MEC appoints Rajesh Kumar as Chief Strategy Officer

Kumar joins in from ZenithOptimedia, where he was Chief Strategy Officer. At MEC, he will be based out of Gurgaon and will report to T Gangadhar and Raj Gupta

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | September 15, 2015

Rajesh Kumar

MEC has brought on board Rajesh Kumar as Chief Strategy Officer. He will be based out of Gurgaon and will report to T Gangadhar, MD, MEC, and Raj Gupta, Chief Strategy Office, MEC Asia Pacific. Kumar's primary responsibility will be to further strengthen MEC's strategic product that will help drive better business outcomes for the agency's clients.

Kumar has spent 21 years in building brands and strategic consumer marketing at some of India's leading companies. His first brush with strategic brand planning started in 1996 at McCann Erickson, where he worked on brands like Reckitt Benckiser (then Reckitt & Colman), General Motors and Bridgestone Tyres. At Ogilvy, he led the planning team in Delhi, where he worked with brands like Honda cars, KFC, Max New York Life, and HT Media, to name a few. He was a key contributor in instituting one of India's leading business dailies – Mint.

At Lowe Lintas, Kumar was instrumental in creating the brand strategy for ICICI Pru Life Insurance, Idea Cellular and Will's Lifestyle.

His last two assignments have been in the world of media – first at HT Media, where he headed Marketing for Hindustan and, subsequently, at ZenithOptimedia, where he was CSO.

T Gangadhar

Commenting on Kumar's appointment, T Gangadhar said, “It's great to have Rajesh at MEC. His background is ideal to what we are seeking to achieve at MEC – to further improve the robustness of our strategic recommendations. The two of us will work closely to this end.”

On joining MEC, Kumar said, “A diverse portfolio of clients, the leadership team and its unique perspective and understanding of the consumer journey has drawn me to MEC. I am looking forward to adding momentum to the brands that MEC partners. Insights, ideas, innovation and implementation all have a role at different stages of the consumer's ongoing journey that MEC maps across different categories. I am sure that planning the MEC way will accelerate growth for brands.”

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