MUMBAI: Advertising Company Ogilvy has announced that chairman of Ogilvy India, Piyush Pandey will be promoted to the role of worldwide chief creative officer. He will be replacing Tham Khai Meng who was discharged in July. Pandey’s role will commence from 1 January 2019.

Pandey will also hold on to his responsibilities as the chairman of Ogilvy India and will remain based in Mumbai. From next year he will be working in cooperation with Ogilvy’s global chief executive John Seifert and will look after the creative standards at the company.

Ogilvy also announced that it will expand its Worldwide Creative Council from 12 members to 20; the 20 members—of which half will be comprised of female creative leaders—will be announced in January of 2019. At last year’s Cannes Lions, Ogilvy announced its commitment (in partnership with the 3% Movement) to recruit 20 senior women in creative globally by 2020.

Ogilvy Worldwide chief executive John Seifert said, “We could not be more thrilled that Piyush will be serving as our chief creative officer, worldwide and my creative partner.  Piyush is a true industry icon who is uniquely suited to lead our global creative efforts. Creativity has and will always be at the heart of the Ogilvy brand and culture. Piyush is the perfect leader to shepherd that legacy as we continue to focus on making brands matter as the leading creative network in the world.”

Seifert told Campaign India that he had considered both internal and external candidates for the global creative role. He said, “I wanted someone who would be a real partner to me and who would be true to the creative spirit of our founder David Ogilvy, But it was very clear that Piyush was the right candidate for the role.”

Seifert continued, “Piyush is deeply rooted in society and culture and the humanness of our world. He’s also someone who doesn’t look backwards, only forwards, and who is enthusiastic, excited and humble. He’s someone everyone can be inspired by.”

Seifert believes that his working partnership with Pandey would become a model for Ogilvy offices around the world, as he said, “To date, we hadn’t really galvanised our network to ensure creativity is the lifeblood of everything we do, Piyush will now help me drive that.”

Meanwhile, Ogilvy US CCO Joe Sciarotta has been appointed as deputy chief creative officer, worldwide and will report to Pandey and Seifert.