The short version

My move from Mumbai to Munich wasn't a grand plan. It evolved — through decisions I made for different reasons at different times, each one quietly pointing in this direction without me fully realising it in the process. Looking back, I can see how the dots connected — from admiring German engineering as a kid, to working for a German brand, to eventually building my life in Germany. It makes total sense now. It just didn't at the time.

I started in agencies — Omnicom and GroupM — learning digital marketing on the job while understanding how media actually moves people and businesses. Full funnel, all paid channels: search, social, display, video, native, programmatic — and contributing to owned assets and other aspects of digital marketing along the way. Working with giants like Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive taught me that a good brief is just the starting point. The real value you bring to a room is curiosity, the willingness to ask questions that might sound silly, and the discipline to follow both with quality work.

The client side at BSH gave me scale. In India first — owning all aspects of digital marketing including e-commerce in a lean setup, collaborating with experts across different skillsets internally and externally. That then opened the door to my global role — 25+ markets, 300-400 ad accounts, a global Google partnership. That kind of complexity either overwhelms you or broadens how you think about teams and business. I'd like to think it was the latter.

I ask a lot of questions before forming opinions. I care more about whether something actually works than whether it sounds impressive. I have high standards for quality — my own first, then the work around me.

I can be called a specialist for a couple of channels but I'd rather be known as a generalist with depth — most useful when working on solutions for the larger picture. It complements my personality of being solution-oriented.

My guiding principles haven't changed in years: Common Sense and a Sense of Ownership. Not glamorous, may sound old school — but they've served me well, professionally and personally.

I'll be honest — I find a lot of the current conversation around AI in marketing exhausting. There's a lot of noise, a lot of people performing expertise rather than demonstrating it, a lot of content generated to be seen rather than to be useful. I'm trying not to add to that.

What I am doing is paying close attention, staying curious, trying my hand at different use cases, and forming my own views slowly. I think the people who will navigate this well are the ones who understand the fundamentals deeply enough to know where AI genuinely helps — and more importantly, not to follow its output blindly without cross-checking and applying judgment.

I live in Munich with my two cats — Gabbar (female) and Gogo (male). Named after iconic Bollywood characters, and somehow both have grown into their names entirely. Gabbar is exactly who you'd expect. Gogo is considerably more relaxed about everything. They were adopted back in India and have, according to my friends and relatives, absolutely made it in life.

Spending time with Gabbar, Gogo, and some community animals during Covid quietly changed something in me. That gradual shift eventually led me to go vegan — something I didn't plan or announce, it just became the only consistent thing to do given what I care about. Animal welfare matters to me, and I try to carry that same balanced, considered approach into most areas of life — work, health, everything else.

I'm a Libra, which might explain the instinct for balance. Or it might just be a coincidence. I genuinely haven't decided.