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Tal

C-Suite Strategist

About Me

I work best in environments built on truth, clarity, and intellectual honesty. I bring my whole self to work and prefer teams grounded in candor and substance. If that isn’t the culture, it won’t be a fit for either side. A C-suite strategist who makes purpose and passion profitable for founders and boards by aligning intention, strategy, and execution. Grew up with Ketchum, CNBC, J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy, and BBDO networks while growing their businesses with P&G, Unilever, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Mars, Diageo, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Mercedes-Benz, Visa, Citibank, Barclays, Acumen Fund, Fonterra, Suntory, SC Johnson, J&J, USAID, Telenor, Next, and AkzoNobel. Won gold, silver, bronze, and specials for advertising that worked at the APAC Effies and WARC, and for the agencies that profited at Campaign Asia and R3. Certified with credit by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), London for Advanced-Level Marketing Effectiveness. Continuing that award-winning momentum at Plastic Bank, earning impact and humanitarian recognition for the enterprise and its founder while mentoring distributed teams across eight time zones. Building AI-enabled content and brand systems that strengthen discoverability, amplify founder visibility and thought leadership, and optimize performance across paid, earned, and owned channels to drive growth, conversion, and ROI. Rationalist in mind, intender at heart, irreligious by conviction, and evolutionary by nature, I travel places, read people, value time, support the performing arts, dress for comfort, love lentils and oats, live a minimalist lifestyle, manage my investment portfolio without middlemen, sort my own garbage, prefer my hair tied and the beard long, and I respect humility. If you don’t see a lofty designation in the headline, it’s because I prefer to be known for my skill, craft, and outcomes over the corporate titles bestowed on me.

Jurisdiction

Regions: Asia, Americas, Europe, Africa

Experience

Seniority LevelC-Suite
Years of Experience15-20 years
Current StatusActive
Director Global Brand StrategyPlastic Bank
2021 - Present

• Owned global brand strategy and governance across positioning, messaging, tone of voice, brand architecture, guidelines, campaigns, and toolkits. • Built and ran a full-service in-house content engine across paid, earned, and owned channels, embedding AI-assisted creation and automation to scale ideation, copy, scripts, variants, repurposing, and reporting, supported by clear QA and brand governance to ensure accuracy and consistency. • Delivered YoY growth in brand awareness and performance with earned media value up 18%, reach up 75%, engagements up 97%, positive sentiment up 115%, and content output up 193%, while reducing production and media costs by 83%. • Optimized performance across paid, earned, and owned channels by rebalancing acquisition toward higher-intent sources, increasing non-paid share of sign-ups from 24.3% to 57.2%. • Drove alignment and delivery with an 18-member distributed marketing team based in Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Geneva, Bali, São Paulo, Guayaquil, Manila, and Cairo, spanning copy, design, video, media planning, and buying. • Partnered with product and engineering to shape product direction from customer and partner insights, contributing to roadmap prioritization, feature definition, and adoption-focused releases. • Partnered with enterprise sales and partner success teams to support B2B GTM through sales enablement assets, partner storytelling, co-marketing materials, and customer-facing narratives. • Led founder thought leadership and executive visibility across social, video, global speaking engagements, and publicity support. • Contributed to award-winning recognition for the founder (Global Presence Humanitarian Award 2025; Global Recycling Foundation Recycling Heroes Award 2024; Unione Nazionale Consumatori Vincenzo Dona Award 2024; The Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine Changemakers Award 2023) and the company (International Green Industry Hall of Fame Inductee 2023; Reuters Events Responsible Business Awards Social Impact Award 2022; NBJ Awards Sustainability and Stewardship 2022). CLIENTS: • P&G • Coca-Cola • PepsiCo • Natreve • Hello Fresh • Henkel • SC Johnson • Davines • Coopervision • Alcon • Plastic Bank Foundation • Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

Managing DirectorBBDO ID
2019 - 2021

Marketing Strategy, Advertising, PR, Digital, Social, Activation, AV Production, Dev • Member of BBDO’s Asia CEO Council, led a full-service agency for the network in Southeast Asia’s largest consumer market and advertiser base. • Successfully operated at salary-to-revenue ratio below 55%, pre-tax profit above 21%, and business growth of over 45% with headcount of 60+ employees. • Achieved R3 Worldwide's #1 ranking for BBDO out of 28 Creative and Digital Agencies in Indonesia for new business growth in 2019. CLIENTS: • P&G (Corporate, Pantene, H&S, Downy, Olay) • Unilever (Rexona, Sunsilk, SariWangi) • PepsiCo Frito-Lay (Corporate, Lay's, Quaker, Cheetos, Doritos) • Johnson & Johnson (Johnson's Baby) • Mars (Wrigley's, Snickers, Dove, Whiskas) • Fonterra (Anlene, Anchor, Anmum) • Diageo (Guinness, McDowell’s, Gilbey’s) • Suntory Brands • SC Johnson • Axiata (Postpaid & Home Solutions) • Mercedes-Benz • Exxon Mobil • Visa • Bank of Central Asia (BCA) • BlueScope (Zacs, Colorbond).

