HONG KONG: Forbes Global's former director of marketing and
research, Prashun Dutt, has jumped ship to Time-Life International as
marketing director of Fortune.
In his London-based position, Dutt will provide marketing and research
support, in addition to developing and implementing promotions and
strategic programmes to drive advertising sales in Europe, the Middle
East and Africa.
Dutt said: "AOL Time Warner is one of the biggest companies in the world
so when the opportunity to work here presented itself I had to really
consider it. The other consideration was the fact that I am tired of
catching trans-continental flights every other week. I want to settle
down."
He added that he will still have to make international flights with
Fortune, but "not as much as before". Dutt said that his main challenge
now is to help grow Fortune in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in
brand and revenue terms.
A former media director, Dutt brings two decades of experience in
planning and marketing functions to Fortune. He spent some 14 years with
multinational agencies such as J. Walter Thompson, McCann-Erickson, and
Ogilvy & Mather before making the jump into publishing in the mid-90s as
corporate marketing director of Times Publishing Corporation, based in
Hong Kong.
In his most recent job with Forbes Inc, Dutt set up the marketing and
research functions for Forbes Global in Asia and Europe. His position at
Forbes Global has been taken up by Christina Chia, who was previously
the vice-president of Prism, the multimedia marketing unit of Singapore
Press Holdings.
Dutt said his new job is similar to what he was doing at Forbes Global -
media research analyst and marketing strategist - but he said the
difference is that he is now part of a bigger organisation and that the
posting is London-based.
"Travel aside, there are definitely greater challenges here and I have
to say that London is a global centre of commerce, which makes things
doubly exciting," he said.
