Deshpande new chairman of Contract; Bakshi moves back to JWT, London

This is yet another incident of a creative head taking over the reigns of an agency. Following in the wake of Piyush Pandey, Prasoon Joshi, Josy Paul, Sonal Dabral and Thomas Xavier, Ravi Deshpande has taken over as chairman and chief creative officer of Contract, following the exit of Jagdip Bakshi.

Deshpande insists that his promotion has nothing to do with the trend of creative heads taking over as agency heads. He outlines his mandate as "leading Contract, enhancing its vision and embracing the future". Deshpande is confident of his creative team and believes that the nucleus is in place. The way forward then, he says, is intensifying the agency's success at international award shows and formulating big, fresh ideas for its clients.

Contract was the third Indian agency in the metal tally at the recent Cannes International Advertising Festival, winning a gold, a silver and a bronze.

In 2001, Deshpande started an agency, called Lemon, in alliance with Euro RSCG Worldwide. Lemon was closed down when he returned to Contract in 2005.

JWT president Michael Maedel says, "Ravi has Contract in his DNA, having spent many successful years at the agency." Maedel is confident that Deshpande will take Contract ahead to become an award winning creative powerhouse.

Jagdip Bakshi, who was chief executive officer of Contract India, which started off as JWT’s second agency, has gone back to JWT. Bakshi has spent 28 years of his career at JWT. He has been appointed global business director on the Unilever account and will be based in London.

Bakshi has worked closely on Unilever's Central Asia Middle East (CAME) region as leader, beverages, handling the Brooke Bond and Lipton brands. He moved to London in 2000 as global business manager dealing with Lipton and Lux. This gave him a global perspective in food as well as personal care.

Bakshi joined JWT in 1980 and has held several positions of responsibility in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

As global business director on Unilever at JWT, Bakshi will look after Knorr, Sunsilk, Lux and Radiant (known as Rin in India). In an official communique, Maedel referred to Bakshi's appointment as a significant example of the growing importance of Indian advertising talent on the global stage.

Bakshi says, "Unilever is a very important client. With an association of 104 years, it is also amongst our oldest clients. After Ford, this account is JWT’s biggest. It is a prestigious part of our business and I will work towards making JWT Unilever's strongest agency."

Bakshi's responsibilities will include client relationship management and ensuring delivery of the best advertising solutions across all product categories.