Saugata Gupta is elected Chairman of the ISA

The newly elected Executive Council of the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) met on 11th Sep, 2014.  Mr. Saugata Gupta, Managing Director & CEO , Marico Limited, was elected Chairman of the ISA.  He takes over from Mr. Hemant Bakshi as he relocates to Unilever Indonesia as the CEO

Saugata has been lending his support to the ISA for a long time as his colleagues from senior levels in Marketing and Media have been active in different committees of the ISA.  An MBA from IIM Bangalore, Saugata has rich FMCG experience of over two decades having worked through ascending career rung in Cadbury (India & UK), ICICI Prudential & Marico. Currently Managing Director of Marico Limited, Saugata believes in an empowering work culture that would create ownership and make a difference in to the entire business ecosystem.

On his election as Chairman of ISA, Saugata said “Our focus would be on making industry partnership stronger and in particular to extend all support that is needed to help BARC come up asap with industry wide accepted and accurate TV Audience Research data representing viewers across the country. I am looking forward to the exciting times ahead for Advertisers, industry partners and fraternity associations to work as a stronger team to harness overall growth of advertising which in turn will help grow businesses and the Indian economy"

The ISA is the only national body giving a voice to advertisers over the last 60 years. It has advertiser members from across industries who contribute to over two-thirds of the country’s national non-governmental ad spends.  ISA which is member of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) continues to partner with other industry bodies that connect to the advertisers such as initiating the formation of BARC.

Other members of the Executive Council are:

Atul Agrawal, Vice President – Corporate Affairs, Group Corporate Communications, Tata Services Ltd.

Abraham Alapatt, Chief Innovation Officer & Head – Marketing and Service Quality, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd.

Narendra Ambwani, Director, Agro Tech Foods Ltd.

Jimmy R. Anklesaria, Director – Business Development, Bajaj Corp Ltd.

 J. C. Chopra, Director, Infogain India Private Limited

Paulomi Dhawan, Strategic Advisor, Raymond Limited

Sonali Dhawan, Brand Director, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd.

Rajiv Dube, Director, Group Corporate Services and Strategy, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Ltd.

Sunil Kataria, Chief Operating Officer – Sales, Marketing & SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.

Beena Leji Koshy, Vice President  & Head Advtg. & Brand Development, Bajaj Electricals Limited

Ajoy K. Misra, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Global Beverages Limited

Anisha Motwani, Director & Chief Marketing Officer, Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, Director – Chocolate Category and Media, Mondelez India Foods Limited

Bharat V. Patel, Independent Director, Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co.Ltd.

Sanjiv Puri, Divisional Chief Executive, ITC Limited

Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan, Head - Communications, Nestle India Ltd.

R. Ramakrishnan, Vice Chairman, Joint MD & Group CEO, Polycab Wires Pvt. Ltd.

Samir Singh, Executive Director, Personal Care Products, Hindustan Unilever Limited

Brahm Vasudeva, Chairman, Hawkins Cookers Ltd.

The Executive Council and members of the ISA thanked the outgoing Chairman Hemant Bakshi profusely for his substantial contribution to ISA.  Hemant on his part  reassured  ISA of continuous support and participation of Hindustan Unilever Limited and wished the ISA and other industry bodies further success in future.