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Naqvi to step into Amitesh Rao's shoes at Rediffusion Y&R
Ajay Naqvi takes over the reins as national business head on the Airtel business
A week ago, Rediffusion Y&R announced a restructuring of its senior management. As part of the exercise, Amitesh Rao, national business head, Airtel business, will assume a new role in the network as chief operating officer, Sri Lanka. Ajay Naqvi has been appointed national business head, Airtel business, to assume the responsibilities erstwhile handled by Rao.
Rediffusion Y&R has been handling the business for Airtel, one of the largest telecom brands in the country today, since the brand was launched here. In fact, the agency has been a part of the birth of the brand and has nurtured it throughout. It is one of the oldest and largest businesses handled by the agency.
In a media release, Sandeep Madan, executive vice-president, Rediffusion Y&R Delhi, says, “We are proud to have someone as accomplished and capable as Ajay heading one of our biggest businesses. With him on board, we look forward to taking the fantastic work on the brand over the last year to the next level and many more memorable campaigns.”
Naqvi has a total experience of 11 years spanning advertising, event management, retail and strategic planning.
He flagged off his career with event management at one of the biggest companies of the event management industry, Wizcraft Entertainment, in 1998. There, he handled the organising and planning for events such as the Peter Andre Show and Filmfare Awards.
After a year, he moved to advertising, joining Goldmine Advertising as an account executive. There, he gained exposure in working on various public sector businesses.
In 2001, he moved to O&M as senior account executive, where he was part of the team that won the Castrol business globally. During his stint of two years at O&M, he worked on rural marketing and cause related marketing for Castrol on initiatives such as Castrol Khabar Ghar.
Leo Burnett, Mumbai beckoned in 2003. As account director, he actively led the Indian Oil business and set up a new discipline for rural marketing at the agency.
In 2004, he moved to O&M, Mumbai in the capacity of a management supervisor and worked on brands such as Tata Sumo and Safari, DHL and Amaron. In 2005, he hopped over to Bates 141 (then Bates Enterprise) as client services and strategic planning director. In 2007, he took up strategic partnership in Shark Design Studio.
As a result of the restructuring at Rediffusion, Amitava Sinha, executive vice-president, Rediffusion Y&R Kolkata, has stepped up as group executive vice-president, eastern region, and will head all the group’s operations in the eastern market. These include Rediffusion Y&R, OAP - Touchpoint, TME, Wunderman, Rediffusion Y&R PR and Showdiff. Sinha will report to Mahesh Chauhan, group chief executive officer, Rediffusion Y&R.
Shivaji Dasgupta, business head, Rediffusion Y&R Kolkata, will take over as branch head and will look after the Kolkata branch. Arvind Mohan, chief strategy officer, will now step into the newly created position of group chief strategy officer. He will head strategy for all the group companies. Mohan was recently inducted into the Global Planning Board of the Young & Rubicam (Y&R) network. He will report to Chauhan as well.