Lara completed her Masters in Marketing from England and joined Madison in 2004 as a Management Trainee, followed by a Client Servicing role in The Advertising Unit and then took charge of diversification and later went on to become the Executive Director.
Today, Madison World is a Diversified Communication group, with a Billing of about Rs. 30 billion; having 24 Units across 11 specialized functional areas in Advertising, Media, Digital, Business Analytics, Out-of-Home, Events, Activations, PR, Retail, Entertainment, and Sports; employing about 1,000 Communication professionals across cities in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Bangladesh.
A leader who believes in leading through example, Lara has played a key role at Madison over the last 16 years and is responsible for several organizational developments over the years. She has been involved in a few key strategic acquisitions
1) The agency’s entry into Bangladesh, through an affiliation with Mediacom an independent local agency
2) Brandcomm PR, a PR agency with a focus in South market, that has more than doubled in Revenue and Profit, since it has become a Madison World company
3) Hiveminds Digital, a digital performance agency in Bangalore that has further strengthened Madison’s capability in the Digital space
Lara also oversees marketing, new business development, HR and Legal for Madison World corporate as well as various Madison units.
She has been regularly featured in Impact’s Top 50 Most Influential Women in Media in India for 9 consecutive years since the inception of the Report. She has featured in the Economic Times Brand Equity Ad Agency Reckoner’s Top 50 most influential people in Advertising list in 2018-19, released in August 2019. She also features in Impact’s Top 40 Under 40, released in November 2019.
As a mother of two young children, Lara is able to effectively manage her 2 roles at Madison and a mother and champions the cause of women at the workplace, by leading through example.