Girish Balachandran joins Avian Media as National Head of Marketing and Group Business Director

Avian Media, a communication consultancy, announced the appointment of Girish Balachandran as National Head of Marketing and Group Business Director. In his new role, Balachandran will lead the agency's business development and marketing efforts across India while advising clients on their communication strategy.  Girish will work closely with the leadership team at Avian Media to further align and strengthen company’s operations in India, thereby driving growth and profitability for the firm.

Nitin Mantri, CEO, Avian Media, said, “Over the past few years, Avian Media has achieved steady growth as we focused on adding more marquee businesses to our client portfolio across centres. The company has grown rapidly in the last ten years and the time has come for our next big leap. Girish will initiate a new marketing drive for Avian as well as manage key client relationships. With his vast experience and business expertise, we aim to further strengthen our capabilities to become India’s Most Trusted Advocacy Firm by 2025.” 

An industry veteran with over 14 years of international experience in business development and marketing communication, Balachandran returned to India after 9 years in the UK and 3 years in the Middle East. In 2011, Girish was appointed as a Board Director at Ketchum UK to lead the firm's business development and oversee key account growth for Oracle. In his six years of employment with Omnicom agencies, Pleon and Ketchum from 2006 - 2012, he served as a core member of the leadership teams responsible for growing the business, developing new offerings in change communications, field marketing and digital consulting.

“Public relations agencies in Europe operate in one of the most mature markets in the world. The economy has been in the longest ever recovery period and good brands and agencies have reset their business models and thinking in order to move forward with resilience and dynamism. Meanwhile, the stakeholder and media landscape in India is incredibly local. In just ten years, Avian Media has established itself as one of the most reputed businesses in communications consulting in India with an enviable portfolio of clients. My experience will help both multinational brands wanting to navigate to India as well as Indian brands exploring new markets in UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa. I look forward to working with the leadership team to achieve Avian Media’s ambition of becoming a trusted advocacy partner for clients through new innovation, creativity and thinking for our teams," said Balachandran.

Prior to joining Avian Media, Girish was EMEA Client Development Director at Waggener Edstrom from 2012 to 2014 where he led the firm's regional brand marketing and new business efforts. Before moving to the UK in 2004 to pursue a full time MBA, he briefly worked with Perfect Relations in India. Balachandran has also served as a Guest Lecturer in Marketing at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.