Leo Burnett India has bolstered its senior account management team with three new appointments in Mumbai. Ashima Mehra and Maninder Bali join as Senior Vice Presidents while Sarina Baretto joins as Vice President.
Ashima, who has had wide-ranging experience in advertising and marketing, worked on both the client and creative sides. In the past, she has led brands at Godfrey Phillips India and Reckitt Benckiser where she led the PO1 team for Dettol in 15 countries, primarily in the developing markets. Ashima played a key role in designing communication strategies for global brands, such as Pepsi, Veet, Mountain Dew, Whirlpool, MakeMyTrip, Vodafone, Tata AIG, Aditya Birla Group, and Honda.
Bali, who joins Burnett as Senior Vice President from Publicis Singapore, was Regional Business Director on P&G’s Safeguard global business. For Bali, this is homecoming as he was earlier Vice President at Leo Burnett, Mumbai, where he led McDonald, one of the agency’s premier accounts.
Sarina has earlier helped curate brands across industries, including Times of India, Femina, Camlin, Hotel Leela, Polycab, Intercontinental, IndianOil, Zee Entertainment Network, DHL, HDFC and L’Oréal, among others.
Referring to the appointments, Dheeraj Sinha, Managing Director, India & Chief Strategy Officer, Leo Burnett South Asia, said: “Leo Burnett has had tremendous growth momentum which is reflected in both our new business wins and our stellar body of work. To keep up this momentum for the agency it is important to have a leadership team which echoes our new-age thinking and creative approach. I am thrilled to welcome Bali, Ashima, and Sarina onboard and I am confident that the energy and experience that each of them bring will translate in creating world-class work for our clients.”