MAM
Commonwealth appoints Rajesh Mani as ECD
MUMBAI: Commonwealth, the global JV between McCann Erickson Worldwide and Goodby Silverstein & Partners, has appointed Rajesh Mani as the executive creative director.
Mani moved in from Leo Burnett, where he was working in the same capacity.
McCann Worldgroup South Asia president Prasoon Joshi said, “I am pleased that Rajesh Mani is a part of Commonwealth. He has tremendous experience and talent which will further strengthen the operation. I am positive that Rajesh will be instrumental in creating and delivering stellar quality work.”
Mani brings in over 12 years of experience in the advertising industry. Prior to joining Leo Burnett in 2011, he was with Ogilvy for five years. Besides Leo Burnett and Ogilvy, he has also worked with Temple Advertising in Bangalore and Triton Communications in Mumbai.
Mani added, “Leo Burnett was a leap of faith and at Ogilvy I worked on one of the best brands in the country – Vodafone. Commonwealth offered an exciting prospect of working on one of the biggest car brands in the world at a global level and a rare opportunity to interact and imbibe from the best in the business – Prasoon Joshi, Jeff Goodby, Linus Karlsson and Washington Olivetto. On a global platform like Commonwealth, it is important to understand the finer points of cross-cultural communication challenges and pegging ideas on simple human truths that are geography agnostic. That said I think it‘s adrenaline time!”
At Ogilvy, he had partnered Ogilvy India ECD Rajiv Rao in creating the popular Blackberry Boys version 1 and penned the Blackberry boy‘s song. He has also done some acclaimed films like Hutch callertunes, Vodafone 60P/minute film and was also part of the core team that launched zoozoos.
At Leo Burnett he led the creative mandate for Tata Capital, HDFC Life and Bajaj Electricals.
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.
