Kantar names Deepender Rana to lead South Asia Business

Preeti Reddy elevated to Chairwoman of Kantar South Asia board.

Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company announces the appointment of Deepender Rana as General Manager for the Insights Division (formerly Kantar IMRB, TNS and Millward Brown) in the South Asia region. Rana succeeds Preeti Reddy who takes on the role of Chairwoman of Kantar South Asia. Most recently Rana led Kantar’s Insights business in Greater China.

Prior to his new appointment, Rana was most recently responsible for managing Kantar’s Insights division in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. In this role he has driven the successful integration of Kantar Millward Brown and Kantar TNS entities into a domain led organisation and led a significant turnaround of the business with a focus on supporting Chinese brands going abroad, local giants and the tech sector. Rana also laid the foundations for future business transformation embedding the company’s digital and analytics practice with the local ecosystem.

Rana started his Kantar career with IMRB International in 1994 in Bangalore. In 1999 he moved to Millward Brown in Shanghai during an exciting period of expansion where he was involved in helping set up China, Taiwan, Korea and Philippines offices, subsequently heading the Greater China business for Millward Brown.

Rana’s specialty lies in helping clients navigate the diversity and complexity of building brands and communications in a digital world. As the Chief Client and Solutions Officer for Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific from 2008 to 2013, Rana built and led a team of domain experts and regional client leaders which significantly enhanced business with key accounts across multiple regions.

Preeti Reddy, who was recently recognised for the sixth consecutive year as one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Media, Marketing and Advertising by Impact magazine, has a 30+ year career spanning consumer marketing, research and consulting. Previously she has been CEO of Kantar's Sri Lanka business, before returning to Delhi to lead first Kantar IMRB and then Kantar in the South Asia region. Preeti is a strong proponent of technology-driven innovation in research, adoption of new, non-conscious methods of understanding consumers and applying analytic capabilities to integrated data to transform consumer understanding into business impact.

Commenting on Rana’s appointment, Wayne Levings, APAC Regional President for Insights Division said “In Rana we have an outstanding successor to Preeti, able to build on her many significant achievements and to continue growing Kantar’s success in the region. As leader of the Insights business in Greater China Rana led a team that transformed our presence in that market.

Celebrating Preeti’s achievements, Wayne added “Preeti is a result-oriented leader with a strong track record for growing the Kantar business in a highly competitive environment. She is rightly recognised in the industry for building strong client relationships, nurturing and growing talent and for strategic thinking that yields a stronger bottom line.”

Discussing her new responsibilities as Chairwoman of Kantar South Asia, Preeti added “The appointment of Rana is a wonderful step for Kantar in the region. In my new role as Chairwoman, I am committed to supporting him grow our business in the region by moving our thinking beyond our current embedded ways of operating and by exploring new opportunities. I will also specifically focus on our I&D initiatives. As many across the industry know Kantar is the market leader in South Asia with very strong market share and stature. This role will help us reinforce Kantar's position in the market and identify ways to put “India on the map” across the wider Kantar organisation.

Deepender Rana assumes his new responsibilities as General Manager for Kantar’s Insights Division in South Asia region effective 1st March 2021.