MAM
APG comes to India
MUMBAI: Having made its mark as an acclaimed community of planners and strategists across the globe, the highly celebrated Account Planning Group (APG) is set to formally begin operations in India. Helmed by Sudeep Gohil of Publicis India with support from planners across top agencies, APG will begin its India chapter in the second week of December with an inaugural session that will see acclaimed adman and founder and chairman of Whyness Worldwide, Ravi Deshpande, present a session on culture and creativity.
APG is a membership organisation that promotes smarter thinking. It is headquartered in London and has a presence in multiple markets across the globe. The India chapter will see the coming together of the planning community across leading agencies who together will leverage the power of strategy to solve business problems and transform brands. A core belief of the APG is the importance of equipping planners and strategists with the training and inspiration they need to be bold and rigorous thinkers – to this end, future events will focus on this function.
Publicis India chief strategy officer and managing partner Sudeep Gohil says, “Globally, the APG is a well-established body with a number of countries including UK, Australia, Canada and Germany – successfully running their operations with partner agencies in individual markets. It was surprising that India, despite being the hub where so many great ideas take birth, didn’t have APG to bring together and celebrate achievements of the planning community. That will now be a thing of the past as we have set up a core committee for APG India that will work closely in formulating the core objectives and will also create a platform for people to engage, deliberate and debate. We are thankful to Ravi Deshpande for gracing the inaugural function, and we look forward to hosting similar events on a regular basis across the country.”
The APG is a not-for-profit organisation run for and by its members, primarily account planners in advertising agencies but increasingly the wider community of communications strategists, including media planners, channel planners, digital planners and DM planners.
Ravi Deshpande is a prominent creative leader who currently spearheads Whyness Worldwide, an integrated agency, and Ecole Intuit lab, a French design school, on the same campus. Prior to that, he was at the helm of Contract India, a WPP company as chairman and chief creative officer, leading the agency to over 600 national and international awards as it became India’s premier creative force.
The session will be held at the newly opened MTV@FLYP, Kamala Mills, Lower Parel on 13 December 2017, 6.30 pm onwards.
Brands
Kotak Mahindra Bank appoints Ramesh Iyer to board
Veteran financier replaces Ashok Gulati, who retires in March
MUMBAI: Kotak Mahindra Bank has announced a change to its board of directors, with independent director Ashok Gulati set to retire at the end of his term on 5 March.
The company said it has appointed Ramesh Ganesh Iyer as an additional and independent director for a four-year term, effective 17 February, subject to shareholder approval.
Iyer brings more than four decades of experience in financial services. He spent much of his career at Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, where he served as vice chairman and managing director before taking on the role of president for the financial services sector and member of the group executive board at Mahindra & Mahindra. He retired from the group in April 2024.
During his tenure, Iyer was instrumental in expanding rural and inclusive finance initiatives, scaling the company’s assets and customer base. He also led the creation of subsidiaries in rural housing finance, insurance broking and asset management, and oversaw international joint ventures.
Iyer holds a commerce degree and a doctorate of letters, and currently serves on the boards of several listed and unlisted companies.
The board meeting approving the changes was held in Mumbai on February 17 between 6.30 pm and 6.50 pm.
