MUMBAI: The Leo Group has announced the appointment of Kaizad Pardiwalla to head Orchard Advertising as COO, based at its head office in Mumbai.

The Leo Group CEO Saurabh Varma said, “We are delighted to welcome Kaizad to The Leo Group. Orchard, over the last year, has grown by 40 per cent y-o-y and has an incredible momentum. We required a leader with integrated experience to take Orchard Advertising to the next level. Kaizad, with his media-agnostic approach to brand building, is possibly the best candidate to add value to our clients’ businesses.”

Pardiwalla added, “The way brands tell stories is changing from the 30 sec TVC to engaging the customer in conversations and making them a part of the brand story as advocates. Orchard, with its incredibly talented team has always done great work and is now poised to lead this evolution into true trans-media integration. I am extremely happy that I'm a part of this evolution and look forward to sharing my unique experience straddling digital and traditional advertising with my team at Orchard to help us create truly integrated experiences for our clients.”

Kaizad comes with 18 years of experience in the business with the last three being at Grey where he ran the Mumbai operations. He started his career with Lowe Lintas in 1995 and moved to Ogilvy in 1997. After spending seven years at Ogilvy advertising, in 2004, he was appointed as business director, OgilvyOne Worldwide, the digital and direct marketing division of Ogilvy, where he headed the operations in the western region.  After three years, he took over as the national head of OgilvyOne India. During the course of his career, Kaizad has worked with clients such as American Express, Cadbury, CISCO, IBM, ICICI Lombard, ITC, The Economist and Vodafone amongst others.