MAM
dentsu International names Narayan Devanathan as chief client officer for India
Mumbai: dentsu international has announced the creation of a new market leadership role of chief client officer (CCO) and elevated Narayan Devanathan to this position for India. Most recently, Devanathan was dentsu Solutions CEO, dentsu India president of strategy & integration, and dentsu Creative APAC lead for strategy & consulting.
The development is seen as a key part of the dentsu India 2.0 transformation agenda. While a CEO for dentsu India is being recruited, Devanathan will report into global CEO media and global clients and interim co-CEO for India Peter Huijboom.
“India is a key part of the global dentsu story, and Narayan, in turn, is a key member of the India leadership team,” said Hujiboom. “As we embark on the next leg of the dentsu India 2.0 journey, he will be focusing his energy, expertise and experience in helping bring together the capabilities of 3200+ dentsu talents seamlessly to make dentsu our clients’ partner of choice. With this appointment as CCO for India, Narayan will be moving away from his other roles in India and APAC with immediate effect.”
Devanathan will be responsible for driving a renewed focus on client-centric solutions and will partner Amit Wadhwa (Creative Service Line CEO), Divya Karani (Media Service Line CEO) and Anubhav Sonthalia (CXM Service Line CEO) to deliver the best of dentsu’s solutions across the spectrum of business challenges that clients face in an ever-changing world while making our business easier to navigate for our clients.
“Through relentless customer-centricity, outcome-driving solutions and next practice consulting, our aim for dentsu India 2.0 is not just to transform ourselves but to transform our clients’ business – sustainably, for good,” stated Devanathan. “To this end, we will deploy the power of creativity, a consummate understanding of people and data, and keep our eye on the only prize that matters: meaningful progress for our clients, their customers, and society.”
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.
