Vanaja Pillai Email & Phone Number

Bengaluru, Ka, In

Bangalore

As President-22feet Tribal Worldwide, I am responsible for managing and growing the team’s impressive client roster, building a strong portfolio of creative work, and fostering an organisational culture that is representative of the times.In the last ten months, we have added enviable brands in the travel, music, sports& entertainment and consumer goods segments. And are always seeking new challenges and great client partnerships. All this, built with the talent and passion of an exceptional team that comes to work everyday with the desire to do their career-best work.

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Bringing my passion for diversity, and decades of business experience together, I have spearheaded the creation of one of the most robust DEI programs in the country. As an advertising business, we have the privilege and responsibility of contributing to and transforming cultural narratives. And we are using that power well at the DDB Mudra Group. The Phyllis Project is an award-winning and intense leadership development program, with a strong mentoring focus. It helps women grow holistically through consistent and deep interventions. It is the India edition of DDB Worldwide’s global initiative named after Phyllis Robinson, DDB Worldwide’s first female copy chief in U.S. history. The program balances personal attention with community building, to provide the participants with the right stimuli to become the best versions of themselves. Having touched more than 50 women in the last three years, the program has led to improved gender ratios, and significant growth for the participants. In 2023, the India program grew to bring in women from across Asia, widening it's sphere of influence. Our other flagship DEI program is called 'We Don't Know Sh!T' - a recognition of the need to get closer to lesser understood segments, and a commitment to get to know them better. This has seen us familiarising ourselves with diverse groups, and sometimes having uncomfortable conversations, working with a network of partners. Through this journey we have worked on our understanding of people with disabilities, the queer community, marginalised women’s groups, and celebrated diversity through initiatives like ‘Queerically Speaking’, a forum for employees to talk about their favourite queer characters in popular culture, and 'Pot Pourri', a language appreciation workshop. This has been a truly inspiring and empowering journey! Our latest innovation project involves the development of a tool that will help measure our work from a DEI lens - more on that soon.

Bengaluru, Karnataka

As an extension of my passion for people and their growth, I work towards a world, where women are well represented at every level and in every field, and younger women are enabled and empowered to live an un-discriminated and level-play life. At DDB Mudra Group this has taken the shape of the Phyllis India Project. DDB Mudra Group’s ‘Phyllis India Project’, is a year-long mentorship program to enable and encourage women to thrive in leadership roles and drive professional growth. It is designed to mentor top women performers and equip them with skillsets that are required to reach and excel at leadership positions. The program includes a customised career plan, professional coaching, and interactions with experienced and celebrated industry leaders to help participants navigate mental and societal challenges such as guilt-free motherhood, overcoming the imposter syndrome, courage and self-belief, making your voice heard and other such themes. Each participant also has personal mentors from within and outside the group, to help meet specific growth objectives. With this initiative, the Group intends to create a community of women leaders that support each other in their path to success. The Phyllis India Project is the India edition of DDB Worldwide’s global initiative named after Phyllis Robinson, DDB Worldwide’s first copywriter and the first female copy chief in U.S. history.Additionally, I manage top talent and performance programs for the DDB Mudra Group.

Bengaluru Area, India

22feet Tribal is one of the first and most successful digital first agencies in India. I had the opportunity to see the agency through a challenging and exciting time of transition - from being founder-led to a network agency with a unique personality, and a strong and dynamic leadership team. Stabilising the ship, redefining the culture for the next growth phase, and laying the foundation for a promising digital transformation offering for clients, were some of the incredible opportunities we created during this time.

Bangalore

Charged with growing the digital arm of Ogilvy in Bangalore from a single-account business unit to a dynamic, multi-brand and award-winning creative agency. Growing the business steadily, with a motivated and talented team across a range of technology and other brands.

Bangalore

Consulted with a range of start ups across the education and technology verticals. Learnt and gained tremendously from the challenges and energy of the start up world, and contributed to the realisation of some ideas into businesses.

Bangalore

As global marketing communications lead, managed teams across India, China, Japan and the US. The role included campaign development and deployment, regional marketing, distribution marketing support, tradeshows & events, and managing a creative design center. The team delivered on Cypress' marketing requirements in the US, Europe and key markets in Asia.

Part of the global advertising hub set up by Ogilvy in Bangalore to manage global businesses. Initially led a team on delivering marcom solutions for Lenovo in the Asia Pacific region, and then managed some IBM international businesses for Ogilvy India Worldwide.

Wellspring is an independent brand communications service practice, with a proven ideation-to-execution capability in external and internal stakeholder connect programmes.Since its inception in July 2005, Wellspring has had the opportunity to work on several challenging assignments. The tasks range from change communication, product launches, and identity design, to campaign development, web design, franchisee channel development and direct selling.

Masters In Business Administration, Marketing

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), English Literature

Education record