The New RMAI Leadership Team

RMAI Gets a New President as Sanjay Kaul Hands Over Baton to Raj Kumar Jha

by  Shantanu Jain Industry Watch | May 16, 2018 | News

RMAI Sanjay Kaul

The Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI) has appointed Raj Kumar Jha, Consultant Ogilvy, as its next president. The appointment was announced at the thirteenth annual general meeting of the association held recently in Mumbai.

Jha takes over the reins of the association for two years (2018-20) after having served RMAI in various capacities. Speaking on the appointment, Jha said, "I have been the part of RMAI since inception. Each president and his team have put in great efforts to build RMAI, where it is today. Our outgoing president Sanjay Kaul has immensely raised the standard of our knowledge events. Today, RMAI is on the forefront of rural knowledge dissemination. His efforts of making functioning at RMAI transparent, collaborative and progressive have yielded fruits. As I get into his role, focus of my team will remain largely the same. My effort would also be to add more value to our knowledge initiatives and take steps to enhance active participation of more young members."

The other office bearers who were unanimously elected at the general meeting of the RMAI are Biswabaran Chakrabarti- EX-VP, Crompton as Vice-President; Dr. Anup Kalra, Director Ayurvet Ltd as Treasurer; Himanshu Shah- Chief Mentor, SOI Live Marketing as General Secretary; Sandip Bansal- Chief Client & Field Officer, GroupM as Joint Secretary. The members of the executive committee of the association include Rikki Kalra- DGM, Rural Marketing, Maruti Suzuki; Amit Rangra- VP & EBD, JWT; Mridula Sekhar- CMO, Tata AIA Life Insurance; Kalpana Raina- National Planning Head, Impact Communications; Siddhartha Choudhary- CEO, DestaGlobal; Srinivas R- Senior Consultant, Adinn; Khurram Askari, Director, Insight Outreach Pvt Ltd; Veerendra Jamdade- CEO, Vritti Solutions; Kiran ZendePartner, Yadyna. 

Sanjay Kaul - CEO, Impact Communications and the outgoing President of RMAI will now join Sanjay Panigrahi President- Rurban & Special Projects, Pidilite Industries Ltd; Danish Siddiqui- Head Rural Marketing, Hero Motocorp; Puneet Vidyarthi- AVP & Head Marketing and Digital Innocations, JCB India Ltd; Punit Chadha- GM & Divisional Head (Commercial & Rural Sales) Maruti; Pradeep Lokhande- Founder & CEO, Rural Relations to be the part of Advisory Board of the association.

Commenting on the election of Jha, the outgoing president Sanjay Kaul said, “RMAI is absolutely in the right hands, we have a knowledgeable team in place that will take it to next level of growth. I had an opportunity to work with Raj at RMAI for more than a decade. He is a highly respected rural marketing professional and a creative genius, RMAI is going to immensely benefit from his thought leadership.”