Vijay Verma leaves Everest; is "exploring options"

Exactly a year after he joined Mumbai-based Everest Integrated Communications as chief operating officer (COO), Vijay Verma has quit the agency. Confirming the news to agencyfaqs!, Verma said, "Yes, I am no longer with Everest." When quizzed about the reasons for this sudden move, he replied, "I have taken this decision for personal reasons."

agencyfaqs! loyalists may recall that in September 2001, Verma had moved to Everest, after a one-year stint at Mudra Communications, Mumbai. A professional with close to two decades of advertising experience, Verma started his career at Rediffusion as a management trainee, back in 1982. After eight years in that agency, he put in another long tenure at Ambience. Following which, he had moved to Mudra.

When asked about his future plans, Verma said, "I am exploring the options. I have two or three interesting options in front of me, and I have to decide which one to accept." He does not, however, reveal anything about the nature of these options, neither is he prepared to put a timeframe to his decision-making. But most importantly, he admits that he is not limiting himself to advertising alone. "Honestly, I can't say… but yes, I am even looking at options beyond advertising."

As far as Everest, Mumbai, is concerned, Verma's is the second significant senior-level departure this year. Sometime in April-May, creative man Milind Dhaimade - the person behind Frooti's Digen Verma campaign - had quit the agency, ending a nine-year association. (Dhaimade has since joined the Leo Burnett Group in India.) And on the national level, this is the third big movement in 2002 - in January, Ajit Shah had vacated the post of president at Everest after 22 years in the agency (Shah subsequently joined Delhi-based creative shop Dhar & Hoon as executive director in March).

agencyfaqs! was unable to reach the agency for an official reaction. So keep watching this space… © 2002 agencyfaqs!