With the key objective of gearing up for the future, Taproot Dentsu, the creative agency from the house of dentsu India, has announced key leadership changes in the organisation. Ayesha Ghosh, Shashank Lanjekar, Pearl Vas, Neeraj Kanitkar, Yogesh Rijhwani, Abhishek Deshwal, Purva Ummat, Titus Upputuru, Abhinav Kaushik, Agnello Dias, Santosh Padhi, are ready for the next step
Ayesha Ghosh, who had been heading the Mumbai office, has now been appointed as chief executive officer (CEO). She will now be responsible for both Mumbai and Gurgaon offices. Ghosh has been with Taproot Dentsu since December 2015. Partnering her closely is Shashank Lanjekar. He has been elevated to the role of chief strategy officer (CSO) and will now be in charge of strategic planning for both the Taproot Dentsu offices in Mumbai and Gurgaon. He had been heading planning for the Mumbai office ever since he joined in 2017. Pearl Vas, who has been with the agency since 2018, takes on more independent responsibilities in Mumbai. She will now be promoted to senior vice president (SVP), strategic planning.
The creative team for the Mumbai office has been expanded and divided into four units, each to be headed by a senior creative person. Neeraj Kanitkar, with an experience of 14 years (nine of those in Taproot Dentsu), is the creative lead for Facebook. He has also worked on brands like WhatsApp, Myntra, American Tourister and FirstPost. He will be promoted to executive creative director (ECD)
Yogesh Rijhwani has been with the agency for close to five years with a total experience of 13 years. He has been handling Aquaguard and Set Wet. He has also worked on Star Sports, Airtel, Parle-G among others. He too will be promoted to ECD.
The other two senior creative leads will be Abhishek Deshwal and Purva Ummat. Deshwal joins from Lowe Delhi as ECD, with noteworthy creative work to his credit on Google, Olx, Micromax, and Vivo. Purva Ummat joins the agency from McCann Erickson Delhi, as senior creative director (SCD). She comes with extensive creative exposure on brands like Truly Madly, Truecaller, Hotstar, Myntra and Dominos
Abhinav Kaushik, who was executive vice president (EVP) on the Honda business among other brands, has been promoted to head – Taproot Dentsu, Gurgaon while Titus Upputuru remains very ably in charge of creative for the Gurgaon office.
Agnello Dias, co-founder and CCO – Taproot Dentsu, who has been stepping back for a few years from active work, will further dial down his involvement. He will continue as a consultant for key brands only. His association with dentsu international ends this month. Umesh Shrikhande retired as CEO in March this year, after having strengthened the strategic function at Taproot Dentsu, to drive result-oriented work and also nurtured a very humane work culture.
Santosh Padhi will continue as co-founder and CCO and will have a more hands-on role in both Mumbai and Delhi offices.
Talking about the strategic restruction, Santosh Padhi, co-founder and CCO, Taproot Dentsu said, “The average age of the agency coming further down is the right sign for us being future-ready. Creativity is at the core of our business and we are lucky to have got a wonderful variety of creative leaders in the form of Neeraj, Yogesh, Abhishek and Purva fronting the agency to take it to the next level, along with Ayesha and Shashank in their new national head roles,”
