Rummana Ahmed

Led strategic brand and content initiatives for global enterprises across sustainability, mobility, digital transformation, and employee engagement. Partnered with senior stakeholders, clients, and cross-functional teams to shape impactful narratives, drive stakeholder alignment, and deliver high-quality content across digital, video, and experiential platforms under tight timelines. Key contributions include leading the content strategy for the website relaunch of a leading global mobility brand, collaborating closely with client leadership to define messaging architecture and user-centric storytelling. Spearheaded communication campaigns across CSR, DEI, and sustainability themes, while managing global video productions and multi-market content initiatives. Also drove internal communications, recruitment branding, sales enablement, and thought leadership campaigns to strengthen engagement and visibility. Known for streamlining collaboration between creative, design, and production teams to ensure seamless execution and faster delivery. In addition to strategic content leadership, hosted and facilitated marquee global events, including hosting the Bangalore chapter of InventX twice and Futurise 2025, which brought together participants from over 37 countries. Bringing together storytelling expertise, strategic thinking, leadership, and execution excellence, I consistently create communication experiences that are engaging, audience-focused, and aligned with business goals.

An integral part of Yahoo India’s editorial team from 2009 to 2020, I contributed to the growth of one of India’s leading digital news and entertainment platforms during a defining decade for online media. Working in a fast-paced newsroom environment, I handled breaking news, current affairs, entertainment, and audience engagement for a large global readership. I played a key role in live coverage of major national and international events through breaking news updates, live blogs, homepage curation, and real-time reporting. This included landmark moments such as India’s 2011 Cricket World Cup victory, the Delhi protests, general elections, Chennai floods, demonetisation, Pulwama attacks, Article 370 developments, and the early stages of COVID-19 coverage. Our newsroom consistently delivered timely and high-impact reporting, often among the first digital platforms in India to publish and amplify developing stories. During this period, Yahoo India grew exponentially from nearly 250 million monthly page views to close to 1 billion, and I played an active role in strengthening editorial engagement and building the platform’s digital and social media presence. I also headed the Entertainment vertical, overseeing celebrity features, entertainment coverage, film journalism, and digital video content. As part of this role, I interviewed several acclaimed personalities including Shah Rukh Khan, Irrfan Khan, Ang Lee, Mira Nair, and other leading actors and filmmakers. In addition, I served as the Creative Head for three original Yahoo shows and hosted two popular entertainment series - Movies with Rummana and Now Streaming. Beyond editorial responsibilities, I worked closely with product, marketing, design, and social media teams to deliver integrated content experiences aligned with audience interests and business goals.

Hosted a live two-hour lunch hour special show five days a week. Bollywood music and gossip, as well as traffic and weather updates and caller requests, were all covered on the broadcast. Also narrated commercials for on-air broadcasts.

Undergraduate students were taught how to shoot news stories, report on camera, and edit stories using non-linear editing systems such as Avid and Final Cut Pro. Political, weather, sports, and a variety of other news/feature stories were covered.

As one of the founding members of the newsroom, I had the opportunity to learn journalism and live news production under stalwarts like Rajdeep Sardesai during a defining phase in Indian television news. Between 2005 and 2007, I worked on some of the country’s biggest breaking stories, including the Priyadarshini Mattoo verdict, Jessica Lal judgment, and the Nithari killings, among several other high-impact national events. I handled the production of multiple live news bulletins daily, managing rundown operations while writing, editing, and voicing news packages sourced from reporters across the country. Recognised for my editorial judgment and ability to perform under pressure, I progressed from News Desk Editor to Rundown Producer within a year.

Produced content for www.timesofindia.com's live news website, which included rewriting, editing, and proofreading news reports/stories. Scanned wires, selected noteworthy stories, edited them, and selected pertinent photographs for the website

Covered the marketing, advertising, and media beats for a marketing, advertising, and media portal, including significant mergers and acquisitions and executive changes. Interviewed notable individuals, including Nik Gowing, a BBC presenter.

As a primary freelance reporter, I was responsible for covering and reporting on news stories in Tamil Nadu. Covered significant stories such as the Marina demolition drive and the arrest of the editor of Naakeran. Also covered current events, sports.

Produced documentaries and feature programs on social issues for audiences in India and the Gulf. Key programs included episodes on women's education and rights in Islam, Islamic traditions, homes for specially-abled adults and nursing homes in Chennai.

Sociology