Dr Sandeep Goyal succeeds Arun Nanda as Rediffusion’s chairman

Arun Nanda has stepped down as the chairman of Rediffusion after 50 years because of his indifferent health and advancing age.

He demits the charge to Dr Sandeep Goyal whose Mogae Media had acquired the independent advertising agency in 2021. Dr Goyal will continue to be Rediffusion’s managing director.

The first gold medallist of IIM-A’s first batch in 1966, Nanda was also in the first batch of management trainees ever recruited by Hindustan Lever. He is credited to be the brain behind the ‘lightning strikes’ mnemonic of Rin of which he was brand manager at Lever (now HUL). He then moved on to MCM, a creative shop of those times, moving on in 1973 to set up Rediffusion.

A two-time AAAI President and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the early 2000s, Nanda has served on the Boards of Air India, Eveready, Kingfisher Airlines, Yes Bank and many more.

From 1983 to 1991, Nanda was Advisor to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was also Chairman of Dentsu Young & Rubicam, the Asian joint venture of the two advertising giants.

“Rediffusion’s 50 years has been a dream run. I enjoyed every moment of the very many hundreds of client interactions, the strategy sessions, the creating of the campaigns and the launching of the brands … at the Board level I must thank Ajit Balakrishnan, Suresh Talwar and Sunil Phataphekar, my co-directors for years, for their sage advice always and support to me as chairman,” says Nanda.

“The agency under Sandeep is in good hands, and I am happy to pass on the baton to him at Rediffusion.”