adwise 2002 : Andrey Purushottam

adwise 2002 : Andrey Purushottam

Andrey is the Managing Director of Starcom Worldwide, India.
Starcom Worldwide is the world's fourth largest global media company and he has taken charge of the Indian operations since July 2001. He leads a team of 60 professionals across four offices in India handling clients like Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Heinz, Fiat, Balsara, Dabur, Hitachi to name just a few.

Prior to this, Andrey was Managing Director of Asiacontent.com. He set up the entire office and recruited a team of 34 high quality professionals. He launched MTVIndia.com, which was then universally acclaimed as the best youth cum music portal in India and indeed in Asia as well. In this assignment he gained valuable experience in the internet space and in setting up a start-up operations.

Andrey has spent thirteen years in advertising and marketing, working for Lintas and Unilever. Andrey was the head of Initiative Media in India, and also served as a member of the executive board of Lintas India Ltd., the second largest advertising agency in the country. He set up a 'Centre for Media Excellence' which did truly pioneering work in media planning theory and practice. He also set up a 'Rural Advertising' division.

Andrey also worked in Lintas Jakarta as a Director on the Board of Lintas Indonesia, with the functional responsibility of handling the Unilever business. During this stint he was nominated to several global task forces set up by Unilever, and also earned for Lintas the highest ever performance ratings & incentives.

Andrey was seconded to Unilever India in his early career, as a Senior Product Manager on all new brands in the fabric wash business. He thus brings to the table a rich understanding of marketing as it is actually practiced.

Andrey was born in Russia and grew up in Delhi. He is an MBA from India's primary business school, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Prior to this he graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Andrey has won over 100 awards in Public Speaking. He has directed and acted in several plays and has also won several prizes for direction. Andrey has won a number of Academic awards - Certificate of Merit from the Ministry of Education, USSR, Recipient of the All India National Talent Scholarship, to name just a few.

Andrey is an ardent Bridge player and has won some professional tournaments in Mumbai. He writes articles on marketing and advertising for leading Indian dailies. He also enjoys giving talks on marketing & advertising to management students, and teaches at business schools whenever he can.