Jabir Merchant and Maharsh Shah join Condé Nast India

Condé Nast India has announced the appointment of Jabir Merchant as chief digital officer – sales, and Maharsh Shah as creative producer – fiction. 

 

The duo will report to Alex Kuruvilla, managing director, Condé Nast India.

 

Merchant was previously senior vice president and head of advertising, Zirca. Shah moves from Jio Studios where he was creative director (films).

 

Kuruvilla said, “2021 will be a pivotal year for Condé Nast India as we further align our business to Condé Nast global priorities. Our mission is to position Condé Nast India as a thought-leading, digital publisher and a preferred premium advertising platform for brands. To succeed, we have restructured and re-skilled our digital sales organisation that will fully leverage our strengths and tap new opportunities presented by the growth in digital advertising. At the same time, we will need to build on the strengths of our legacy business and gain more ground, developing even deeper relationships with advertisers. Together, chief digital officer – sales Jabir Merchant and chief business officer Arjun Mehra, who oversees our legacy business, will be pivotal in leading this transition as we step into a new era.”

 

Merchant said, "While the media industry, and our world, are going through such change and disruption, it’s a privilege to join a team and company which is consistently recognised for its unchallenged voice and context. As we move forward, content and data will be the pillars marketers rely on, to drive their digital communications. I look forward to working with our teams in India, and across the world, to help define all that media can and will be, together.”

 

Shah added, "As a curator with an affinity towards being instrumental in developing stories for the screen, I am thrilled to join a leading, global mass media conglomerate such as Condé Nast and help shape, develop, produce and execute the brand's content pieces for long-form series and theatrical feature films, especially under the leadership of an industry pioneer like Mr. Alex Kuruvilla. The access to the repository of stories, articles and leading talent that Condé Nast enjoys, due to the image of its aspirational and heritage brands is absolutely first-rate and leveraging the same to create fiction properties with a local and global perspective is going to be thrilling to say the least."