Sumita Vaid
Advertising

Ujjal Gupta, COO, Bates India, temporarily replaces Rajiv Agarwal

Gupta will be coordinating the day-to-day management of the company, actively guided by Ranjan Kapur, non-executive chairman of Bates India

Rajiv Agarwal, managing director and CEO Bates, will be leaving Bates India shortly, and has indicated that he plans to spend time on some personal interests. The news of his departure comes after a year of the Cordiant group becoming a part of WPP.

Cordiant's units in India include Bates Advertising and the direct marketing network 141, and both continue to operate independently. For the record, the Bates Advertising network has ceased to exist outside of Asia.

The Board of Bates India has accepted Agarwal's decision to leave and will shortly announce his replacement. In the interim, Ujjal Gupta, chief operating officer, will be coordinating the day-to-day management of the company, actively guided by Ranjan Kapur, non-executive chairman of Bates India.

"We are sorry to lose Rajiv, especially at a time when Bates India is entering a phase of high growth (organic and acquired), while continuing its trademark pursuit of increasing value-addition to client businesses," mentioned a company note.

The communique further said, "He will be missed for the passion that he brought to the business and for his contribution to strategy and creative evaluation, where his sharp mind and professional acumen combined to focus the agency's thinking on enduring brand building ideas."

Agarwal on his part, said, "I am sad at the thought of leaving Bates. It is a special agency that has such a great set of clients. I have shared very close relationships with them. They, above all, are old-fashioned unique people - who exemplify rare professional and human values. As much as I will miss them, I am privileged to have spent my 25th year in advertising at Bates India, and with them."

Before joining Bates, Agarwal was heading rmg david. He was there for eight months.

Agarwal became popular in the ad industry when Mohammed Khan and Agarwal co-founded Enterprise in 1983. Two years hence, Agarwal quit to launch his new agency - Nexus.

Then in 1996, Khan, Agarwal and Arun Kale came together to form Enterprise Nexus. So that the agency could get an international network affiliation, the three decided to give up their cumulative 40 per cent stake to Lowe. Agarwal, however, left the start-up soon after over rumoured differences with Khan.

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