Interbrand announces leadership appointments

Interbrand bolsters its leadership team by appointing four executives in elevated and new roles, with the goal in mind to drive strategic partnerships, accelerate growth, and burgeon overall enterprise value.

Speaking about the new leadership team and with an optimistic outlook for the future, Ashish Mishra to 'CEO, India & South Asia - Interbrand India'. – Interbrand India, says, “We had a late entry in the Indian market but could achieve local leadership for the World’s leading brand consultancy in a very short span. We have the top 5 branding projects of the decade as our showreel. Winning and delivering these Iconic Brand Transformations including Godrej, Jio, Britannia, Infosys, Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and Nerolac took brilliant and committed talent. Most of whom have been the core of our team for most of our history. Our people have grown with the firm and are poised well to create the next generations of icons. At Interbrand, our priority is to nurture a global community of thinkers and makers with the curiosity and confidence to create iconic work.”

Satish Krishnamurthy assumes the role of chief strategy officer. Satish brings 21 years of global strategic experience to Interbrand, having worked across brand consulting, creative strategy, and design thinking. His diverse experience straddles from driving strategic mandates for large agencies in the US and India, to being a behavioural architect, and also a Ted X speaker. Satish has crafted unique ways to solve problems by taking inspiration from various disciplines. He has impacted successful outcomes for large clients across positioning, service and experience design, and opportunity consulting.

Ameya Kapnadak takes on the role of chief growth officer and head of consulting – Interbrand India. Ameya leads the growth and consulting teams at Interbrand’s India office. Over the last 25 years, he has worked on and built some of India’s most iconic brands. Ameya has a wide and deep experience across diverse industries including technology, banking and finance, automotive, consumer goods, food, and fashion and retail. He started his branding career at J Walter Thompson, and has since worked at Mudra, ICICI Bank and The Times Group, before joining Interbrand in 2011. Ameya is a pharmacist by qualification, and holds a master’s degree in management from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

Payal Shah is now the strategy director and head - human truths, India. As a strategy director at Interbrand, her approach is to help brands rise to meaningful arenas for growth and sustainable iconic leadership. Possessing a multi-faceted personality and more than 15 years of experience in USA and India, she has been working across categories such as spirits, FMCG, technology and fashion. Some of her clients in the past were Pernod Ricard, Britannia and Gucci. Payal believes in the power of storytelling and delves into experiences for brands that inhabit them. She believes in purposeful innovation that harnesses behavioural data in order to amplify brand growth and value creation. Beyond creating brands, she’s a brand mentor at Ecole Intuit-Lab and the host of ‘Design Rendezvous’.

Rahul Bansal will function as the strategy director and head- brand economics, India. Rahul joined Interbrand India in 2016 in their strategy vertical. In this role, he has helped with the expansion of Interbrand’s footprint in South Asia across Sri Lanka, UAE, and Bangladesh while also leading projects for some of the largest PSU and Private sector brands in India. Prior to Interbrand, Rahul has worked across a diverse range of functions and sectors including business consulting to help bring global consumer brands into India, gaming, and e-commerce in Southeast Asia.