New Delhi, Oct 4 (IANS): Ravi Santhanam, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of HDFC Bank, has made it to the Forbes' list of 'World's Most Influential CMOs'.

Santhanam ranks 39 in the list of 50 most influential CMOs.

"Santhanam is a marketing leader who prioritises personalised and relevant customer experience and believes that machine learning and data science are critical tools for marketers; he expressed so in a recent Netcore Solutions blog," Forbes said.

It also noted that he led the Indian bank's response to the coronavirus outbreak, launching the "#HDFCBankSafetyGrid" campaign to help people keep safe distance in public.

He is the only CMO of an Indian company to feature in the list.

The top spot was grabbed by Phil Schiller, Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing, Apple.

Others in the top five, from the second to the fifth positions were Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer of WWE, Fernando Machado, Global CMO of Restaurant Brands International, Jens Thiemer, Senior Vice President of Customer and Brand of BMW and Olivier Francois, Global President of Fiat Brand and Chief Marketing Officer of FCA Group, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, respectively.