Cheil India bolsters digital and strategic planning capabilities with two senior appointments

Cheil India has appointed Shekhar Suri (pictured left) and Farah Bashir to bolster their digital and strategic planning capabilities.

Suri joins Cheil as General Manager-Digital and will report to Sanjeev Jasani, Head-Digital. Bashir, General Manager-Planning will report to Sonal Narain, Chief Strategy Officer.

Speaking on the occasion Jasani and Narain said, “2016 is going to be bigger and better for us. We are going to be even more aggressive and will be strengthening not just our talent pool but our internal capabilities as well. Shekhar and Farah’s proven track record and expertise will only help in further amplifying and accelerating growth for us. We are excited to have them on board, partnering us in scripting Cheil’s growth story in 2016.”

Suri comes with over 13 years experience in management and leadership in India, Sri Lanka and Africa. He has worked across categories such as, consumer durable, banking, telecommunication and advertising. He has been a part of setting up brown field projects and lead the business development and marketing strategy globally for some key clients like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Reckit Benkiser. Suri is a post graduate in international business. In his last stint, he was with DigitasLBi where he led the Delhi branch, he has played an instrumental role in establishing the agency in the region. He has also been associated with companies such as LG Electronics, Bharti Telesoft and Tech Mahindra in the past.

Bashir has over 12 years of experience across geographies – India, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil, where she has worked as a journalist, research analyst and marketing professional before moving to the planning side of advertising.

In her last stint, Bashir was Vice President Planning at Lintas, She has also been associated with DDB Mudra, Unilever Asia, Quantum Market Research and Reuters in the past. She has lent her expertise to a myriad of accounts such as, Wills Lifestyle, OLX, Hindustan Times, Volini, Revital, Reckitt Benckiser, NDTV, MTS, Microsoft, Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB), Singtel, Zopper, Twinings, Cisco, GPI and Dabur.