Zenith India, the media agency under Publicis Groupe India, has announced the appointment of Vaibhav Jadon as its National Buying Head, effective immediately. 

Jadon will lead the integrated buying function, driving strategy, and ensuring executional excellence across Zenith India’s client portfolio and will report directly to Jai Lala, CEO of Zenith India. In addition, he will also contribute to Publicis Media’s investment practice, PMX.  With over two decades of work experience both in India and international markets, Jadon brings a wealth of expertise in managing large clients (advertisers) within leading organisations. Prior to joining Zenith, he was heading the national media-buying and partnerships at Dentsu.

Zenith, the ROI agency blends data, technology, and brilliant specialists to solve complex business challenges for brands. In India, the agency has topped COMvergence’s recent new business rankings.

Throughout his career, Jadon has demonstrated a deep understanding of market trends, consumer behavior, technology, and emerging platforms, enabling powerful and impactful media campaigns. In his past assignments, he has closely worked with clients such as Reckitt, Maruti, Honda, AMFI, JLR, Heineken-UB, Abbott, and Coca-Cola to name a few.

Jai Lala said, “Vaibhav is known for his vast experience and expertise in media. He comes with strong and solid relationships in the publisher, broadcast, and overall, media ecosystem and has a proven record of success with leading brands. The overall media landscape is dynamic and evolving in both complexity and opportunity. With Vaibhav strategising and strengthening our media-buying functions, leading pivotal partnerships, and bringing in new insights that optimise media buys, we expect to deliver even greater value for our clients.”

Vaibhav Jadon said, “I am delighted at the new role, and this is an opportune time to be joining Zenith which is seeing phenomenal growth, topping new business rankings, and has an incredible roster of brands. Zenith has a strong and differentiated ROI product, proposition, and focus and I look forward to leading and enhancing media strategies and buying excellence for its clients and bringing in exceptional results for them. I am excited to be part of Zenith’s growth and success story.”

Vandana Chamaria, the head of business, brand and reputation marketing at Google, has joined Sahyadri Farms Post Harvest Care as Independent Director & Board Member. Chamaria will be associated with Sahyadri Farms while serving at Google.

Chamaria began her association with Sahyadri Farms Post Harvest Care in May 2023. She has  been associated with Google for the past more than five months, joining the company in February 2018. 

Before Google, Chamaria was with Hero MotoCorp Ltd, Yum! Brands, among other companies.

PubLive, the platform that empowers publishers in the digital landscape, has appointed Gunjan Patidar, the esteemed ex-co-founder and CTO of Zomato, to its advisory board.

With a strong background in technology and an impressive track record of success, Gunjan Patidar brings invaluable expertise to PubLive as it continues to revolutionise the publishing industry.

After his long tenure at Zomato, Gunjan Patidar left in Jan 2023 and has taken up advisor role at PubLive, recognising its immense potential to transform the digital publishing landscape. With his extensive experience and deep understanding of the industry, Patidar will contribute his strategic insights and guidance to PubLive, aiding in its mission to empower digital publishers and drive innovation.

PubLive is the brainchild of Manavdeep Singh, Founder CEO, Harmeet Singh, Co Founder - COO and Gagandeep Singh, Co Founder, CTO.

Manavdeep Singh has over 17 years experience in the Media sector. He has previously worked with CNBC, Forbes, Moneycontrol in the ad tech, media tech and revenue generation space. This is his 3rd entrepreneurial venture,

Harmeet Singh has 5 years of experience building products and planning GTM. He is also the Ex Director Demand Generation Airmeet and Ex-Founder Avocure and holds Bachelors from IIT Guwahati.

Gagandeep Singh was the Engineering Head at Zomato and one of the initial members in Zomato tech. He played a key role in building services around payments, catalogue and warehouse tech.

PubLive addresses the pressing pain points faced by publishers and equipping them with the cutting-edge tools required for unparalleled success. At the heart of PubLive lies a comprehensive suite of sophisticated features meticulously crafted to optimise every facet of the publishing workflow.

With an intuitive and user-friendly interface, PubLive enables publishers of all levels of expertise to effortlessly craft captivating articles, compelling blog posts, and immersive multimedia content with AI powered suite.

The platform also propels distribution by leveraging a robust network of strategic partnerships and employing advanced algorithms. Through these powerful mechanisms, PubLive supercharges publishers' reach, connecting them with their precisely targeted audience seamlessly and efficiently.

