Ranjit Jathanna to join Edelman Singapore as chief strategy officer for APACMEA region

Edelman Singapore has appointed Ranjit Jathanna as Chief Strategy Officer for client programming in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions.

Jathanna (pictured), who joins on November 1, 2017, will be based in Singapore and will report to Rupen Desai, Executive Vice Chairman of Edelman APACMEA. He will be instrumental in ensuring insights are at the heart of all of our programming to deliver maximum impact for clients.

“We continue to expand the senior bench strength of our strategic offer given the amazing opportunities clients present around relevant and thoughtful storytelling that is not bought but touches people’s hearts, minds or passions,” said Desai. “We are delighted to have Ranjit join us in a significant leadership role. He brings an extremely strong regional creative planning capability to our vision of the new currencies for brands – Attention and Trust. He is also a superb leader of teams which was critical in our search for a regional strategy head.”

With more than 18 years of experience, Jathanna has achieved success in leading cross-functional teams in communications, social design, engagement strategy and communications marketing. He has lived and worked across Africa, Middle East, and numerous markets in Asia, and has gained in-depth experience in a wide-range of fields, such as F&B, personal care, home care and financial services.

Over the past year, Jathanna’s work has won numerous awards, including a Global Effie, a Cannes Black Lion, a Spikes Asia Grand Prix, a Tambuli Grand Prix, Gold – WARC prize for Asia Strategy, Gold – WARC Global Purpose Award, D&AD Impact White Pencil, D&AD Wood Pencil for Branded Content, and multiple Regional and Local Effies.

Prior to joining Edelman, Jathanna was the Chief Strategy Officer at Mullen Lowe in Singapore, overseeing strategic functions along with being the global strategic lead role on Unilever’s award-winning brand Lifebuoy.

“Strategies now need to be designed to earn attention. Edelman’s unique perspective on this aspect of communications is bang-on, as is the firm’s proven track record in the fields of data analytics, digital and social media engagement and public relations,” said Jathanna. “I look forward to working with the firm’s clients and colleagues around the region to build amazing brands via culturally significant and world-shaping narratives.”