Havas Creative Group India has announced the appointment of Debopriyo Bhattacherjee as EVP and planning head – North.
Bhattacherjee's mandate is to provide strategic guidance to Havas Creative, with a special focus on all brands of Reckitt and a portfolio of brands from the Dabur stable.
He moves after a three-year entrepreneurial stint, before which he worked with the Group in Kuala Lumpur. He will be based in Gurugram and report to Neeraj Bassi, chief strategy officer, Havas Group India.
Manas Lahiri, president, Havas Creative Group India, said, “Havas Gurugram has had an amazing momentum in the last few years. And we now have some fantastic brands that require a senior strategic professional with multi-industry experience. Debo has both the experience and knowledge of handling brands across a wide range of categories. He has been part of the Havas network earlier and understands the culture of integration that Havas offers to its clients. His unique perspectives and ideas will undoubtedly increase our abilities to produce interesting work for our client portfolio.”
Bassi said, “I am delighted to welcome Debo onboard. He brings a lot of value to the team because of his passion for understanding customer concerns and finding creative solutions to business problems. I’m confident that his strategic planning skills will help us continue to achieve our goal of making brands more meaningful.”
Bhattacherjee added, “I’m thrilled to join Havas Village Gurugram and spearhead the planning for our key office in creative. For me, it is a homecoming to a network that I admire, and especially in India, it’s currently one of the most talked-about agencies with a tremendous momentum and an interesting mix of marquee clients in its portfolio. So, with the change in consumer behaviour specially post the pandemic, the endeavour will be to keep working on creating differentiated strategies for all the leading brands of Reckitt, Dabur, Suzuki and many others. I’m looking forward to working with the dynamic team of Havas Village India."
In a career spanning 17 years, he has also worked with Ogilvy, Dentsu, DDB and McCann among others.