Ringing in change

Movements

After spending 15 years in Madison World, Basabdatta Chowdhury, CEO, Platinum Media (a division of Madison World), has quit the company. She is going to join Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG), which is part of the Publicis Groupe, as chief operating officer (COO) where she will take over from early next year. She will report to Hanley King, chairman, SMG India and Mallikarjun Das, CEO, SMG - India. Chowdhury, started her career with The Times of India in response. She started her career in media planning and buying with Anthem in 1993. Thereafter she moved to Grey Worldwide, and then to McCann-Erickson before joining Madison 15 years ago.

Leading the pack
TBWA Group India has appointed Govind Pandey as its chief executive officer effective January 1, 2016. Pandey, an advertising veteran with over 25 years in the industry, will lead the agency's advertising business and operations across Mumbai and Delhi. Pandey will report to Philip Brett, TBWA president of Asia. Pandey was most recently the chief operating officer of McCann Worldgroup, India. He has also worked with agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, JWT and Contract.

Thinking strategically

Bangalore-based Happy Creative Services has strengthened its strategic planning team by bringing on board Phalgun Tiruvasu as head of strategic planning. He joins from Lowe Lintas & Partners in Bangalore where he led the strategic planning mandate across a range of brands. Prior to Lowe, Tiruvasu was the lead strategist on ITC Foods and TVS Motors at McCann Bangalore. He has also worked at Publicis Ambience Mumbai, Y&R Jakarta, Quantum and also briefly ran his own research consultancy firm.

Creative stroke
DDB Mudra has roped in Kunj Shah as group creative director for the west region. Shah comes from Ogilvy & Mather where she was senior creative director.

Shah has 17 years of experience in advertising. In the past, she has been associated withagencies such as McCann Erickson and Grey Worldwide.