Uber ropes in former Axis Bank exec as India marketing head

Cab hailing major Uber has appointed former Axis Bank executive Manisha Lath Gupta as the head of marketing for its Indian operations, a company statement said.

Gupta will oversee marketing initiatives for the firm’s cab services as well as its Uber Eats vertical for India and South Asia, the statement added.

“In line with Uber’s India growth strategy, we continue to build and strengthen a team of industry experts who appreciate the impact of ridesharing and drive innovation for a better tomorrow,” Pradeep Parameswaran, president, Uber India and South Asia said in the press note.

Gupta will replace Sanjay Gupta, who will join the firm’s US and Canada operations in a new role, the statement added. Sanjay joined Uber from online furniture store Urban Ladder in July 2017.

“His movement to the US and Canada team underlines India’s position as a talent exporter,” Parameswaran added.

An MBA alumnus from IIM-Bangalore, Gupta has 20 years of experience across diverse sectors such as consumer goods, banking, e-commerce and fin-tech.

Gupta began her career at fast-moving consumer goods giant Unilever India, where she spent close to eight years and worked another six years across two different roles at Colgate Palmolive India. Subsequently, she served as executive vice president at Axis Bank for nearly four years, where she oversaw marketing, retail liabilities and electronic banking.

Prior to her new assignment at Uber, she co-founded two ventures—she established IndianArtCollectors in 2005 and sold it to NDTV in December 2015, which was rebranded to Mojarto. For her second entrepreneurial venture, she turned to farming, setting up Aanandaa Permaculture Farm in 2011, which focuses on building sustainable agricultural ecosystems.

“I look forward to develop deeper brand engagement and add innovative solutions to the marketing mix,” she said.In January this year, Uber had appointed Pavan Vaish, the former global chief operating officer of legal process outsourcing firm UnitedLex, as the India head of central operations.

Last July, Uber over 1 billion trips in India and South Asia. It faces stiff competition at home from Ola, which is aggressively expanding into new overseas markets.