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Agnello Dias bids adieu to JWT
Aggie, chief creative officer, JWT, has called it a day at the agency. With all that he and the agency have gained with him at the creative helm, the feeling is yet to sink in
Is JWT going to feel the same with Agnello Dias, its chief creative officer, moving out? With the agency garnering the maximum laurels during his reign, it's a piece of news that is still to sink in. Dias is fondly known as Aggie in the industry.
Talking to afaqs! about a likely successor to Aggie, Colvyn Harris, chief executive officer, JWT, says, "These things are better planned when you have time ahead of you. We will go through a succession plan."
"I have had a wonderful time at JWT, which has provided a fantastic canvas for my creativity and has helped me achieve creative highs unlike any other. Seeing the energy that surrounds me here, I believe that for JWT, this is just the beginning," says Aggie in an official statement.
Agnello Dias |
The Delhi branch is firmly in place with Anuja Chauhan, Swati Bhattacharya, Soumitra Karnik and Elvis Sequeira as its executive creative directors. Senthil Kumar is looking after the creative outflow of the agency's Southern hubs in Bengaluru and Chennai.
Talking about Aggie and his decision to step down, Harris says in an official communiqué, "Agnello has played a very important role in the creative success of JWT in recent years and we appreciate all his efforts towards this end. Over the next couple of months, he will be an integral part of a succession plan, which ensures a seamless change in creative management for our clients. We are fortunate that our strategy of full service creative talent in each and every business unit we have in our markets will be able to seamlessly continue with their roles and responsibilities."
After stepping into JWT, Aggie’s work on Nike was amongst the many campaigns that stood out and was applauded by all. The Lead India campaign has won him and the agency countless awards and global recognition.
Aggie joined JWT in 2005 as senior vice-president and executive director. He grew to be national creative director, a role he shared with Josy Paul when the latter moved to JWT in April 2007. The duo was also inducted into the JWT World Creative Council.
Aggie assumed the role of chief creative officer in April 2008.
He moved to JWT after working for 12 years at Leo Burnett, beginning as a creative supervisor at the agency in 1993. He began his career with Dart Advertising in 1990 and has worked with Interpublicity and Lowe (then Lintas) too.
In his career, he has worked on brands such as Unilever, Cadbury, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Fiat, Baygon, Hitachi, Godrej, Indian Oil, Coca-Cola, Bajaj, HP and Ford.
While some media reports claim that Santosh Padhi, executive creative director, Leo Burnett, plans to join Aggie in setting up a creative hotshop, KV Sridhar, national creative director, Leo Burnett, rubbishes the piece of news outright. Sources claim that it is too premature to comment on Padhi's move. Padhi, however, was not available for comment.