17 movers and shakers of 2017

As we come the end of the year, here is one of few lists I will create, because I have figured that most Public Relations professionals love lists. This list is about 17 people who moved in 2017 and is divided into two parts. There could have been others who moved but these were significant. They include those who changed jobs and those who became entrepreneurs. The details are based on publicly available information and I did not speak to any of them for this piece.

1. Pradipta Bagchi – With the changes taking place at the Tata Group, Pradipta Bagchi was elevated from TCS to be the Chief Communication Officer of the group, which could be one of the most powerful in-house jobs in the country.
2. Girish Huria – This was the biggest move from the corporate world back to consultancy. Girish moved from eBay India, which had become part of Flipkart as President of Ketchum Sampark and will work closely with the Founders.
3. Pranav Kumar – Pranav became the first Managing Director for Allison+Partners in India. He spent close to seven years with the Next 15 Group. First at Bite that was later rebranded as HyperText.
4. Tinu Cherian – I have a small role to play in Tinu getting into Public Relations. I invited half a dozen people to PRAXIS who were not from PR and Tinu chose to embrace this profession. He joined Ola earlier this year and has now moved to Harman Audio.
5. Ruchica Tomar – Ruchica, a former journalist was once the only Indian PR professional with a verified Twitter handle. She transitioned from Uber India to Make My Trip as head of Public Relations.
6. Suresh Vaidyanathan – After two short stints at Twitter and MobiKwik, Suresh is now the Head of Corporate Affairs for the Alibaba Mobile Business Group.
7. Amrit Ahuja – This was the biggest move from the consultancy world to an in-house role. While Amrit will start in February as the first Communications Director of Facebook India, she leaves a legacy of over 20 years at 2020MSL. She was also on the Cannes Innovation jury this year.
8. Ambereen Ali Shah – For those who know Ambereen, she has firepower and was until her last day the oldest serving employee at Edelman Delhi. Nestle hired her to replace the incumbent who has moved to the headquarters.
9. Swati Bhattacharya – Swati made the transition from General Motors to CK Birla Group – famous for its Orient brand of cement, paper and electricals, including fans.
10. Karishma Gupte – Her Twitter handle still says she is the Capital Bee at PR Pundit where most of the senior leadership is referred to as a Bee with an interesting prefix. Karishma was also considered to be the next leader of the company. She now is at Edelman as Head, Consumer Practice, New Delhi.

And these seven chose entrepreunership.

1. Girish Balachandran – Girish moved on from Avian Media where he was Managing Partner to launch On Purpose Consulting – a consultancy built around the theme of social change. Helping brands to create movements by showing courage to break stereotypes, give new meaning to social moves and by bringing people together around shared beliefs is the philosophy of the firm.
2. Anil Mathews – Anil who was a SVP at Yes Bank opened Mathewson PR and Brand Consultants. The new firm will offer its services to corporates and business houses in the area of brand strategy and planning, through sustainable PR Campaigns and programs, market intelligence and crisis management solutions.
3. Deepak Jolly – Deepak left Coca Cola after spending a decade in multiple roles (probably the only PR professional to have worked at both cola majors) to build a consultancy which aims to have a holistic approach in advising enterprises both Large and SMEs, Government Institutions as well as NGOs in Enhancing Reputation, Improving Sustainability and Building Relationships.
4. Aman Abbas – After interesting business roles at law firm Amarchand Mangaldas, Aman Abbas is shaping the future of communications for service firms through Commwiser. He started out with an investment from SPAG Asia.
5. Ainara Kaur – I knew her as Amandeep Kaur at Myntra. She moved on recently to found Canvilicious which is a new age marketing solutions company with a focus on healthcare, fashion, consumer products, telecom and financial domains.
6. Manoj Menon – Coined from Chemistry of Communication, is co-created by Manoj Menon to provide 360-degree marketing and communication support. He was formerly with GE in Bangalore.
7. Rajeev Kumar – Dr (Col) Rajeev Kumar retired from the Tata Group in May where he was General Manager of Learning and Development for the Corporate Communications team. He now consults under the Communicologist umbrella.

Amith Prabhu

Founder at PRomise Foundation

Amith Prabhu is the Founder of the PRomise Foundation which organises PRAXIS, India’s annual summit of reputation management professionals.

He is also the Founding Dean of the School of Communications & Reputation (SCoRe).

He can be reached at @amithpr on twitter.