Kotak will lead Milieu Insight’s operational strategy worldwide, and will join a refreshed leadership team, with founders Gerald Ang and Juda Kanaprach taking on strategic advisory roles in the business. Kotak will report directly to Sundip Chahal, group chief executive at Milieu Insight.

Kotak joins Milieu Insight from NielsenIQ, where he held successive leadership positions across the Gulf States, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

Prior to NielsenIQ, Kotak held roles at YouGov, Yahoo! Inc and Merkle Research. His experience spans consumer and marketing insights, innovation research, brand and media strategy, and retail analytics.

Milieu Insight has also said it will recruit a chief executive of southeast Asia.

Sundip Chahal said: “This is a big step forward for Milieu as we scale. Bringing Gaurang in as COO is about stronger execution, clearer accountability and faster decision-making across the business.

“I also look forward to working with Gerald and Juda in their new roles. Their work created the platform we are building on now.”