Mumbai: Brand and communications consultancy Tilt Brand Solutions has announced the appointment of Michelle Suradkar as chief operating officer, effective 15 November. In her new role, she will report to founder and CMD Joseph George, said the agency in a statement.

”We have been fortunate to have had a terrific run the first three years of our existence, and this has given us the confidence to shift gears as we ready up to manage scale and the accompanying complexities," stated George. "Michelle is someone whom I have worked with very closely for almost a decade when at Lintas; and her competencies, interests, work ethic and energy is just what we all at Tilt need as we embark on the next phase of our journey at Tilt."

An MBA from Bajaj, Suradkar started out with The Coca-Cola Company before joining Lintas, where she was, for almost 20 years. She was previously associated with MullenLowe Lintas Group up until 2020 as group chief HR officer. She was also part of the group’s managing committee.

An active advocate for gender equity in the workplace, Suradkar was a co-founder of IPG’s Women’s Leadership Network in India, running initiatives for greater gender balance and enhancing gender sensitivity across all levels in the organisation. She co-founded and ran several agency-wide initiatives to further improve the group’s governance and build future-facing capabilities.

She also co-founded the crisis response and management team which worked towards preparing the organisation's response to a wide variety of man-made and natural crises situations. She created and ran the Lowe Lintas apprenticeship program, an industry first, reaching out to the untapped potential of students across India beyond metro cities.

Suradkar has been awarded the 'Most Influential HR Leader' award by the World HRD Congress and has also been counted among the '100 Most Influential Global HR Professionals' by CHRO Asia. She is also a certified extended DISC administrator and a certified POSH trainer.

“I have watched with admiration how Tilt has gone about building itself these past three years, and I am not surprised with what they believe they can achieve from here on," said Suradkar. "Scaling up while continuing to deliver to clients the brave and effective work they have come to expect from Tilt is a task that is as exhilarating as it is challenging. I am looking forward to us building a world-class, made-in-India model which becomes the benchmark for our industry.”