Sulina Menon to take over as CEO, Carat India

Sulina Menon, who was earlier senior business director at Carat Media India, is slated to take over as CEO, Carat India, the position vacated by Meenakshi Madhvani (who was also regional director, Asia Pacific) recently. Confirming the development, PV Narayanamoorthy, regional director - strategic resources, Carat Asia Pacific, indicated Menon would soon be leaving for Mumbai to take over from Madhvani. Madhvani, however, is not ready to reveal her next destination; all she would say is she is looking forward to her break at this moment.

For Menon, who will now look after the Mumbai office besides Delhi, it is business as usual. "I am just waiting to get on with my work," she told agencyfaqs!. Menon was responsible for setting up the Delhi office of Carat India, which became operational on May 1, 1997. "At that time we were still trying to figure out in which direction to head. Things started happening thereafter. Then we brought in the concepts of Carat Services, we got the processes, trained our people and began pitching for business."

The first account that Carat won was Bacardi. Cadbury's was the second account - one that became the turning point of Carat in India. "Today we have Bharti Telecom, Asian Paints, Max New York Life, Mattel and the planning and buying duties for Discovery among others," says Menon, who began her career in media planning with O&M in 1986. She then moved to Tara Sinha Associates and then to Contract Advertising. Thereafter she worked with ZEE for three years as general manager, sales and marketing, for the northern region. Then she joined Carat, which she says presented her a ‘pioneering opportunity'.

For the record, Carat in India currently generates annual business worth Rs 340 crore. That business amounts to 7 per cent of the Asia Pacific revenue of Carat. Two months ago Carat acquired media buying agency M:Ideas, promoted by Shripad Kulkarni, and merged it with its local joint venture Carat Integra (a 51:49 joint venture between Carat and Percept Advertising's promoters Harindra and Shailendra Singh). The terms of the acquisition included the appointment of Kulkarni as CEO of Carat Integra, which was headed by Madhvani earlier.

Earlier, though Carat Integra and Carat India held separate accounts, their operations and administration were closely integrated. After the appointment of a separate CEO for Integra, there is a move to clearly demarcate the functioning of the two agencies. © 2003 agencyfaqs!