Adding another to the list of recent significant senior level appointments at the agency, Leo Burnett India yesterday named Hitesh Mehta as vice president at their head office in Mumbai. He will also be leading the agency's McDonald's business on a national level on both account management and strategy. Mehta has spent his career in the industry working across South-East Asia in various local, regional and global roles on some of the world's biggest brands.
Hitesh Mehta
His last major assignment was at Leo Burnett's Indonesia offices, where, as part of the leadership team, he helped to bring together the marketing teams at Dutch Lady (Malaysia's leading dairy brand) and McDonald's in order to help them grow within the Indonesian market. He successfully delivered on this mandate and relocated back to India in 2013 in search of a new challenge. Most recently, he had been working as an independent brand consultant prior to joining Leo Burnett earlier this month.
Leo Burnett India yesterday named Hitesh Mehta as vice president at their head office in Mumbai. He will also be leading the agency's McDonald's business on a national level on both account management and strategy.
Saurabh Varma, Leo Burnett India's CEO, praised his new vice president's tenacious spirit. He said that Mehta has “Over a decade of integrated communications experience,” and is “Extremely passionate about understanding human behaviour and applying those valuable insights to client work.” He said it was these traits that will be of great value to the Leo Burnett “HumanKind” philosophy, which is “Not about advertising, brand propositions or selling products,” but in instead, “About people, purpose and changing behaviour.” Of his appointment, Mehta said “The QSR (fast food) market is still quite nascent and there is immense scope for growth.” He is “Relishing the opportunity” to be appointed at a “Very exciting time for McDonald's.”
Antony Rajkumar
The last major appointment at Leo Burnett India (prior to Mehta's appointment) came last week when Antony Rajkumar was named as head of planning at the agency's Delhi office. He joined Leo Burnett from JWT, where he was vice president and strategy planning director. Of his move, Rajkumar said that he saw his new home as a “Very young agency keen and ready to lead the evolution that our industry is going through.” Samir Gangahar, Leo Burnett Delhi's executive director, said that Rajkumar (like Mehta) is “Genuinely integrated thinker,” who is able to channel his abilities to “Create a compelling purpose and relevant participation platforms for (the agency's) portfolio of brands,” will help Leo Burnett India to become an “Even stronger HumanKind agency.”
Official Leo Burnett India Website
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster in the UK. He won't even pretend to understand the whole “HumanKind” thing, but it at least sounds nice.
