Advertising & marketing world highlights: Exits in 2022
A recap of the significant people movements in the creative and marketing sphere
The advertising and marketing world saw a significant number of people movements throughout 2022. While some leaders moved on to pursue other interests, others took up more challenging roles in the domain.
With a major churn in consumer habits and patterns, the role of these creative and marketing heads has become greater than ever.
We take a look at some of these exits and where these leaders are headed to.
After a 15-year stint at Endemol Shine India, Abhishek Rege decided to step down from his role as CEO in June. He joined Endemol in 2007 as Head of Commercial and Legal and was elevated as Chief Operating Officer in 2012, and later as Chief Executive Officer in 2017. He has since then led the company to great heights delivering multi-fold growth for the company. Rege has been successful in leveraging comprehensive markets and industry knowledge to ensure high-momentum business growth, build a high-performance team and forecast future business needs.
The CEO of GroupM MENA, Ravi Rao, stepped down in July after a stint of more than three years. Rao had joined GroupM MENA from Mindshare MENA where he was the CEO. Prior to that he was the Chief Client Officer at the agency for nine months.
After a 15-year stint, Jigar Rambhia stepped down as National Director and Head of Sports Business at Wavemaker - GroupM in July. He joined Wavemaker in 2007 as Business Director and headed the IPL media planning and buying team since its launch in 2008. He was also the head of the ICC media planning and buying teams for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup, 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup, ICC Champions Trophy and ICC T20 World Cup. Rambhia has now joined Sporjo, a sports ed-tech start-up, as COO.
Tista Sen of Wunderman Thompson quit the agency after a two-decade-long association. She stepped down as Regional Creative Director in November 2022. Sen is the brain behind Lux’s ‘The Soap with a Lump’ campaign, which has won several accolades. She has been involved with the largest brands in India like Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, ITC, Godrej, Vedanta, Mutual Funds of India and many others.
Essence APAC CEO T Gangadhar (“Gangs”) stepped down from his position after a four-year long stint with the agency in May 2022. He was appointed CEO of APAC during the pandemic in September 2020. Succeeding Global CEO Kyoko Matsushita who previously served as APAC CEO, Gangs was responsible for driving client-centric innovation in data, analytics, and technology, as well as business growth and company culture across the region. Based out of Mumbai, Gangs has worked closely with the global and APAC leadership team.
Narayan Devanathan announced in June that he would be moving on from the role of Chief Client Officer (CCO) at Dentsu India, ending his 11-year-long stint with the network. Devanathan said he would steer his career path into a new journey and pursue his interests outside the advertising industry.
Russell Barrett, CEO and CCO BBH India, announced in December that he will be moving on from the agency to pursue other opportunities. Barrett has been with BBH for 12 years and has been instrumental in making BBH India one of the most sought-after creative agencies, winning several accolades including Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, Andy’s, Spikes, D&ADs and London Internationals.
Gurjot Shah Singh, Executive Vice President, Media at Isobar India, quit Dentsu in July. Singh was with the company for more than eight years. He was elevated in March soon after Dentsu Creative Group India centralized its digital media services across all its agencies and capabilities under the Isobar India group. Prior to that, Singh was the Executive Vice President and National Media Head at Dentsu Webchutney.
Chief Marketing Officer of Aditya Birla Capital Ajay Kakar has announced his retirement. Kakar’s last day in the company was October 31, 2022. Kakar joined Aditya Birla Capital in February 2008. Prior to this, he was working with Reliance Capital and Ogilvy.
Kashyap Gala, the Marketing Director at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, quit the organisation in November. At Johnson & Johnson, he headed femcare and oral care portfolios, and the entire gamut of brand and P&L ownership. In his 11 years at the company, he managed the largest profile for J&J's India business. Gala has now joined the Indian adhesives giant Pidilite Industries as Senior Vice President. As SVP at Pidilite, he is in charge of scaling up the business with complete P&L ownership. Gala was associated with Colgate Palmolive and Perfetti Van Melle before joining Johnson & Johnson.
Smita Murarka stepped down as the CMO of Duroflex early this month. Her move comes after a stint of nearly 3 years. Murarka joined Duroflex in February 2020 as VP-Marketing and eCommerce. She has over 19 years of experience in building brands.
Pallavi Chakravarti
Pallavi Chakravarti, Creative Head, West, DDB Mudra, put in her papers after a year-and-half-long stint at the agency. Chakravarti joined DDB Mudra in May 2021 from Taproot Dentsu where she led the creative function for the Mumbai office as Executive Creative Director.
