Hires & Promotions: Criteo, RazorLabs, Mindshare

Quick look at new hirings, promotions and people movements this week

Criteo Names Taro Fujinaka As MD - Retail Media, APAC

Most recently, Criteo appointed Taro Fujinaka as Managing Director, Retail  Media, APAC. In this role, Taro will work to drive the regional retail media ecosystem and deliver value to Criteo’s customers and partners as they continue to utilize Retail Media. 

Taro brings with him over 16 years of experience in digital advertising, and  Adtech, including roles at Yahoo Japan and IPG Mediabrands Audience Platform where he was involved in prior to joining Criteo. Most recently Taro was Managing Director at Integral Ad  Science where he spearheaded the direction of the company in Japan and Korea for over five years. 

Throughout his career, Taro has played a fundamental role in energizing the digital advertising industry in  Japan and building high-performing teams to achieve market influence for brands.  

In his new role with Criteo, Taro has shared his excitement on leading the retail media business in its next phase of growth, and to expand Criteo’s regional portfolio of customers for the technology. Since joining the team in March, Taro has worked with the team to drive awareness and adoption across the region and supercharge retailers’ efforts to leverage high-value media assets and first-party data on behalf of leading brands.  

“As brands prepare for the post-cookie world, Retail Media will play a pivotal role in empowering brands who seek new addressable media opportunities in the evolving identity landscape. Combining a highly differentiated ad inventory with unique first-party data, we are confident that its availability and the strengthened capacity of our regional team will help with driving the industry forward in the years to come,” Taro concluded. 


Sahil Trehan Launches RazorLabs, a Marketing Technology Firm

Former Vice President of AutumnGrey (Grey group), Sahil Trehan has kicked off his entrepreneurial journey with RazorLabs, a marketing technology company as Chief Executive Officer. Sahil co-founded Razorlabs with Shubhankar Nath – CEO and Founder of Razorpod, a full service digital marketing agency.

RazorLabs will be focused on marketing and sales transformation, via a range of smart solutions built to dovetail with existing processes, helping in disruption, growth and evolution of the functions. In addition, the company will also provide data driven solutions aimed at stronger returns on marketing investment and higher measurability.

Talking about his new journey, Sahil said, “With the MarTech & ConsumerTech heating up further, I have been urging to enter this space, to enable marketing & sales to be even more effective and efficient, for businesses across sizes and segments”

“The core idea of Razorlabs is always going to be providing scalable solutions with data at the centre, further, powered by technology to make them localized, and customized to needs. The vision is to have a wide product portfolio across MarTech and ConsumerTech with a mix of both homegrown and global partnerships” he stated further.

Shubhankar said “As an entrepreneur, I’ve always been focused on leveraging the endless possibilities layering technology with creative & data offer. With RazorLabs, the intent is to leverage this amalgamation to drive stronger experiences across the customer journey and incremental value to the marketer.”


Mindshare's Udhayakumar Pasupathi Joins OMD Chennai

OMD India has onboarded Udhayakumar Pasupathi as new lead at the company’s Chennai office, reporting to Sulina Menon, chief client officer, OMD India.

Pasupathi joins with 12 years of diverse and prolific industry experience. He spent the last nine years at Mindshare where his most recent role was that of cluster lead in Bangalore.

Pasupathi has also worked with Lodestar UM, and has worn multiple hats as a planner, team lead, strategist, and media consultant.

Menon said, “We’re extremely pleased to have someone like Udhaya, with his experience and expertise, join our Chennai team, and are confident that we will benefit greatly from the insights he brings to the table. I’m especially excited about the growth journey ahead and look forward to collectively pursuing a host of new opportunities.”

Priti Murthy, chief executive officer, OMD India, said, “All of us at OMD are eagerly looking forward to Udhaya’s fresh new perspectives combined with the rich repertoire of industry knowledge he’s gathered over the years. There are some exciting growth avenues ahead, and we can’t wait to unlock them together.”

“It’s been over a decade of experience, learnings and leadership in the realm of media strategy & planning, and surely there’s no better place to mark 12 years than OMD. With its vast global network and its growth-driven environment, I’m delighted to be in a space where together we quite literally make better decisions, faster," Pasupathi added.