Malvika Mehra and Amit Akali set to join Grey as NCDs

Grey India has appointed Malvika Mehra (pictured, left) and Amit Akali (pictured, right) as national creative directors. In a parallel development, Shalini Dam who was the NCD, Grey has put in her papers.

Akali and Mehra recently announced their exits from O&M Bangalore where they were group creative directors. At Grey, the duo will be based in Mumbai.

Commenting on the new development, Jishnu Sen, COO, Grey said, “Grey is on a path of change. Our motto globally is to be “Famously Effective”. To be able to live up to that , we have to continuously up our game on both Strategy and Creative. In keeping with that , we are always on the lookout for key people who can partner us on this path.  Malvika and Amit are exactly that. The chemistry was instant and we are excited about what we can do together.”

He added, “Grey is hungry for new business and with the addition of Malvika and Amit to our team we will offer a compelling reason to clients to give their creative mandate to Grey.”

Said Mehra, “We met Tim Mellors, Grey’s Worldwide creative head and Nirvik Singh, chairman, Asia Pacific. They both seem determined to change Grey’s creative reputation. The fact that Grey’s been steadily increasing their tally at Cannes along with hiring some great people including Ali Shabaz in Singapore and Jay Furby in Sydney is testament to that resolve. What’s more, they have an exciting set of accounts across interesting categories like confectionaries and automobiles that provide us an opportunity to do good work.”

Added Akali, “We understand that just bringing in two people is not going to make a difference. It’s the people in the place and of course its culture that matters. Our partners here, Jishnu and Bindu Sethi are both solid strategic and advertising individuals. And we’re sure they will provide the right platform for the creative teams. Everybody we’ve met at Grey seems determined to provide a culture that’ll allow it to churn out a great creative product.”

Nirvik Singh, chairman, Grey Asia Pacific, said,  “With Malvika and Amit’s creative reputation and the work they’ve been doing in creating effective and award winning campaigns versus award winning scams, we hope to add value to the agency’s creative product.”

Speaking on her resignation, Shalini Dam said, “I have been with Grey since the last ten years and I am now looking for a change.”