Rishabha Nayyar joins Fatmen as Co-Founder and Strategy Lead

He will work alongside the Founder, Ashwin Varkey, to take Fatmen into the next phase of growth.

Rishabha Nayyar joins Fatmen as Co-Founder and Strategy Lead. He will work alongside the Founder, Ashwin Varkey, to take Fatmen into the next phase of growth.

Rishabha has spent more than 19 years across advertising and entrepreneurship. Out of this, he spent 12 years with Lowe Lintas (across 2 stints) where his last role was Executive Director Planning. He was leading the largest planning unit in the Mumbai office spread across a healthy mix of categories and clients. He also carried the additional responsibility of being a Brand Consultant at LinConsult, the consulting division of Lowe Lintas. While at Lowe Lintas, Rishabha also had the opportunity to work at Unilever on secondment as the Brand Manager on Wheel. He then moved to 82.5 Communications (an Ogilvy Group agency) as the Head of Strategy. In this role he was responsible for leading the function nationally with teams across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata reporting into him.

Being very passionate about the increasing gap between management education and practice in our country, Rishabha co-founded a management institute in Pune by the name of Genesis Institute of Business Management in 2007

Rishabha has to his credit the development and incubation of many Indian and international brands that have today gone on to become big players in their segments. Some of the brands he has worked with include Bisleri, Pepsodent, Wheel, Kissan, Domex, Knorr, Milo, Idea, Axis Bank, HIT, Britannia, Himalaya, First Cry, Grofers, Burger King, Practo and Zee to name a few.

Rishabha has also been involved in the development of many brand building models and tools at both the agencies. He has over the years won many an award at India Effies (including a Grand Effie), APAC Effies, Tambuli & Golden Glove. He has also been on the jury of India Effies on many occasions. He is a passionate speaker and lecturer who has been delivering courses and guest talks on various subjects in the areas of marketing, advertising, consumer behavior and brands at the IIMs, Symbiosis and NMIMS.

Ashwin Varkey, Founder of Fatmen said, “It’s really amazing to have Rishabha with us. Have known him for long and he’s always been one of those planners I have loved interacting with. He usually has an interesting point of view on things. Plus, he has so much knowledge, that there’s always something new to learn from him. Most importantly, he likes what I do and I like what he does, so in a way, this collaboration is also to boost each other’s egos. Jokes apart, Rishabha & I now share a common belief that ‘small is beautiful’. And being small gives you the power to do bigger and more impactful work. This partnership is to create work that everyone can be proud of. Because, for the both of us, that’s all that matters. Here’s pouring a large one for Rishabha. Welcome!”

“I am thrilled to be a part of Fatmen. While I have known Ashwin for more than 15 years, I have been closely seeing the evolution of Fatmen over the last 5 years into an independent agency that is doing some very impactful work in the industry. When I first chatted with Ashwin about this role, I was instantly sold onto his vision for the agency – Small in size, big in ideas. Coming from two of India’s largest network agencies, both of us feel that the attention, depth and involvement that brands need from their senior agency partners these days is not coming through which is reflecting in the work. At Fatmen, our ambition will be to work with fewer brands but ensure that we are able to personally partner each one on their path to growth,” said Rishabha.