Rabe Iyer returns from ZenithOptimedia, Vietnam, for a stint in India

On the back of an eight-year association with ZenithOptimedia, Rabe T Iyer is re-locating back to India with the agency. Based in Mumbai, Iyer will work as managing director, West and South operations. Iyer moves in from the Vietnam office, where he is currently serving as general manager.

Iyer’s mandate will be to oversee the operations of the Mumbai and Bangalore offices and make the latter as established as the Delhi office. Iyer assumes his new role on July 20; he will report to Ambika Srivastava, CEO, ZenithOptimedia, India. “Iyer’s rich experience with the network, working with a blue-chip client portfolio over the last four years, makes him an ideal candidate to build our operation both in Mumbai and the South,” says Srivastava.

At a time when there wasn’t a stark distinction between media and creative agencies like there is today, he joined Enterprise (which then went through a series of mergers, first to form Enterprise Nexus, and then to become the current Bates Enterprise) in the media department as media planner. He joined the agency in 1994 and worked there for three years. He moved to Saatchi & Saatchi’s media department as senior media planner on the P&G business in 1997.

In 2001, Iyer was designated as associate media director. In 2002, he assumed responsibility as media director. In 2003, he was given the opportunity to relocate to the Vietnam office of the agency as business director on the P&G business. In 2004, he was elevated to general manager of the Vietnam branch.

“The years that I have spent with Zenith have enhanced my learning experience and the agency has permitted me to perform in areas that I wished to. Talking about my move to India, I see potential in applying the experience that I have picked up from Vietnam in the Indian market,” says Iyer.