MAM
Art forms influence advertising: FCB Ulka’s new NCD Mahendra Bhagat
MUMBAI: FCB Ulka Group has appointed Mahendra Bhagat as the national creative director. Bhagat will be based in Bengaluru and will support all FCB Ulka’s south India offices. Mahendra was earlier with JWT Mumbai as the vice president and creative head.
FCB Ulka CEO Nitin Karkare said, “Mahendra is a heady mix of creative, business acumen [he headed an office for a few years] and team building”.
FCB Ulka CCO Swati Bhattacharya said, “By his own admission, Advertising is his first love and he couldn’t stay away from it too long. Mahendra is a powerhouse of talent”.
Speaking on his new role, Bhagat said, “Advertising has always been influenced by other art forms, from cinema, literature, theatre, folk art to paintings, installations etc…in my second innings I would like to bring in some new practices that I followed while exploring art in its pure form”.
In his last assignment, he created some landmark work for brands like Times of India, Kellogs, Rin, Nakshatra Jewelry and Godrej Appliances amongst others. Before JWT, Mahendra has worked in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Delhi with SSC & B, Enterprise, Clarion and Lintas, providing creative partnership to giants like Titan, ITC and Bajaj Auto. He has many national and international awards to his credit including Cannes, Clio, New York Festival, London Festival as well as AME (Advertising & Marketing Effectiveness) and has been on the jury of most prestigious Advertising festivals including the New York Festival.
MAM
WPP appoints Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer
Former Estée Lauder executive to lead operations, technology and culture overhaul under WPP’s three-year growth plan
LONDON: WPP has appointed Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer in a newly created role tasked with delivering the group’s Elevate28 strategy.
Choueiri joins from The Estée Lauder Companies, where she led enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, including the “One ELC” operating model and major upgrades to enterprise marketing, data and analytics capabilities. She also led the redesign of enterprise technology teams and served on the company’s AI taskforce, driving AI strategy, adoption and value realisation across the business.
At WPP, she will be responsible for designing, implementing and embedding the operating model behind Elevate28, the company’s three-year growth plan unveiled in February 2026. She will lead efforts to improve innovation, efficiency and integration across WPP’s client offerings, with a focus on delivering agile, outcome-driven solutions and measurable growth.
Choueiri will oversee organisational transformation across the group, working closely with product and enterprise technology teams to deploy AI, data and technology to build new capabilities and improve operational performance. She will also work with the people function to embed cultural change, strengthen an agile performance mindset and support talent development across the organisation.
Before joining Estée Lauder, she held senior roles across consulting and digital agencies, including at Accenture, Masaï (a Bain & Company spin-off), and Kearney, with experience spanning strategy, data and digital marketing transformation.
Cindy Rose, chief executive officer of WPP, said Choueiri brings a strong track record of leading large-scale transformation across operations, technology and culture, adding that her appointment will help accelerate the group’s next phase of growth under Elevate28.
Choueiri said WPP’s strategy represents an ambitious opportunity to reshape how the company operates and delivers for clients, adding that she looks forward to building integrated solutions and fostering a culture of innovation and change.
She will be based in New York and will join WPP’s executive committee.
