MAM
Cheil ropes in Dentsu’s Naresh Gupta as national head, planning
MUMBAI: Cheil has appointed Naresh Gupta as national head, planning. This position was previously unoccupied. He will report to Cheil Worldwide South West Asia COO Agrawal.
“Naresh‘s experience, depth of consumer knowledge and approach to planning will serve Cheil well. Naresh has many accolades under his belt. I am delighted to have him on board,” said Alok Agrawal.
Prior to joining Cheil, Gupta was director strategic planning at Dentsu Marcon India.
Gupta stated, “There is a new model of communication companies that is emerging in India. They are holistic in their approach and with a greater degree of integration across disciplines. Cheil is leading this change. It is a great opportunity to be in Cheil at this time and drive the change”.
Gupta began his career with Mudra‘s research agency, Samir in 1998. With approximately 21 years of experience in the media industry, he has also worked with agencies including Publicis, Grey and Contract.
Gupta worked with Dentsu for approximately one year, where he worked on campaigns for Honda and Tata Power among others.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
