NEW DELHI — Former Weber Shandwick India leaders Atul Ahluwahlia (pictured) and Dilip Yadav have launched a full service PR consultancy called First Partners, which includes the acquisition of media specialist Go2Media.

Ahluwahlia and Yadav both departed Weber Shandwick last year, after more than 20 years each with the agency. Ahluwahlia served as MD of the original Corporate Voice business, before taking up the vice-chairman role a few months prior to the 2014 arrival of Weber Shandwick India CEO Valerie Pinto.

Ahluwahlia and Yadav are joined at First Partners by former Weber Shandwick colleague Santanu Gogoi, who launched Go2Media 16 months ago. Nitin Yadav, who also worked on Go2Media's launch, joins the new business as a partner, after previously serving as corporate communications GM at PepsiCo India.

Other senior members of First Partner’s consulting team include ex-Cargill India executive Poonam Tibrewal; digital lead Param Shobhit; and content head Gopika Kaul.

"Today’s boardroom priorities require the communication function to be served by senior experts who can bring both business perspective and communications expertise to the table," said Ahluwahlia. "We believe that there is room for a new consultancy with the senior depth and width to become clients’ first port of call for providing solutions which drive business results."

First Partners plans to roll out offices in Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad, along with an associate network in 11 other cities.