Hires & Promotions: Dentsu, Embassy Group, Publicis, MX Media

Anand Bhadkamkar Resigns As CEO, Dentsu India 

Anand Bhakamkar, the CEO of Dentsu India, is said to have resigned from his role and August 31 is his last day in office.

Ashish Bhasin, CEO APAC and Chairman India and Peter Hujiboom, Global CEO Media and Global Clients may step in to fulfil day-to-day duties after Bhadkamkar's exit. Meanwhile, the agency is in search of a successor to Bhadkamkar.

On Bhadkamkar's resignation Dentsu has issued a statement: "To stay ahead of the growth opportunities and potential we see for our clients and our teams we are moving forward into Dentsu India 2.0. This is crucial to realising our global ambition of becoming the most integrated network in the world. In the last year, and despite the pandemic, we have started to optimise our portfolio of brands into six global leadership brands, making us more agile and simpler for our clients to access our world-class capabilities and talents. To accelerate this transformation, Ashish Bhasin, CEO, APAC and Chairman India, and Peter Huijboom, Global CEO, Media and Global Clients will assume interim, day-to-day leadership of Dentsu India while the business completes its search for a successor to Anand Bhadkamkar, who leaves Dentsu on August 31.

With this new structure, we are well-positioned to unlock higher levels of business performance, innovation, and solution-led strategies for our people and for our clients. Our ambitions and goals are interconnected, and this is the beginning of Dentsu India 2.0’s new and transformed path to success."

Bhadkamkar has been a part of the Dentsu Aegis Network since 2008. He was promoted as CEO of Dentsu India in 2019 from his role as COO and CFO of South Asia.

Debosmita Majumder Appointed As Group Head – Marketing & Communications Of Embassy Group

Embassy Group has appointed Debosmita Majumder as Group Head – Marketing & Communications.

The company stated, “Majumder is an accomplished communications and marketing specialist with over 16 years of experience working with some of the country’s biggest brands and agencies and has delivered award-winning campaigns. Prior to joining Embassy Group, Debosmita was the Head of Marketing at Porsche India and was responsible for leading strategic campaigns and marketing initiatives for the brand. She has also previously worked with PUMA India, driving business impact, and is the brain behind the empowering Propah Lady campaign, the Cannes Awards nominated Suede Gully campaign and the #DoYou campaign, which broke the Guinness Record in 2016."

Majumder’s new role with the Embassy Group would focus on providing strategic and thought leadership direction for the brand and communications across the group. She will also be responsible for driving and unifying the brand’s story and image, focusing on digital marketing, creative communications and public relations across the Group’s corporate, commercial, residential, services, community outreach, interiors, co-living, education and equestrian verticals.

On her new appointment, Debosmita Majumder said, “With marketing and communications powering my career through the past decade and a half, I have had the opportunity to work with leading brands across sectors and drive their strategic narratives. I am excited to work with Embassy Group, a brand whose ethos aligns with my passion, creativity and curiosity. I look forward to leading successful communications and unearthing powerful narratives for the brand that is known to be a leader in the real estate development space.”

Aditya Virwani, COO, Embassy Group marked, “Debosmita, with her years of diverse and rich experience in front-ending successful communication and marketing initiatives for various brands, is a great asset for our team. We are pleased to welcome her on board and look forward to working with her to further strengthen our marketing practice, building the brand’s strategic narrative and drive holistic communications for Embassy Group.”

Varun Shah Appointed As EVP, Head Of Prodigious India & Content Factory India

Publicis Groupe has consolidated the content production arm under Varun Shah and appointed him as Executive Vice-President and Head of Prodigious India and Content Factory India. The Groupe has also elevated Akshay Multani to Executive Producer, Prodigious and appointed Deepak Bulchandani as Head of Brand Partnerships at Content Factory. 

Designed to serve a content-driven media landscape, Prodigious and Content Factory bring together production expertise in video, digital and print to design, produce and deliver branded content across all channels. This consolidation furthers Groupe’s agenda to be future-ready and bring in the needed efficiencies and agility to the production process and capabilities while delivering quality content for brand partners.

Anupriya Acharya, CEO Publicis Groupe, South Asia, said, “Varun has been instrumental in growing the Prodigious India capabilities and under his leadership we have witnessed phenomenal growth over the past few years. He is a new age production leader with a strong appreciation of international and local creativity and demonstrated experience in quality, reliability and business acumen. I am confident that Varun will take Prodigious and Content factory to newer heights.”

Shah said, “Our ambition is to bring cutting edge technology and expertise to the market, setting new benchmarks for the industry. The new structure provides a platform to create volume content solutions for our clients across all content types and will help fuel our growth in the platform world. This consolidation will help us streamline our efforts by creating a production model which drives efficiency while delivering world-class branded content across media to our partners.”

“Prodigious India and Content Factory are both distinctive brands with a wide range of capabilities. I am confident that with the talent and experience that teams at Prodigious and Content Factory have currently we will redefine the standard for production capabilities in India,” added Shah.

Nikhil Gandhi Named COO, MX Media

MX Media has appointed Nikhil Gandhi as its Chief Operating Officer. Gandhi will be responsible for taking the platform to its next phase of growth by expanding its geographical reach, enhancing data-driven innovation, growing the scope and scale of revenue streams, and building maximum impact for all stakeholders - be it consumers, advertisers, or internal teams across verticals.

Gandhi has joined the company from ByteDance-owned short-form video app TikTok where he was leading its growth in the Middle East, Turkey, Africa, India, and South Asia. Before TikTok, he was the president and COO of Times Television Network. 

Karan Bedi, Chief Executive Officer, MX Media said, “Nikhil brings decades of experience in both traditional and emerging media platforms, and will be a huge asset in taking MX to the next level of rocket-fueled growth. We look forward to working closely with him.” 

On his new appointment, Gandhi said, “MX Player is by far the leader in the video entertainment space. I'm super excited to join the MX team and look forward to the next phase of our growth.”