Lemon's Umesh Shrikhande joins Contract Mumbai as branch head

Umesh Shrikhande, who was one of the directors of Euro RSCG and was co-running Lemon Advertising, is joining Contract Mumbai as the branch head. He comes in the place of Rajiv Sabnis, who is now with Ambience Publicis.

Confirming the news to agencyfaqs!, Shrikhande says, “I would be joining Contract as the excecutive vice-president of the Mumbai branch. Besides heading the Mumbai office, I would also be handling Contract's design cell, Design Sutra."

Shrikhande will take charge on June 21.

When asked whether Ravi Deshpande was the reason Shrikhande considered the offer since the two had jointly managed Lemon and worked in Contract together, he says “When Jagdip Bakshi spoke to me, I was convinced that Contract was determined to rebuild its reputation as a strong thinking agency with sparkling creativity. A reputation that Contract had enjoyed through the '90s."

Shrikhande adds, "Moreover for me, it was a great opportunity yet again to be in the midst of the people I respect and have worked with in the past, such as Ravi Deshpande, Rohit Srivastava, S.Swaminathan and many other talented teammates."

Just like Deshpande, Shrikhande's joining Contract is a home-coming of sorts. In his earlier stint with the agency, during 19991-99, Shrikhande was the executive vice-president at Contract, overseeing the Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai operations.

Shrikhande has over 15 years of experience in the advertising industry, having worked at Lowe, Contract and Euro RSCG. In between, Shrikhande was also involved with a software development project for the advertising and media industry.

Shrikhande has contributed to the communication strategy development of diverse brands including Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints, Cadbury, Shoppers' Stop, Hindustan Lever, ABN Amro Bank, Bharat Petroleum, Heinz, Prudential-ICICI, and Kotak Mahindra Primus. © 2005 agencyfaqs!