MediaCom appoints Niti Kumar as national director, new business and insights

Niti Kumar moves in from Mudra Connext, where she was head of the agency's Delhi and Kolkata branches.

afaqs! has learnt that MediaCom has appointed Niti Kumar as national director, new business and insights. Kumar will work out of the agency's Delhi office. She will report to Debraj Tripathy, chief operating officer, MediaCom India.

Kumar moves in from Mudra Connext, where she was head of the agency's Delhi and Kolkata branches as associate vice-president, North and East. She was with Mudra Connext since 2003.

Addressing her decision to move to MediaCom, Kumar tells afaqs! that it was the opportunity to work on exciting brands, such as Volkswagen and Procter & Gamble, as well as the international exposure that drew her towards this new role.

"My immediate mandate," says Kumar, "is to look after businesses and insights nationally, and strategise for new accounts that we're going to be pitching for."

Tripathy says, "Niti's experience and expertise will help in growing MediaCom's client roster, and will add immense value to our media product. She is definitely the kind of talent that we are looking for and her hiring is in line with our objective of having the best people in MediaCom."

Tripathy, also based in Delhi, is currently responsible for heading development across MediaCom's offices in Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. He stepped into his present role at the agency a few months ago.

Kumar is an alumnus of St Xavier's College, Kolkata, and holds a post-graduate degree in media planning from MICA (Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad). She brings 12 years of experience in the media agency sphere.

In her career, Kumar has worked on brands such as ICI Paints, HBO, Dabur, Amway, Gillette, Reckitt Benckiser, Electrolux and Yatra.com.

It may be noted that MediaCom manages blue chip businesses such as Procter & Gamble, Volkswagen, Skoda, Audi, Dell, Shell, Wrigley, Edelweiss and Aegon Religare, among others. One of the agency's recently acquired accounts is MakeMyTrip.