Mumbai: MEC announced the appointment of Rajesh Kumar as Chief Strategy Officer. Kumar will be based out of Gurgoan and will report to T Gangadhar, MD, MEC and to Raj Gupta, Chief Strategy Office, MEC Asia Pacific.
His primary responsibility is to further strengthen MEC’s strategic product that will help drive better business outcomes for MEC’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, 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 the Marketing for Hindustan and, subsequently, at ZenithOptimedia where he was CSO.
Speaking on the appointment, T.Gangadhar, MD, MEC 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”.
Speaking about his appointment, Kumar, Chief Strategy Office 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”.
