners and customers.

Commenting on the appointment, Mosaic Wellness CEO, Revant Bhate, said “We’re thrilled to have an experienced leader like Sachin, who brings execution excellence and a proven playbook across industries join us in our mission to solve for elective health in the Country. Both Man Matters and Body wise have built out a strong customer proposition for the Indian consumer and now it’s time to accelerate their reach & awareness to a larger diaspora of the population”

Sachin Singla, CRO, said, “I was very excited to see what the company has achieved in 18 months since launch. The firm has an amazing young team who are very missionary in their approach to solve for elective health in India which reflects in the passionate customer base as well. Leaving a large successful organization like Disney+Hotstar was not easy but the company’s mission, as well as the team, really inspired me to take on this new challenge and I am looking forward to scaling the same over the next few years”