JWT’s Mythili Chandrashekar among three to win Mann Award

With the award, she wins a ₤10,000 scholarship to pursue any educational and career development opportunity of her choice

Mythili Chandrashekar, senior vice-president and executive planning director, JWT India, has won the prestigious Patricia Mann Award for Women.

Competitors for the Patricia Mann Award are required to have at least 10 years of experience. Their entries need to be substantiated by their achievements and indicate their potential to contribute further to the industry. A 1,000 word essay on why and what kind of developmental investment the candidates require and how it would benefit them complete the application. The trustees and judges are influential professionals in London.

Chandrashekar has more than 20 years of experience in the field of advertising and marketing communications. As senior vice-president and executive planning director at JWT India, she works on a wide range of brands across offices and leads several national initiatives. Brand Chakras, a new proprietary tool kit based on a 2,000 year old system from the Upanishads and the first Eastern framework for studying consumer behaviour, was designed and conceptualised by her.

Mythili Chandrashekar

Coffee and Donuts, the JWT planning blog, which shares perspectives on consumers and markets with colleagues and clients, was also initiated by Chandrashekar. She is a prolific writer and contributes regularly to many dailies and advertising websites. Her deep interest in human behaviour and trends in social psychology reflect in her writing.

Chandrashekar’s writing portfolio includes co-authorship of Voices Within, a coffee table book on the maestros of Carnatic music. She spent many years in a creative role before moving to planning. She has taken breaks from advertising to work with UNICEF.

She plans to use the scholarship she has won to fulfil a long held dream – to participate in an executive education programme in strategic marketing management at Stanford University in the US.

The other winners of the Patricia Mann Award for Women are Alison Chadwick and Lee Wright. Chadwick is people director at Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO and Wright is managing director at Dare. Both women are based in London.

Chadwick plans to use her scholarship to fund a two year Master’s course in executive coaching, run by Ashridge Management College in Hertfordshire.

Wright plans to use her prize to fund a career development course at a leading London or US business school. Wright joined Dare in May 2006 as managing director with core responsibility for client development and new businesses. She began her advertising career at Modem Media, joining as a graduate trainee at the agency in 1993. When she joined DDB Needham/ Tribal DDB in 1995, she looked after the Volkswagen and Guardian businesses. She has served in account management and business development roles at the agency. Wright oversaw the merger of Tribal DDB and Billco into a new digital division.

She joined Grand Union in September 2003 to run the Britvic and Abbey portfolios and was appointed managing director in April 2005. Wright is also vice-chairman of the IPA Digital Marketing Group and sits on NABS' Fast Forward Committee.

The honours were announced and conferred on the women by WPP Advisory Group member Jeremy Bullmore at a recent ceremony in London's Belgravia at the IPA headquarters.

The Patricia Mann Award for Women, instituted this year, is a tribute to women in advertising, marketing and media from across the globe. The award was set up in memory of Patricia Mann, OBE, a lifetime employee of JWT, who began her career as a secretary and rose to become vice-president of external affairs.

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