WATConsult beefs up senior leadership team in Mumbai

Kedar Mehendale has been appointed as associate vice-president (AVP), strategic initiatives, while Patavarayan aka Ryan Chettiar has been roped in as AVP, media programmatic; Abheek Biswas joins as AVP, consumer insights and Maheshwar Bhadane joins as AVP, video strategy.

WATConsult, a digital and social media agency, which is now part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, has announced four senior appointments for its management team in Mumbai. Kedar Mehendale has been appointed as associate vice-president (AVP), strategic initiatives, while Patavarayan aka Ryan Chettiar has been roped in as AVP, media programmatic; Abheek Biswas joins as AVP, consumer insights and Maheshwar Bhadane joins as AVP, video strategy. The appointments, which are all Mumbai-based, are expected to help drive the agency's growth at a national level by working on the newly-launched verticals at the agency.

Mehendale, who joins WATConsult as AVP, strategic initiatives, will work on building the Dentsu Aegis Network for the agency. He has nearly 13 years of experience in business development, brand management, and key account management. Mehendale has earlier worked with the digital division of Tribal DDB India, L&K Digital, Viacom18, and Portico New York. His most recent role before joining WATConsult was at Trivone Digital Services as marketing programmes director.

Patavarayan (aka Ryan) Chettiar joins from Resultrix, a Publicis Groupe company. He takes over as AVP, media programmatic. Chettiar has over 18 years of experience in digital marketing, strategising and consulting. At WATConsult, he will handle the media delivery function for existing clients and help drive the pan-India growth for the agency's media and programmatic business.

Abheek Biswas, a research and marketing professional, specialising in technology and digital domains, joins WATConsult from IMRB International. Biswas, who has six years of experience spread across research-based strategic consulting, will in his new role as AVP, consumer insights, handle the agency's consumer insights and research division, and help further the custom and syndicated research divisions, and spearhead all consulting initiatives for the agency.

Bhadane, a media professional with nearly seven years of experience, has been roped in as AVP, video strategy. He will take charge of the video strategy division and drive the branded content video business, focussing on building the best digital video production unit in India. Bhadane joins in from The Glitch, a digital agency, where he conceptualised and strategised the branded content division.

Commenting on the new appointments, Rajiv Dingra, founder and CEO, WATConsult, says, "We are glad to have some of the leaders of the digital marketing space join us in our journey of growth. I welcome them all on board and look forward to collaborative growth with them."

WATConsult, now a part of Dentsu Aegis Network, is headquartered in Mumbai with branch offices in Delhi and Bengaluru.

In India, Dentsu Aegis Network is supported through its seven global network brands namely Carat, iProspect, Isobar, Posterscope, Vizeum, MKTG, Amnet, the Dentsu branded agencies -- Dentsu Creative Impact, Dentsu Marcom, Dentsu Communications, Dentsu Media, Taproot Dentsu and Dentsu Webchutney. Newly added to the Group are the recently acquired local brands of WATConsult and Fountainhead.