MAM
IPG names Philippe Krakowsky as new CEO
KOLKATA: IPG has named Philippe Krakowsky as chief executive officer effective 1 January 2021. Michael I. Roth, the current chairman and chief executive officer will remain in his current role until then and when he will become executive chairman of the Board.
Krakowsky is currently the executive vice president and chief operating officer of IPG and the chairman of IPG Mediabrands, with direct oversight of several IPG companies.
"Philippe is the right CEO for the next era at IPG," said Roth. "He is a brilliant strategist and effective leader who has played a key role in developing our open architecture client service model, as well as modernizing our data, marketing services and media solutions. Our partnership over the years has been a key factor in our long-term success with both clients and our people.”
“Through his multiple experiences running businesses and corporate functions at IPG, Philippe has built an outstanding track record of delivering growth for clients and IPG. In working with him for these past 18 years, I’ve seen first hand that Philippe is a values-driven leader who is well-positioned to lead IPG and our clients into a new era of marketing. He cares about people and leads with his head and his heart,” Roth added.
Roth joined the IPG board in 2002 and chaired its Audit Committee until his appointment as Executive Chairman and co-CEO in 2004, and CEO in 2005. During his tenure as CEO, Roth righted the company’s financial course and made IPG an industry leader through organizational and financial restructuring, building a culture of collaboration, and ensuring IPG remained ahead of its peers through the early adoption of data-centric and digital-first tools across the entire organization.
As a result, in each of the past five years, IPG’s growth rate has outperformed the industry average, and total shareholder return has topped IPG’s peer group over trailing one-, three-, five-, and 10-year periods, marking a reliable level of achievement and progress during a time that saw significant change in the industry with constantly evolving market dynamics.
Roth’s tenure is also highlighted by his commitment and investment towards diversity and inclusion as a cornerstone of the organization. Under Roth’s leadership, IPG made diversity and inclusion a key aspect of how IPG’s leadership team and individual businesses are graded and introduced ambitious goals to create long-term culture change. Since Roth began implementing IPG’s formal diversity and inclusion programs, the company has seen important shifts in its workforce for people of color and women; however, as Roth has consistently said, “There is still much work to be done on this front.”
“Michael’s leadership of IPG has been and continues to be outstanding. He has substantially transformed the company and ushered in a new era of modern marketing solutions," said David Thomas, presiding director of the IPG Board of Directors. "He has taken bold strategic actions to reposition IPG for the future, focusing the company on the right business lines, growing digital and data capabilities organically and through acquisition, all while advancing diversity and employee engagement and setting the industry standard for growth and margin expansion. As Executive Chairman of IPG, Michael will work closely with the Board and with Philippe in his new role and with senior company executives on continuing to manage through changes related to COVID-19 and help shape the future of IPG.”
"Having led one of the great turnarounds in American business, and establishing a strong foundation for its future, Michael has transformed IPG into an industry leader, and the Board is confident that Philippe is the right CEO for IPG’s next phase of continued value creation for all of our stakeholders," Thomas continued. "Working with Michael, our multi-year succession process found in Philippe a leader with empathy, operational and management skills, a respect for talent and a vision for a digital-and-data-first marketing company – all of which will guide IPG at this fast-moving time.”
“Philippe operates at that rare intersection of courage, drive and emotional intelligence. He looks to the future and sets ambitious goals for the company and its leaders – and he succeeds because he is a true collaborator who shares success with the team and uplifts them during the hard days. He’s been a strategic partner to me over the past 18 years, helping make IPG the company it is today,” added Roth.
“It’s an honor to be elected as the next Chief Executive Officer of IPG, and I appreciate the confidence that Michael and the Board have placed in me,” said Krakowsky. “With our people, agency brands, technology companies, and culture, we are uniquely positioned to help our clients solve their toughest business challenges. I am looking forward to working with our fifty-thousand people and all our clients around the world at this unique time, where we are seeing changes in media and consumer behavior accelerate at incredible speed. We have great opportunities ahead to help clients deepen their relationships with their customers, doing so efficiently, creatively and at-scale.”
Krakowsky, 58, is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for IPG, where he works with the CEO to manage business operations across Interpublic. Philippe is also the Chairman of Mediabrands and oversees IPG’s independent companies Acxiom, Carmichael Lynch, Deutsch, Hill Holliday, