Things2do appoints Roch D’souza as CEO

Things2do which curates and co-creates multiple experiences across a host of local events, nightlife, food festivals appoints Roch D'souza, former chief marketing officer at Brand Factory, Future Group. He will be based out of Things2do's Mumbai office.

Roch brings close to 20 years of experience having worked across FMCG and Retail Sector, with organisations such as Parle Bisleri, HUL and in Future Group, across a host Lifestyle and Fashion Brands. His previous assignment was CMO at Brand Factory, where Roch was instrumental in taking the brand with around 30 stores 6 years ago, to more than 105 retail outlets and growing the business 5-fold during this period. Roch also conceptualised and ran the immensely popular Free Shopping Weekend at Brand Factory which became the biggest offline Annual Retail Sale across all players, reaching out and engaging more than 20 million customers annually. He is a firm believer in having a digital-first approach for brand building.

Things2do is among India's largest hyperlocal Experience Marketing business and runs the immensely engaging social platform called Things2doinMumbai that reaches over 10 million customers in Mumbai monthly. Things2do is rapidly diversifying across all the Major Metros in India, as well as runs the immensely popular Dubai local community Things2doinDubaiCity, and soon to be launched Things2doinSingapore.

Things2do is also running the current ongoing Mumbai Festival in partnership with Maharashtra Tourism and is looking at taking this engagement across various geographies over the next 12 months.

At Things2do Roch will be working with the management to expand and oversee Things2do's business and the diversification that the business is undertaking. Roch will also be responsible to launch the Things2do Club, which will be curating and co-creating unbeatable experiences for the customers across India. Things2do already has more than 1000 merchants signed up for the program and is aiming to onboard another 2000 partners. He will further lookout for interesting brand associations and tie-ups to further strengthen the Experience Marketing promise of the brand as well as aiding in the Discovery of hereto unknown Experiences for consumers across the country and overseas.

Commenting on the appointment, Amit Tripathi, managing director, Things2do said "It gives me immense pleasure to welcome Roch on the team. He has tremendous experience in building brands from scratch to multi-bagger companies. Things2do is a well-established platform; all we need to do is jointly work on setting newer milestones. Roch's past experiences are the true testimony of his expertise. We are certain that with Roch's leadership, the Things2do promise and its team will rewrite the rules for the Experience Marketing business in India."

Roch D'souza stated "I am excited to work with the young and enthusiastic group of professional at Things2do. There is a huge potential in Things2do business model. The passion of the 2 founders, Yash and Rahul supported with the vision of the Management we will be able to shape the business and its current engagement with Tourism bodies and Brand partners in more ways than one. Online to Offline (O2O) business clubbed with the promise of Experience Marketing for the consumer promises to be a game-changer in terms of the Discovery process as well as influencing Brand Reputation for such partners. I am extremely keen and looking forward to making a difference in the journey of Things2do as well as build a world-class team in the organisation."