2019 has been a golden year for media, marketing and advertising industry but 2020 is going to be that of diamond’s. The top-level movement that this year saw, we sure have a long list of names that we need to look out for. Amongst all the top-tier names, we’ve come up with a list of names who are expected to be the industry leaders of their respective fields and see maximum growth and profit. These industry leaders will, most probably, be seeing major development in the upcoming year. The list isn’t in any particular order.
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Scroll down to unveil the list of industry leaders to look out for in 2020!
- UDAY SHANKAR
After Sanjay Gupta departed from Star, Uday Shankar, the chairman of Star and Disney India, took up the task of supervising the digital streaming giant, Hotstar. Hotstar has been on the top of its game and will now be reporting to Shankar on all grounds. 2020 is going to be interesting as we’ll get a chance to understand and experience the tricks that Shankar will have up his sleeves to be on the peak.
- ASHISH BHASIN
Ashish Bhasin has been one of the most important men to have put India on the global map. He added a big crown to the country this year when he was elevated to the position of Asia-Pacific (APAC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from the position of India Chairman of ad and media agency group Dentsu Aegis Network (Dentsu). He is the first Indian within the Dentsu network to be elevated to the position of APAC CEO. The entire ad industry is on its toe and is currently looking forward to his contributions in 2020.
- SANJAY GUPTA
The year 2020 will begin with a bang with the new India country head for Google, Sanjay Gupta, who is an epitome of integrity and leadership qualities. India has been a very important market for Google and they obviously gave in a lot of mind work to decide the next Google India’s country head. Gupta surely does have a lot of work to do and a lot to prove too and hence 2020 is going to be his year.
- PRASANTH KUMAR
In May of 2019, Prasanth Kumar took over as the CEO of GroupM. He had always ensured the fulfillment of the client’s expectation as the COO and now that he’s the CEO, he’s certainly a face to watch out for. He is surely going to be one of the progressive industry leaders.
- SAM SINGH
The year 2019 saw the CEO of GroupM, Sam singh, quit GroupM to go join ByteDance, the company which currently owns the social media hype creator, TikTok. He’s currently the Vice President of TikTok and is working on monetizing the app. With the severe incline of TikTok in the Indian market, it’ll be interesting to see the tactics he uses to monetize this app.
- AJIT MOHAN
Facebook India’s Managing Director and Vice President is no unknown face. It has been tough for Facebook given the intense scrutiny social media companies face whether it is on policy, regulation or data privacy concerns. The Whatsapp Pegasus spyware hack hogged headlines in 2019 and the company has since assured that it has been working hard to ensure such vulnerabilities are fixed, restoring public faith is perhaps the tougher task. Mohan has been working really hard and we all know we’ll be looking forward to to his moves to strike the right balance in 2020.
- SUDHANSHU VATS
Sudhanshu Vats has always been a man known for his great ideas. The group CEO and MD of Viacom18, wants his network to build a robust of 10,000 crores in the next three to five years. The techniques that he’s going to use in the year 2020 will obviously be a big step towards achieving the goal he has set for himself.
- ASHOK VENKATRAMANI
Zee Media Corporation Ltd. has been one of the most recognized companies all over these years. The resignation of Ashok Venkatramani as the managing director, took people by shock. The fraternity and the followers are looking forward to see more of this iconic man and the companies he’s gonna contribute towards.
- NIKHIL GANDHI
TikTok, owned by the ByteDance company, has appointed Nikhil Gandhi as the country head of India towards the end. As we have earlier discussed, TikTok has been growing in a rapid pace in the Indian market. So marketeers and businessmen are keenly looking forward to see the implementations of new orders and techniques that Nikhil Gandhi has to input to take this app to even greater heights.
- GAYATRI YADAV
Gayatri Yadav truely deserves to be on the list of industry leaders for 2020. The dynamic lady who was the Star India’s President of Consumer Strategy and Innovation this year quit her job this year. There have been reports saying she wants to go the entrepreneurial way. So 2020 will mostly be the year of her brainchild and we seriously cannot wait.
