Singapore – Redhill, the Singapore-headquartered communications agency with a global presence, has taken in marketing veteran Manisha Seewal to be its senior international advisor. Seewal most recently comes from Australia, helming the marketing of Gumtree Australia, CarsGuide and Autotrader; and was most notably the CMO of SEA car marketplace, CARRO.
Seewal will be closely working with Redhill CEO Jacob Puthenparambil. She will be taking primary responsibility for driving the agency’s operational performance, scaling its international presence, and activating additional growth opportunities.
“Redhill has accelerated its growth organically and through acquisitions over the past few years. Manisha’s role will help build on our momentum. She is a seasoned operational leader with deep experience in the marketing and digital transformation space in the Southeast Asia and Australia region,” said Puthenparambil.
Seewal brings with her over two decades of marketing experience in advertising, banking, insurtech, startups, and e-classifieds across the APAC region. As CMO of Gumtree Australia, CarsGuide and Autotrader, she led the digital transformation of all three brands’ marketing and editorial functions in Australia.
Meanwhile, as Group CMO of SEA’s first Unicorn online car marketplace, CARRO, a role she held for three years up to 2021, Seewal scaled the company’s marketing function from a three-person team to over 70 strong across Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Concurrently, she served as the CEO of CARRO’s Jualo.com, the e-classified marketplace in Indonesia.
Seewal has exemplified her leadership in the digital transformation space, being accounted to for several ‘Singapore’s first’ digital transformation initiatives. These include Singapore’s first ‘Netflix for Cars’, a car subscription-based service; Singapore’s first life insurer chatbot, and Singapore’s first pay-as-you-drive insurance service.
“I am delighted to join the Redhill team at a pivotal time in the company’s international growth. With several recent acquisitions, new service offerings, industry partnerships and a highly experienced core team, we have a strong foundation in place as we write the next chapter of our growth. I look forward to imparting my knowledge of the industry to help take the company to greater heights,” commented Seewal.
Puthenparambil added, “She’s [well-positioned] to help the company execute on our international expansion plans while driving operational improvements. I am delighted to welcome Manisha to our team.”
Redhill has been ramping up its growth in the past year with a slew of new team hires and a couple of acquisitions such as video production company VS Story.
For MARKETECH APAC’s Empowered Women series this 2021, Seewal was one of the women marketing leaders who sat down with us to share her leadership story and insights.
In the conversation, she shared about the bias that is still ever-present for leaders like her in male-dominated spaces such as the automotive.
“I think that’s the main reason why we need more women to join the industry so we can start changing the narrative,” Seewal said.
