Dentsu India continues the organization overhaul, appoints Anita Kotwani to drive growth
Dentsu India has appointed Anita Kotwani, media veteran and chief executive of Carat India has been elevated as CEO media, South Asia for Dentsu.
Dentsu India's people strategy keeps it buzzing
Kotwani will be responsible for leading Dentsu’s media businesses across South Asia, replacing Divya Karani who has stepped down after heading the media business at Dentsu for many years
Kotwani has worked with GroupM in India for over 15 years before moving to Dentsu in 2020 to head the Carat operations. The appointment is the latest in a string of changes for Dentsu in India, which has witnessed organisational restructuring and changes at the top level.
In one of the most significant organizational moves, the network recently announced the hiring of Harsha Razdan as CEO for Dentsu South Asia. The move is an unusual one as Razdan is new to adland – his previous stints include PepsiCo, Unilever, Accenture.
Razdan was most recently at KPMG India where he oversaw the consumer market practice, replacing Dentsu India head Anand Bhadkamkar, who quit the role in August 2021. Razdan will oversee the expanded mandate for South Asia as well as lead India operations.
Rob Gilby, CEO APAC, Dentsu said, “Harsha’s background in brand building, overlayed with deep knowledge of tech-driven transformation brings formidable cross-capability expertise.”
In January, Sapna Arora was hired as the chief client officer, Dentsu India – another interesting shift from the client side to the agency side. She has had stints with Olx India as the CMO and also worked with Nestle, RB, P&G etc.
A few weeks back, senior adman Ajay Gahlaut, group chief creative officer, Dentsu Creative announced his plans to exit the network after a brief but buzzing stint of about two years, since he joined in 2021. He and the team had their glory under the sun in 2022 with Dentsu Webchutney’s 'The Unfiltered History Tour' for Vice becoming the third most-awarded campaign of the year winning at every award show. Dentsu Webchutney emerged as the most-awarded agency in the Asia Pacific region in The Drum’s World Creative Rankings 2023.