Hires & Promotions: Vodafone Idea, Swiggy, Brandie

Vodafone Idea Appoints Reema Jain As Chief Digital Officer

Vodafone Idea has appointed Reema Jain as the new Chief Digital Officer of the company, reporting to MD & CEO, Ravinder Takkar. Jain will lead digital strategy, execution and adoption across the company.

In recent months, Vodafone Idea saw a spate of senior-level executive exits, including ex-CTO Vishant Vora, former legal head Kumar Das, ex-brand officer Kavita Nair and chief technology security officer (CTSO) Amit Pradhan.

However, the company managed to attract senior talent including Jagbir Singh who joined as the new CTO. It also appointed Vivek Jain as the executive vice president of marketing and Mathan Babu Kasilingam as executive vice president of technology security.

She was previously serving Unilever as Head of IT, responsible for Supply Chain delivering Digital solutions for Unilever’s global operations. Prior to this assignment, she performed global roles of IT Director – Digital Integration and IT Director –Application Management at Unilever. Before joining Unilever, Reema worked with GE where her last role was Oracle Technology Leader.

Jain has over 19 years work experience across IT Strategy, Technology Delivery, Digital Solutions, ERP, Transformation Project Management, Operational Excellence, DevOps and Agile Methodologies.

Sneha John Elevated As Director - Marketing, Swiggy

Swiggy has announced the elevation of Sneha John as Director - Marketing.

John joined the company in the year 2017 as Senior Manager – Marketing and then got promoted to General Manager - Marketing after two years. Before joining Swiggy, she was the Senior Manager - Marketing at The Hindu, where she worked for more than a year.

Her passion lies in advertising, marketing and brand management.

Brandie Appoints GroupM's Junaid Hakim As National Director, India

Brandie has named Junaid Hakim as National Director for India. In his new position, Junaid will oversee Brandie’s rapid growth in the Indian market, and be responsible for developing stakeholder engagement and driving sales and new business development. He will also ensure the continuous evolution of Brandie’s product and offerings to keep pace with the ever-evolving needs of the market.

With over 14 years of experience in the industry, Junaid brings an established track record of success in strategic media planning and buying to Brandie. Most recently, Junaid was General Manager with leading media investment company GroupM, where he headed the media mandate for Dell in India. In this role, he led the team that successfully launched Dell’s e-commerce practice in India

Prior to his stint as the lead on Dell, Junaid headed the digital and new business development arm for Mediacom Bangalore. He has previously worked with a number of flagship brands across multiple verticals, including MakeMyTrip, Tata Docomo, Royal Enfield, Mars-Wrigley, Bose, and Subway, among others. 

“As per McKinsey, WOM is much more influential than advertising in driving brand consideration at each stage of the decision journey. Yet the Indian ad industry stands at $ 11BN and investments in WOM are near zero. This is partly because we have not been able to figure out ways to drive WOM,” said Junaid on the announcement. "The challenge is we have an industry first offering and people are unfamiliar with it, so it will take a little bit of awareness and education around the product for adoption to happen. That's what I am going to focus on in my first 4-6 months at Brandie," he adds.

“The global impact of COVID-19 has fundamentally impacted the marketing industry and highlighted the growing importance of WOM marketing and customer advocacy. Junaid’s vast experience, strategic perspective, and operational focus will play a vital role in strengthening Brandie’s core leadership team and ensure our continued fast growth and adoption amongst agencies and brands in one of our core markets”, commented Pranav Kosuri, Co-Founder, Brandie.

Junaid will be based in Bangalore, India, where he will direct nationwide operations and liaise with Brandie’s global team in Sweden.