Head of Strategy & BusinessBBDO ID
2018 - 2018

Marketing Strategy, Advertising, PR, Digital, Social, Activation, AV Production, Dev • Headed a team of 30+ members from strategy, account management, digital, PR and activation units. • Shaped client-side product and service propositions beyond campaigns, translating business objectives into experience flows, feature sets, and market-ready positioning. • Won Bronze at APAC Effie 2019 and at WARC Prize for Asian Strategy 2018. CLIENTS: • P&G (Corporate, Pantene, H&S, Downy, Olay) • Unilever (Rexona, Sunsilk, SariWangi) • PepsiCo Frito-Lay (Corporate, Lay's, Quaker, Cheetos, Doritos) • Johnson & Johnson (Johnson's Baby) • Mars (Wrigley's, Snickers, Dove, Whiskas) • Fonterra (Anlene, Anchor, Anmum) • Diageo (Guinness, McDowell’s, Gilbey’s) • Suntory Brands • SC Johnson • Axiata (Postpaid & Home Solutions) • Mercedes-Benz • Exxon Mobil • Visa • Bank of Central Asia (BCA) • BlueScope (Zacs, Colorbond).

Head of Strategic PlanningBBDO ID
2017 - 2018

Marketing Strategy, Advertising, PR, Digital, Social, Activation, AV Production, Dev • Headed 5-member planning team, offering strategic consultancy to C-suite. • Won Gold and Smart Spender Special at WARC Awards 2018. CLIENTS: • P&G (Corporate, Pantene, H&S, Downy, Olay) • Unilever (Rexona, Sunsilk, SariWangi) • PepsiCo Frito-Lay (Corporate, Lay's, Quaker, Cheetos, Doritos) • Johnson & Johnson (Johnson's Baby) • Mars (Wrigley's, Snickers, Dove, Whiskas) • Fonterra (Anlene, Anchor, Anmum) • Diageo (Guinness, McDowell’s, Gilbey’s) • Suntory Brands • SC Johnson • Axiata (Postpaid & Home Solutions) • Mercedes-Benz • Exxon Mobil • Visa • Bank of Central Asia (BCA) • BlueScope (Zacs, Colorbond).

Head of Planning Ogilvy
2016 - 2017

Marketing Strategy, Advertising, Digital, Social • Planning lead for Nestlé and new businesses pitched by Ogilvy. • Contributed as lead strategist and case writer in winning two silvers for Creative & Digital ‘Agency of the Year' at Campaign South Asia AoY 2016. CLIENTS: • Nestlé (Corporate, Pure Life, Milo, Nido, Cerelac, Nangrow, Lactogrow, Cerevita, Fruita Vitals, Nesfruta, Start Healthy Stay Healthy) • Tapal Tea • English Biscuits (Corporate, Sooper, Rio) • Telenor.

Chief Operations OfficerDDB Blitz
2014 - 2015

Advertising, Media Planning & Buying, Digital, Social, PR, AV Production • Heading North operations (financial and business management). • Supervising strategy, creative, media and account management functions. CLIENTS: • VEON (Jazz) • Haier • Volvo • Allied Bank • Kale Ceramics.

Chief Strategy OfficerStrategic Alliancez
2013 - 2014

Digital, Media Planning & Buying, Advertising, Social, Dev • Supervising strategy, content, design, social media management, UX, software development and digital media planning & buying across 10+ specialists. • Won 'Best in Social Media' at PASHA’s 10th Annual Pakistan ICT Awards 2013. CLIENTS: • Etisalat (Ufone) • Kashmir Oils.

Director, Planning and AccountJ. Walter Thompson
2012 - 2013

Marketing Strategy, Advertising, Digital, Social • Reporting to CEO, supervising planning, and account management functions. CLIENTS: • Deutsché Bank • Debenhams • Mothercare • Next • Monsoon • Accessorize • Bata • Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) • Fatima Fertilizers • Aga Khan University Hospital • Pharma Bureau • Overseas Investors' Chamber of Commerce & Industry • Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan

Founder (Consulting)Anonyma Collaborate
2011 - 2016

Brand Positioning, Marketing Strategy, Portfolio Management • Purpose-built 'Human' (not 'Public') Relations Collaborate to advocate individuals over institutions, co-operation over corporation, personalization over generalization, customization over compartmentalization and consciousness over control. • Profiling and representing individuals in performing arts as brands. • Specializing in script doctoring, attribute redefinition, spokesperson training, media profiling, brand ambassadorships and celebrity management.

General Manager Marketing & Strategy CNBC
2010 - 2011

Marketing Strategy, Product Development, Branding, AV Production • Image management and profiling of network. • Directing research, strategic planning, marketing, and product development teams (15 members, 3 cities). • Conceptualizing, pitching, producing and successfully airing industry / issue-centric customized solutions for clients in collaboration with programming division. • Identifying, pitching, and materializing content integration opportunities. • Managing annual revenue target with sales division.

Education

Masters of CommunicationUniversity of Karachi
2000 - 2003
Degree of Commerce (Bachelors)Institute of Business Administration, Karachi
1999 - 2000

Certification

Total Certifications1

Marketing Effectiveness (Advanced)

Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), UK

2018

Credential ID: IET20092

Skills

Core skills0
Languages4

Languages

English
Urdu
Hindi
Indonesian