TVS Capital Funds has appointed Naveen Unni as Managing Partner.

Unni has 20 years of consulting experience, specialises in business transformation, digital strategy, and leadership development. He has a 20-year track record of leadership at McKinsey and Company, where he served as the Managing Partner for the Chennai office and led the India sustainability practice.

Commenting on Naveen Unni’s appointment, Gopal Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Capital Funds,said,“Naveen [Unni] comes with global consulting experience with significant exposure to comprehensive business transformation and digital strategy initiatives. This is of deep value for us at TVS Capital, where we partner with next-gen entrepreneurs in business building, especially those in the venture growth stage. This assumes more significance as we are preparing the launch of our next fund, to be led by the expanded competent leadership team tooffer comprehensive solutionsto portfolio entities.”

Naveen Unni, Managing Partner, TVS Capital Funds, said, “I am delighted by the opportunity to empower India’s NextGen entrepreneurs. What Gopal [Srinivasan] and the team have built over the past 15 years is exceptional – and the opportunity to join this mission to forge a leading Indian private capital institution with Gopal [Srinivasan], Anuradha [Ramachandran], Krishna [Ramachandran], and the rest of the TCF team is a privilege. I look forward to bringing my two decades’ experience instrategy and business transformation consulting and practice building, to support our business partners, our clients, and the TCF ecosystem.”

Pratik Maru has been elevated to Vice President-Marketing at Sony Pictures Networks India.

He has been with the network for over 2 years.

Prior to SPNI, Maru was General Manager at Wavemaker.

He was earlier with Hotstar as Head of Digital Marketing.

At iProspect he spent 5 years before stepping down as National Head Paid Media in April 2017. 

Condé Nast has appointed Sandeep Lodha as the new Managing Director of India, officially assuming the role in July.

Lodha replaces Alex Kuruvilla who announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down from the managing director role and transitioning to a new role within the company as non-executive chairman.

He will oversee all aspects of Condé Nast business across all brands in India. Lodha, an IIT-Delhi alumni with an MBA from Wharton, most recently served as the CEO of the music streaming app Gaana, where he re-established the company’s leadership in the industry by pivoting from a mostly free music streaming model to a paid-only model enabling a sustainable turnaround of business. During his leadership at Gaana, the company saw substantial user growth, as well as growth in user retention, engagement, and subscriptions. Lodha will be based in Condé Nast’s Mumbai office.

“I’m thrilled to be working closely with Sandeep as we look to expand our client relationships in this important market. Sandeep’s deep experience in retail and consumer products, as well as his technological and engineering background, make him the perfect person to lead business growth in India, where we are focused on not only our globally recognized titles, but also on establishing ourselves as a center of excellence in technology,” said Pam Drucker Mann, Condé Nast’s Global Chief Revenue Officer & President, U.S. Revenue & APAC, to whom Lodha will report.

“I’m incredibly proud to be joining Condé Nast, home to some of the world’s most iconic brands. India has particularly large growth potential, and I’m excited to take Condé Nast to new heights in this region,” said Lodha. “Condé Nast has already shaped itself into a technology-driven, digital-first content business, and as a tech entrepreneur, my role is to build on that strong foundation. From new opportunities in luxury ecommerce to digital channel expansion to other formats of offline user engagement, I am confident that we will be able to push the boundaries here in India.”

Prior to Gaana, Lodha was the founder and CEO of Weddingz.in. His other roles have included Executive Director at the Walt Disney Company in India overseeing their consumer products division, Sr. Principle at global business consulting firm Bain & Company, as well as senior engineering titles at both Riverstone Networks (now Alcatel Lucent) and Synopsys.

Piaggio Vehicles, a 100 % subsidiary of the Italian auto giant Piaggio Group has  appointed Dhiraj Tripathi as vice president - Export & Electric Vehicles. In his new role with Piaggio India, Tripathi will be responsible for the Sales, Service, Marketing & Business Development for EVs and Exports.

Tripathi is an auto industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in diverse automotive consumer segments. His expertise lies across B2B and B2C sales operations, global business development, EV start-up, P&L management, revenue enhancement, and strategic alliances. He has previously been associated with Electric One, Hero MotoCorp Ltd, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Castrol, and Honda Cars India Ltd. His last stint was with Electric One as the Chief Operating Officer where he was responsible for the overall business and strategy of the brand.

Tripathi holds a General Business Administration and Management degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, an MBA degree from Utkal University and a Mechanical Engineering degree from Bangalore University.