#e4mBreaking:  Shekhar Narayanaswami elected Chairman of IOAA, succeeds Pawan Bansal

The Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA) has elected Shekhar Narayanaswami, CEO of Times OOH Group, as its new Chairman, e4m has learnt from sources. 

He takes over from Pawan Bansal, COO, Jagran Engage, who previously held the position. Narayanaswami earlier served as Vice Chairman of IOAA.

Shekhar Narayanaswami has over three decades of experience in finance and leadership roles across multinational corporations and Indian enterprises.

He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Times Innovative Media Limited (Times OOH Group), a role he has held since June 2024. Prior to that, he was President of the company from October 2021 to July 2024, where he led growth, profitability, organizational restructuring, and expansion into new markets.

Earlier, Shekhar Narayanaswami served as Chief Financial Officer at Times Innovative Media for over 13 years (May 2008 – Oct 2021), where he oversaw finance, legal, business development, strategy, and contract acquisitions, and played a key role in turning the business profitable by reorganising property portfolios, renegotiating contracts, and driving IT-led process automation.

He began his career with Tata Motors as Assistant Manager (Dec 1989 – Nov 1991), working in the automobile cost section on cost sheet analysis, reconciliation of raw material inputs and outputs, and supplier payments processing.

He then joined Sundram Fasteners Limited as Deputy Manager (Dec 1991 – Apr 1993), where he was responsible for finance and accounts at the Hosur factory, including financial reporting and business planning.

From April 1993 to March 1998, he worked with Timex Watches Limited as Manager of Finance. His responsibilities included setting up an internal audit system, raising an external commercial borrowing of $3 million, maintaining accounts, taxation, costing and budgeting, and leading automation initiatives such as computerisation of the bill passing system and spares requirement planning.

Shekhar Narayanaswami moved to Coca-Cola India in April 1998, where he spent nearly eight years, last serving as General Manager of Finance until January 2006. His responsibilities covered financial reporting under US GAAP and Indian GAAP, management information, audit compliance, supply chain and logistics, revenue assurance, and risk management. He also worked across multiple geographies including Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In January 2006, he joined Bharti Enterprises Ltd as Chief Controller of Bharti Airtel Ltd & CFO for Bharti Retail Ltd, a role he held until Sep 2007. His work included oversight of strategic planning, financial reporting, performance review, revenue assurance, and risk and compliance management. He was part of the six-member Airtel Finance Council at the apex level and the Enterprise Business Management Board. He also restructured the finance organisation for the B2B business during the merger of corporate and carrier business segments. As CFO of Bharti Retail Ltd, he was involved in the implementation of Bharti’s retail initiative with Wal-Mart.