Sharmila Malekar appointed senior vice-president, Mudra West

Prior to this, Malekar was managing partner at Mind Mirror.

Mudra India has announced the appointment of Sharmila Malekar as senior vice-president, Mudra West. Until recently, Malekar was the managing partner at Mind Mirror, a research and strategic consultancy. Based in Mumbai, she will report to Arijit Ray, president, Mudra West, and will help strengthen businesses like ITC, Jyothy Laboratories, Electrolux, Kalpataru, Emami, HPCL, and Godrej.

With rich experience in brand building and consumer research, Malekar has been in the industry for 18 years. She started her career with Lintas, where she worked on brands such as Liril and its brand extensions such as Shower Gel and Talc, Liril Icy soap and Liril skincare soap, and J&J feminine hygiene for the Stayfree and Carefree ranges, among others.

Malekar has also worked with Ogilvy India and was a business head on Dove, Aviance Beauty Solutions, Tata Sumo, and Tata Safari. She worked with Mudra DDB Communications as vice-president on the Godrej Franchise, Big Bazaar (Future Group), and LIC. Subsequently, she moved to Publicis Ambience to head the P&G (Vicks and Marico) portfolio.

Announcing the appointment, Ray says, "Malekar comes on board with a rich experience of overseeing a wide spread of brands in the FMCG, automotive, entertainment and beverages space, across a few of the best agencies of the country such as Ogilvy, Lintas and Publicis. Her experience will help consolidate and build on some of our most important client relationships at Mudra West."

Commenting on her appointment, Malekar says, "I look forward to do some interesting work for our clients."

Malekar takes a keen interest in alternative healing techniques and is also a practising therapist.

In June, Mudra India brought on board Amit Kekre as head, planning, Mudra West.

Recently, the Omnicom Group entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in the Mudra Group.