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Radhesh Uchil joins the Madison family
Uchil, as general manager, Platinum Media, will head the Mumbai branch of the six month old agency
Radhesh Uchil, general manager, West and South, Carat Media Services, has switched agencies. He has joined Platinum Media in the same capacity. He will head the Mumbai operations of the agency, which has been around for six months.
Platinum Media is the second agency of Madison Group. The agency was launched in late 2008, with the objective of handling conflicting businesses.
Uchil will report to Basabdutta Chowdhuri, chief executive officer, Platinum Media. Talking about his appointment, Chowdhuri says, “Uchil's appointment is the second big thing for the agency since it began its operations in August last year. We started off with bagging NDTV Imagine's media duties.”
Uchil, a graduate in statistics from Bombay University, began his career in media at Lintas India, Mumbai as a media trainee in 1989. Hindustan Unilever's (HUL) detergent portfolio was one of the biggest accounts he got to work on at that time.
Uchil tells afaqs!, “At that time, HUL was one of the largest FMCG advertisers. I am glad to have learnt the basics of media planning from one of the most respected companies in the media business at that time.”
In early 1994, he shifted base to Bengaluru to take charge of the media department of Lintas, Bengaluru as senior media manager. Leading a team of five people at Lintas, he serviced clients such as Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd., Britannia Foods, Compaq Computers and Timex watches.
Towards the end of 1994, he joined MAA Bozell, Bengaluru as associate media director. He was second in command of the media division, Optima, which was put in place as the first independent media company at the time, in association with CIA Group PLC, one of Europe's largest independent media communications groups. He had the overall responsibility for the media planning capabilities at the agency.
In mid 1995, he relocated to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and joined Impact/BBDO as senior media manager. He was responsible for the media operations of the agency. He was overseeing the media account for Pepsi-KSA.
Moving on, he joined Promoseven Network (member of the McCann Erickson group), where he was there for around 8 yrs, heading the Universal Media Dubai office.
In March 2005, he joined Bates PanGulf in Dubai as senior vice-president and chief operating officer. Apart from heading the agency's media function, he was a member of the Opscom of the Bates PanGulf Group. He reminisces, “Working on the Iraq Democracy programme aimed at uplifting the post war morale of the Iraqi populace was special. Another thing that is close to my heart is the interaction that I had with key members of the WPP senior management.”
Based in Mumbai, he also headed the operations for the Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai offices of Carat and was a member of its executive committee.
On joining Platinum Media, Uchil says, “The Madison Group has always fascinated me with its fabulous success story that has outlasted even the most popular saas-bahu serials on the Indian media scene. The core values that the group holds dear mirror my own and I believe this is what forms the basis of a strong relationship. The launch of Platinum Media offers an opportune time to join the group and I am confident that this will be a mutually beneficial relationship.”