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Vidyadhar Wabgaonkar, fondly known as Wabs, has been appointed as President, FCB Cogito, the Brand Consulting division of FCB India.

Wabgaonkar has also headed Strategic Planning at FCB Ulka (Mumbai and South) and is currently leading the strategic planning effort at FCB Interface, which he will continue to do along with his new responsibility at FCB Cogito.

He is a gold medallist electronics engineer and a rank holder from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

In a career spanning two decades, he has handled assignments in marketing, sales, advertising and consulting with companies such as P&G, Marico Industries, Roche Group and Leo Burnett India before joining the FCB Ulka Group.

He has helped build numerous brands including several for the Mahindra group, Ariel, Vicks Vaporub, Parachute Coconut Oil, ICI Dulux paint, Zee Network, ITC Foods (Sunfeast biscuits), Wipro Consumer Care, Bajaj Electricals, L&T Cement and PSI AIDS awareness project.

Apart from writing a number of articles, Wabs is also a certified practitioner of clinical hypnosis.

Speaking on his new role, Wabgaonkar said, “I’m very excited about Consulting. It had become my dream career over the years. We, the team FCB Cogito, look forward to living up our history and reputation and to growing our practice further in size and stature.”

DigitasLBi has elevated Mark McDonald (right), Sabah Iqbal (above, in red) and Pooja Gosain to Head of Creative, Head of Account Management and Senior Creative Director respectively.

In their new roles McDonald and Iqbal will continue to report to Prithviraj Banerjee as they will take on larger responsibilities to partner him in managing respective business units in the region. Gosain will continue to report to Mark McDonald.

Commenting on his new role, McDonald, Head of Creative, Mumbai, said “I’m delighted to be stepping into my new role and really look forward to delivering award-winning work that makes our clients’ brands count in the marketplace.”

Sabah Iqbal, Head of Account Management, Mumbai, said “My time at the agency (pre-merger as LBi and now as DigitasLBi in the Publicis network) has taught me that the most important piece to the talent puzzle is culture. While my core responsibility is steering brands in the right direction with collaborative and sustainable management, I plan on carrying forward our culture and focusing my efforts on grooming, empowering and retaining talent.”

On her new role, Gosain (right) said,“Change has to be steered in the right direction and that is what I aim to focus on most – leadership of the right kind. At the same time, fostering a culture of fraternity, ownership and inclusivity.”

L’Oréal India has announced the appointment of Shalini Raghavan as the Chief Marketing Officer for its Consumer Products Division (CPD). Raghavan will be responsible for driving overall marketing capability and strengthening digital initiatives to build a strong strategy for L’Oréal’s CPD brands - L’Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York & NYX Professional Make up.

In her new role, Raghavan will report to Jean-Christophe Letellier, MD - L’Oréal India and will oversee marketing, media, public relations and digital functions. She will work towards creating an innovation pipeline and brand development for L’Oréal India at the country level.

With over 15 years of experience in the beauty industry, Shalini joins L’Oréal from Hindustan Unilever. She has worked in leadership roles in marketing and business development of brands such as Lux and Lakmé, and was recently the Global Brand Director (Asian and African) of Dove Masterbrand.

Commenting on the new appointment, Letellier, Managing Director, said, “Shalini is an experienced marketing professional with a deep insight into the beauty business. Her international experience and knowledge of building organisational capacity in strategy, innovation and marketing will be prized as we look to grow our presence across the country.”

Raghavan holds an MBA from SP Jain institute of Management and is a bachelor in Economics from Chennai.