BBDO India grabs JWT’s NCD, more appointments to follow

BBDO India has roped in Josy Paul as chairman and national creative director. He moves in from JWT where he was NCD

Speculation regarding who is going to be BBDO India’s head has finally been laid to rest. Josy Paul, national creative director, JWT, will join BBDO India as chairman and national creative director. With this, Paul becomes one more creative person to don the chairman’s hat. agencyfaqs! had already predicted that someone from JWT could be roped in to head the startup and launch it into a large format agency.

BBDO now has a dual presence in India in the form of RK Swamy/BBDO and BBDO India. BBDO Asia retains a significant minority stake in RK Swamy/BBDO, while RK Swamy has a minority stake in BBDO India. RK Swamy and BBDO have jointly identified new leadership in Paul.

Srinivasan K Swamy, chairman, R K Swamy, says, “BBDO India is a strong organisation and we have huge plans for it. We are looking at it as a large format agency with key players and divisions. At present, it is in a startup phase and an entire team has to be set up for it to start functioning.”

Swamy says further, “There were a series of names we were looking at. Josy is extremely strong on creative and has a fantastic background. The choice was quite obvious.”

BBDO India grabs JWT’s NCD, more appointments to follow

Josy Paul

RK Swamy/BBDO and BBDO India will initially work in cooperation. Both will work on multinational and domestic clients. They might even work for the same client, either on different brands or by offering different services. BBDO India will pitch for new businesses as well in time. At present, its goal is to be among the top three within the next two-three years.

Paul is serving his notice period at JWT India and will soon move to take charge at BBDO India. Besides setting up the team, the agency is also looking forward to acquiring space for the India office.

Paul joined JWT in February 2007. Before that, he was working with David (now Bates David Enterprise) as chairman and national creative director.

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