Zeenah Vilcassim joined Bacardi India’s leadership team and will head the consumer and customer marketing across its entire portfolio of brands.

Bringing over a decade of leadership experience in strategy and consulting to her role, Vilcassim will be key in driving synergies across marketing, commercial and finance teams to ensure campaigns are effective, impactful and deliver on business goals.

She will be based out of the company’s Gurugram head office and report to Sanjit Randhawa, managing director, Bacardi India.

Vilcassim began her career four years ago as global brand director for Dewar’s Scotch whisky. During this time, she focused on growing the brand’s footprint in emerging markets and oversaw the marketing of three award winning innovations, achieving record sell out volumes of each. Over the last year, the company saw the highest growth for the brand in over a decade.

Vilcassim said, “During my time as global director for Dewar’s Scotch whisky, India was - and still is - one of our most exciting markets. It is incredibly diverse, dynamic and constantly evolving. Each one of our iconic brands has an opportunity to play an authentic role in the hearts and minds of the Indian consumer. I can’t wait to get started and bring a little bit of creative rebellion into all that we do.”

She began her career as an economist and moved to a management consultant role in global banking at Ernst and Young. Her pivot into marketing was driven by an interest in combining data, analytics and creativity to accelerate business growth. She has held previous positions within digital analytics and content and also led the entire UK operations as managing director at Protein before joining the team at the company.

Randhawa said, “As we continue to build and grow our portfolio in the country, we are thrilled to have Zeenah as part of the India leadership team. She has played an integral role in the Dewar’s global journey and will now be instrumental in driving the strategic direction and growth for the entire brand portfolio of Bacardi in India. With consumer at the heart of all our efforts, we’ll work closely to deliver on moments that matter and create solutions as well as campaigns that resonate with our audiences.”

Vilcassim is a passionate marketer and in 2019 was recognised as one of The Drum’s Future 50 marketing leaders of tomorrow. She is also a guest speaker at the London School of Economics, where she shares her insights into data-based marketing and consumer-centric campaigns.

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