- NIRVIK SINGH
WPP-owned global advertising and marketing agency Grey Group this year elevated Nirvik Singh, Chairman and CEO of Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, to the newly created global role of Chief Operating Officer. Singh’s trademark business acquisitions have strengthened Grey’s presence earning him widespread recognition. Nirvik said: “There are ample opportunities to leverage the agency’s centers of excellence and promote collaboration across all our offices. We are always thinking of how best to serve our clients, and I am excited and motivated to be a part of this journey.” 2020 is definitely going to be his year for the new endeavours.
- VIKAS AGNIHOTRI
Interim head of Google India, Mr. Vikas Agnihotri ended his 8-year stint at the organisation, shortly after shortly after the announcement of Sanjay Gupta as the new Country Head. With his amazing experience and exposure with the Digital India, it won’t indeed be a problem for him to create opportunities in 2020 and we all are looking forward to it.
- SONAL DABRAL
Over his 30-year career, Sonal Dabral, Chief Creative Officer, South & SE Asia & Vice Chairman, India, Ogilvy, has gotten success in everything he’s set foot in. At Ogilvy Mumbai, he helped drive it to become India’s No. 1 creative agency. His creativity and sincerity has all got us interested to know what 2020 has for him in the box.
- MEGHA TATA
We’ve all loved discovery channel and to make it even more interesting and lovable, Megha Tata took over as the new MD of Discovery Communications India in April 2019. After she set foot, the channel has only seen success in India. From launching new shows to bringing honorable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi in Man vs Wild along with Bear Grylls. 2020 will hopefully see even more of success in Discovery Communications under Megha Tata.
- ANUPRIYA ACHARYA
One of the biggest developments that the ad industry saw this year was Anupriya Acharya, CEO of Publicis Media, becoming the first Indian woman to take charge of a multinational holding company’s regional group structure with her newly minted role of Chief Executive Officer, South Asia, for the Paris-headquartered Publicis Groupe. The industry now waits for her to complete a year with the brand and see what changes she brings about. 2020 smells hopeful as well as successful.
- AVINASH PANDEY
The CEO of ABP news has been focusing mainly on the language and viewership while also taking the network to newer heights in terms of revenues. With a good climb in the viewership charts, 2020 can only look better and interesting.
- K MADHAVAN
K Madhavan has recently been handed over the reigns of Star India as a country manager by Sanjay Gupta. It’s definitely a name you’d want to look forward to in 2020. Let’s see how this man of intelligence turns around the events to make everything work in their favour.
- SUNIL LULLA
In one of the major people movements in the broadcast industry, Sunil Lulla replaced Partho Dasgupta as CEO of BARC India. It will now be interesting to see how Lulla takes the measurement body ahead and what initiatives he takes to ensure fair play in the industry. With everybody waiting for a digital measurement system to be in place, the industry now hopes Lulla might have some news on that front as well.
- NP SINGH
NP Singh, CEO & MD, Sony Pictures Networks, was reelected as Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) President during the year. He’s confident and he guarantees that the industry will get its due recognition. 2020 could be a turning point.
- PUNIT GOENKA
In November, Punit Goenka was reappointed MD and CEO of ZEEL for the next five years. This was followed by ZEEL launching four channels in the regional space thus clearly indicating that the network is aggressively expanding and developing new markets. 2020 will be the year to focus on how to get ZEE to the top players again.
- CVL SRINIVAS
CVL Srinivas, Country Manager, WPP, in 2019 spoke extensively on integration and partnerships that drive strategic value for WPP clients. 2020 is expected to be better and bigger for WPP.
- KALLI PURIE
How can we forget Kalli Purie while talking about industry leaders 2020! Purie is the Vice-Chairperson of India Today Group, was conferred upon the ‘India’s Most Powerful Women in Media’ award at the famed Confluence Excellence awards at the British Parliament on September 27. Under her supervision and guidance, the company has reached new heights and got new levels of success.
- BARUN DAS
Barun Das, Chief Executive Officer, TV9, has joined the TV network as Chief Executive Officer. When Das took up the new role he mentioned expansion in the national arena. 2020 is expected to see TV9 only growing in the scheme of things.
