The people that moved: Best of agency, PR, and corp comm hires in ‘24

Another year, another bunch of people movements. What surprised us (afaqs!) was the number of senior-level appointments at ad agencies; particularly at FCB. We’ve summarised the best of hires at advertising and PR agencies, as well as corporate communications.

FCB Group India

• FCB Group created a new position—creative digital partner—and chose FCB Kinnect NCD Kartikeya Tiwari to fill the role.  
• Ashima Mehra joined FCB India as its new chief executive officer (CEO) in April after serving a four-year stint at Leo Burnett.
• FCB India hired Leo Burnett Group ECD Mayuresh Dubhashi as its new chief creative officer (CCO). 
• Neville Shah, after a decade-long stint at Ogilvy, joined FCB Kinnect as its new chief creative officer.
• FCB Ulka appointed BBDO India’s Hemant Shringy as its new CCO.  
• FCB Interface COO Gaurav Dudeja was elevated to the role of CEO.
• Rohit Ohri retired as FCB global partner, a role he took on in 2023 after having served as chairman and CEO of FCB Group India for eight years.
  

Dentsu India

• Narayan Devanathan returned to Dentsu India after nearly two and a half years as president and chief strategy officer.
• Abhijat Bharadwaj was appointed as the CCO of Dentsu Creative Isobar.
• Surjo Dutt was promoted to chief creative officer of Dentsu Creative Webchutney.
• Posterscope managing director Imtiyaz Vilatra was elevated to chief executive officer of the outdoor agency.
• Abhirup Datta was appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Sokrati, in addition to his role as CEO of performance practice.

Ogilvy

• Hepzibah Pathak took charge as the first female chairperson of Ogilvy India. She has been with the agency since 1997.
• B Ramnath returned to Ogilvy India as chief client officer from Ogilvy Asia Pacific, where he was its chief marketing officer.
• Rediffusion joint president Kalyani Srivastava joined Ogilvy as an associate president.
• 82.5 Communications co-chairman and CEO Kapil Aroa moved to Ogilvy Indonesia as COO.
• Kiran Ramamurthy joined 82.5 Communications as its CEO; he previously served as the COO of Media.Monks.

Leo Burnett

• McCann Worldgroup’s Amitesh Rao took over as the CEO of the agency.
• Vikram Pandey and Sachin Kamble were elevated to CCOs.
• The agency roped in Anirban Roy as chief strategy officer from Wieden & Kennedy India.

The Womb

• Anurag Gupta joined the independent agency as its new CEO. Before the move, he led the marketing company Ada as chief operating officer.
• Heval Patel and Dhaval Jadwani take charge as joint COOs of The Womb. 

Havas India

• Group CEO Rana Barua was elevated as the group CEO of India, South East, and North Asia.
• FCB Group’s John Thangaraj took over duties as the chief strategy officer.

Enormous

• Wunderman Thompson’s (now VML) Joy Chauhan joined the agency as its fractional chief marketing officer.  
• The agency appointed former Lowe Lintas India president Kunal Joshi as its chief strategy officer.

Creativeland Asia

• Poran Malani joined the agency as group CEO; he last served as head of country at S4 Capital.
• The agency roped in Azazul Haque as the group CCO from Media.Monks, where he last served as its chief content officer.
• Divya Agarwal came onboard as chief strategy officer; she is also heading the agency’s research and insights division, Crossbow.

VML

• Babita Baruah took over as the CEO of the newly minted VML in March; she was the executive director of VMLY&R before this move. 

Cheil

• Cheil India COO Sanjeev Jasani moved on from the agency after nearly a decade; he joined the agency in 2015.

Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL)

• Former FCB Group creative chair Swati Bhattacharya was appointed as the global head of Godrej Creative Lab, the in-house creative agency of Godrej Consumer Products Limited. 

Infectious Advertising

• Akshay Kapnadak joined the agency as CCO, where he will partner with Ramanuj Shastry, creative chairman and co-founder. 

L&K Saatchi & Saatchi 

• Lowe Lintas India’s chief strategy officer, Ekta Ralan, moved to the Publicis-owned ad agency for the same role. 

TGTHR

• Everest Brand Solutions’ Rahul Vengalil became CEO and co-founder of TGTHR. 

Media.Monks

• The agency hired GOAT Brand Labs’ Shouvik Roy to spearhead business transformation.

PR and Corporate Communications

Edelman

• The agency announced that Rakesh Thukral will succeed Warren Fernandez as CEO of the firm’s operations in Asia Pacific (APAC).

PepsiCo

• The beverage giant elevated Amit Kumar Nanchahal to head of corporate communications for India and South Asia. 

Microsoft India

• Pallavi Walia joined Microsoft India as director of communications for India and South Asia after a short stint at Vi. 

Google

• The tech giant elevated Priya Dhawan to head of communications for YouTube APAC.

Tata Communications

• Marico’s Mansi Tiwari Somvanshi was appointed as the AVP and global head of corporate communications at Tata Communications.

Royal Enfield

• The motorcycling giant hired Amazon's principal PR Nikhil Gulati as its head of communications.

Hero Motocorp

• Hero MotoCorp’s Bharatendu Kabi moved to JSW as EVP and group head of media and communications.