MUMBAI: Sify Limited has announced the promotion of V.Sivaramakrishnan as the president of its portal business. Prior to this, he held the position of vice president of the iWay cyber café chain business.

With over 18 years of experience in marketing consumer brands, Sivaramakrishnan has a track record of managing brands, sales, and customer service for global market leaders such as Procter & Gamble and Ford, both in India and abroad. During his career with them, he has led brand, sales and customer service teams, championing marketing and sales initiatives for brands such as Vicks, Pampers, Old Spice, Ford Fiesta, Ford Ikon and the Ford Endeavour, informs an official release.

He is a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi and as part of Ford‘s Asia-Pacific marketing leadership team, first in the US and subsequently in the UK, Sivaramakrishnan has led the development and launch of Ford‘s new generation of small cars, the Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion, into markets like Australia, Japan, South Africa, and China. He was also part of the Ford India marketing leadership team and led the successful launch of Ford‘s Ikon, Fusion, Fiesta and Endeavour in India. In his previous role as Vice President of the iWay cyber cafe business, he was instrumental in leading their transformation from Internet browsing centers to becoming e-stores by introducing break-through alliances and initiatives, adds the release.

Commenting on his appointment, Sify Limited CEO and managing director Raju Vegesna said, "I am very pleased to announce Siva‘s promotion as President, Sify Portals. In his earlier role as Vice President of the iWay cyber café chain business, Siva brought a deep insight and understanding of consumers, and executed initiatives to grow business revenues through innovative services, products and promotions in synergy with our portal strategies. While we will see the result of these efforts going forward, I believe that he will bring a fresh perspective to how we grow our portals and online advertising business both in India and overseas. With his rich experience in building brands, understanding of media, marketing and consumer behaviour, I am confident he will play a key role in further strengthening and growing our portal business in tandem with our access strategies."

Sivaramakrishnan said, "I am really excited about this opportunity as it will enable me to bring to bear all of my previous experience with consumers, brands, marketing, media and the Internet in building our portals business. The Net is the most exciting medium of our times, and it will be our intention to maximize the opportunities presented by this versatile medium for compelling and relevant online content for Indians, to add to the quality of their lives. This includes extending the leadership we have in broadband content with www.sifymax.in, our popular portal www.sify.com, our city-centric broadband portal strategies, and www.samachar.com, the most popular site for non-resident Indians.

"I will also be involved in growing the online advertising business with marketers as they begin to understand the flexibility, focus and power that online advertising gives them for cost effective brand promotions, and overseeing Sify‘s consumer brand marketing for both the portals and access businesses for greater synergies. I believe this will be the most exciting and challenging phase of my career, and I look forward to making a difference to Sify‘s pioneering efforts for exciting India-centric online content in synergy with our access businesses," he added.