Mumbai – Leo Burnett India, part of the Publicis Groupe India, has announced the appointment of Rajeev Rakshit as executive director, Leo Burnett, Bangalore. Rajeev will be reporting to Leo Burnett – South Asia CEO Amitesh Rao and is entrusted with taking the agency forward to the next level across client relationships, solutions, talent and growth. The appointment comes on the back of the agency’s strong partnerships with Bengaluru based clients including Ikea, RedBus, Kingfisher, Heineken, Lenovo, Acko, Flipkart to name a few.
Speaking about the announcement, Rao said “Leo Burnett is a formidable creative force in Bengaluru with great momentum, energy and ambition, working with some incredible brands, and lucky to have some of the most talented people onboard. Rajeev comes with a distinctive blend of a future facing orientation, maturity and deep industry knowledge, and we are delighted to have him join us in building on the foundation of our Bengaluru operation to take it to greater heights.”
Added Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer - Publicis Groupe, South Asia and Chairman - Leo Burnett, South Asia says “The Bangalore team energy is infectious and we currently work with some of the best clients of India from there. We already have Pravin Sutar leading the creative mandate from Bangalore and together with Rajeev who comes with solid hands -on experience, and we are confident of building meaningful solutions for our client partners.”
Speaking about his appointment, Rakshit commented, “Having had a substantive stint with Leo Burnett in the past, it feels like coming home. The agency’s inspired creativity, portfolio of iconic brands and numerous client success stories has resulted in its staggering momentum and I am excited to be a part of this journey. I have always admired Leo Burnett’s ability to reimagine and redefine industry norms and look forward to collaborating and contributing to propel the agency towards its next significant milestone.”
Rajeev joins Leo Burnett with over two and a half decades of hands on experience in the field of Upstream Marketing, Strategic Planning, Digital Strategy, Account Management, General Management and Business Head (Country & Region). His last stint was as Group CEO and Managing Partner – Thinking Folks, an independent upstream advertising and marketing solutions organisation. Rajeev has previously worked at Publicis Groupe’s L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett and Publicis in various stints spanning his career.
He has also worked at JWT/WPP (Global Team Ford) where he was the Managing Partner and India head for GFT an integrated agency created exclusively for Ford; and McCann Erickson India, Saregama (RPG group) and Everest brand solutions.
