Yesterday, a new management structure was announced for Ogilvy & Mather India, which will be effective from the 1st of March. Amongst other moves, the restructuring will see Kunal Jeswani promoted to CEO and Hufrish Birdy to CFO. According to Ogilvy South Asia executive chairman and creative director Piyush Pandey, and executive co-chairman and group chief operating officer S N Rane, the shake up will mean that the agency's clients “Should look forward to even greater impact from Ogilvy & Mather in the days ahead.” They both believe the time is right for the restructure, which will see the new senior team joining them in “All key management decisions of Ogilvy & Mather.”
Kunal Jeswani
The most significant change is perhaps that of the promotion of Jeswani, who began his career in advertising two decades ago. He joined Ogilvy in 2005, and has also headed OgilvyOne Worldwide with the responsibility of managing Ogilvy’s digital business in India. This is a role which led to his current post as chief digital officer of the Ogilvy India group, a responsibility he will retain as CEO. The appointment is especially significant, given that Ogilvy & Mather India has been without a CEO since Pretap Bose quit the agency back in 2008.
A new management structure has been announced for Ogilvy & Mather India
Birdy, meanwhile, currently served as executive finance director at Ogilvy India. A chartered accountant with almost 20 years at Ogilvy (she joined in 1995 as a senior finance executive), she has a strong grasp on financial principles, sound commercial sense, and a deep understanding of the company. Other areas in which she has acquired top skills during her two decades at Ogilvy, include business strategy, competitive analysis, financial analysis, business planning, budgets & team management. Both Jeswani and Birdy will report directly to the Chairmen’s office and work in close partnership with Geo and discipline heads, Creative, Planning and business leaders, and other key stake holders of the Company.
Piyush Pandey
As part of the management shuffle, Hephzibah Pathak will also assume a new role at Ogilvy India as global clients’ director. She will initially be working with Vodafone, Mondelez(India+Global), KFC, Unilever, Coke and Fiat, and will be responsible for delivering work that meets the expectations of such blue-chip clients. Kawal Shoor will also be promoted to the role of national planning director. Shoor has been with Ogilvy for a solid decade now, and has spent that time building strong planning teams, leading the agency’s effectiveness agenda, and providing strategic counsel to clients such as Cadbury, Tata Sky, ITC and Ceat. In his new role, he'll spearhead the next phase of development of planning and be responsible for the national planning agenda.
Jeswani and Birdy will also join the Ogilvy India board of directors
Finally, the Ogilvy India board of directors, which currently comprises Pandey, Rane, Madhukar Sabnavis, Poran Malani, Hephzibah Pathak, Miles Young, Paul Heath, Paul Cocks and John Goodman, is set to expand to include Jeswani and Birdy, as well as Rajiv Rao (national creative director) and Navin Talreja (president - Mumbai and Kolkata geography head). They will be named as additional directors as soon as legal compliances are completed.
