Iqbal Raj to be Percept/H’s NCD

Elvis Sequeira, the agency’s last national creative director, quit eight months ago; Anil Kakkar and Navneet Kapoor have been holding the fort since then

It’s been eight months since national creative director Elvis Sequeira quit Percept/H. Iqbal Raj, executive creative director, Rediff, has now moved into his chair.

Ajay Chandwani, chief executive officer, Percept/H, says, “Iqbal brings with him a wealth of leadership experience in creative campaigns done for a large number of global and Indian brands. His experience at Lowe (then Lintas) on Unilever, FCB-Ulka on Hero Honda, and Rediffusion on Colgate-Palmolive will certainly help Percept/H in setting new benchmarks in creativity.”

“Percept/H was looking for the right person to steer the agency in the right direction,” says Chandwani.

Anil Kakkar, senior creative director in Mumbai, and Navneet Kapoor, senior creative director in Delhi, have been holding the fort since Sequeira moved out.

Raj says, “The potential that I see here is extremely good. All I need to do is cross the t’s and dot the i’s.” Chandwani is confident that Raj will raise the creative standards at Percept/H.

Raj has spent more than two decades in the advertising industry. He began his career in 1987 with Lowe (Lintas) and worked with brands such as Wheel, Rin and Surf from the Lever stable. His next destination was FCB-Ulka, followed by Everest. After that, he took a six year break from advertising to start his own production house. During this period, Raj directed more than 100 ad films, corporate films and audiovisuals. He then joined Contract for two years to work on Cadbury, HSBC and the Disney Channel, among others, before moving to Rediffusion. At Rediff, Raj looked after the agency’s main businesses such as Colgate and DB Realty as well as some other businesses.

Raj is passionate about the arts. His interests include theatre and music, and he is equally familiar with Indian music, Bollywood music and vintage rock music. His other interests include scriptwriting and film making. He has directed one feature film, called Raghu More: Bachelor of Hearts, and is poised to direct his second feature film later this year.