Kaushik Roy quits Mudra; to join Reliance Infocomm

It had to happen. The only twist is, it happened sooner than expected.

Kaushik Roy, executive director & chief creative officer, Mudra Communications, has quit the agency to join Reliance Infocomm as head of marketing, Reliance India Mobile. Confirming the development to agencyfaqs!, Roy said, "I have been working with Reliance Infocomm on secondment for a month now. Effective August 1, I join the company as head of marketing on the Reliance India Mobile brand. My formal designation, however, has not been decided yet."

With this move, 46-year-old Roy - who started his career in advertising with HTA (now JWT) way back in 1979 - would end his second and two-and-a-half-year stint at Mudra. Describing his new role, Roy says, "Though I would work in the marketing department, my focus will be the brand Reliance India Mobile. My task entails brand communication, building the brand's image and equity, and working in the area of customer retention/care. It is not much of a change from what I am doing right now because 75 per cent of my job will revolve around communication."

agencyfaqs! diehards would remember the story Kaushik Roy on "deputation" to Reliance Infocomm (July 3), where we stated that Roy was on secondment at Reliance "to manage some critical initiatives at Reliance Infocomm". However, at that time, both Roy and Madhukar Kamath, managing director & CEO, Mudra Communications, had denied the possibility of Roy quitting Mudra.

Even now Roy underplays the event. "This is like moving from one division of Reliance to another," he says. "I have worked very closely with Reliance when it was a client. It's just that on this occasion the company feels I can fulfill a specific role at Reliance."

It is not known who will take on the mantle of chief creative officer at Mudra. Executives familiar with the development indicate Roy's successor has not been anointed yet. "In all probability it would be an outsider," says our source. © 2003 agencyfaqs!