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Mahesh Ranka bids adieu to Relay Worldwide

Ranka has been with the organisation for more than six years.

Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) India has announced that Mahesh Ranka, general manager, Relay Worldwide will move on from the organisation. He joined Relay Worldwide as business director.

Relay Worldwide is the sports marketing arm of Starcom MediaVest Group in India.

Mahesh Ranka bids adieu to Relay Worldwide
Ranka will be with the organisation till February. Starcom MediaVest Group will announce, in due course, the way forward for Relay Worldwide.

Ranka says, "I have had the good fortune of working with inspiring teams in creating memorable properties for our clients. I want to thank the leadership at Starcom MediaVest Group for believing in the power of sports to market brands."

Speaking about the reasons behind this move, he says that the need to go beyond, grow and explore new opportunities prompted him to quit the organisation.

Will Ranka join another organisation or will he start his own independent venture soon? Without revealing much, Ranka says, "It could even be a combination of the two."

Speaking on the development, CVL Srinivas, chairperson, SMG India, says in a press statement, "Ranka has been leading the sports marketing practice at the Starcom MediaVest Group under the Relay Worldwide banner for more than six years. As he moves on from the organisation, we wish him well in his future endeavours."

Ranka has more than 16 years of experience, ranging from TV programmes, channel ad sales and business development to internet marketing, business development and sports marketing and consulting. His key areas of work have been concept selling, business development and business building.

Ranka has also developed Ahmedabad, Baroda and Indore as markets for channels such as Sony and Vijay TV. At Sony, as group manager, he handled one half of the West region. His mandate included creating new sponsorship and revenue generating avenues.

While at Vijay TV, in its new avatar as a part of UTV, Ranka led the western region and ensured that the revenue actualisation was at levels hugely beneficial to the company.

Ranka's other achievements include formulating the plan for portal development as marketing and alliances manager of Aptech Internet and setting up the CricInfo office in Mumbai. In fact, Ranka has also worked with clients and brands during the IPL team auctions in the recent past.

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