Aditya Chatterjee
Advertising

Debasisish Mohanty comes back as UTI's communications head

UTI may include new names in its agency-roster for advertising and public relations

Debasisish Mohanty, vice-president, Unit Trust of India, has been reappointed as head of corporate communications and publicity department of the mutual fund major.

Mohanty, who has some 16 years of experience at UTI, had initially taken charge of this department in September 2003. Earlier, he was associated with the research, policy and planning functions of UTI.

Following the appointment of Ashutosh Bishnoi as the chief marketing officer, a series of changes happened at UTI's end. Soon, Bishnoi, who has an advertising background and also has had stints with DSP-Merrill Lynch and JM Mutual in the funds management business, assumed the overall charge of Mohanty's department.

Then, Ratin Lahiri was appointed as the head of corporate communication and publicity department. Lahiri had taken over in July 2004.

Subsequently, UTI called for an agency review and the entire advertising business was consolidated with JWT, while Percept Communications bagged the mandate of public relations. Before JWT stepped in, there were 11 agencies on the UTI panel.

However, it seems the UTI top management has had a re-think on this issue and Mohanty has been reinstated as the corporate communication and publicity chief. The development happened last week. Mohanty has confirmed the development to agencyfaqs!.

While Mohanty declined to spell out details, sources in the know said that UTI may include new names in its agency-roster for advertising as well as public relations functions. "The changes may not be immediate but they are certainly in the offing," a source said.

© 2004 agencyfaqs!

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