MUMBAI: MindShare has announced that Pratibha 'Pat' Vinayak, currently national director - investments for Unilever at Mindshare, will move to Colombo as MindShare Sri Lanka managing director.

MindShare North, East, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh MD Sundar Raman said, "Pat is one of the most respected media professionals in the industry and we are fortunate to have such a high calibre professional in Pat to lead the MindShare business in Sri Lanka. We are looking forward to the same high level of enthusiasm, drive and innovation that she brought to the business in India."

Vinayak is a media professional with experience across agency, publishing and broadcasting businesses. She spent over a decade with Reader's Digest managing research and marketing before joining JWT to handle media responsibilities on Unilever under the newly formed JWT Fulcrum where she spent over five years.

She also spent time with Sony entertainment television and Carat before returning back MindShare Fulcrum to manage Unilever investments in 2004. A strong industry advocate, Pat has served on the technical committee of leading industry studies, states an official release.

It has been said that over the years Pat and her team have been instrumental in bringing discontinuous trading practices in managing investments for demanding clients.

Commenting on her new role, Pat says "I am looking forward to working with a fantastic management team which has built MindShare into the best agency in the region, and helping consolidate our leading position in Asia."