Mr Shambhu Venkatrao Sista, known to his friends as Bobby has been one of the stalwarts of Indian Advertising. Known for his professional integrity he constantly fought to ensure ethical business practices in a fiercely competitive profession.
Mr Sista was trained in Advertising in England. After he returned to India he worked in Sistas for about six years before switching over to marketing Tinopal, a product manufactured by Suhrid-Geigy. Thereafter, he joined Readers Digest as their Marketing Manager. He worked in these companies for five years each. In 1970, he took charge of Sistas Private Ltd., an agency founded by his father, the late Mr Venkatrao Sista, a pioneer of Indian Advertising and the first Indian to establish a full-fledged advertising agency in 1934.
Always committed to the growth of the Advertising profession and its image, Mr Sista has held important offices in many councils and associations. He was Vice-President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for two terms and also served as the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Also served, for several years, as a Member of the Council of Management, Audit Bureau of circulations (ABC). He was also one of the Founders of “The Advertising Club”, Bombay in 1954.
In addition to his Social Marketing projects, Mr Sista has explored new disciplines involving Corporate Management and Programmes to unearth and encourage our countrys vast entrepreneurial talent.
He is also associated with a Portal started by a colleague, Sanjay Bapat, called “IndianNGOs.com”.
He is currently focusing his energies on developing Population First – a communications initiative for Sustainable Human Development in India. Population First is a registered Trust which works to build tri-sector partnership between Corporates, NGOs and Media to strengthen the hands of the Government to achieve the National Population Policy 2000 goal of population stabilization by year 2045. As the Executive Trustee of Population First he is actively pursuing the task of enhancing the communications component of Government programmes and mobilizing the communications industry and media to create a peoples movement for social development and population stabilization.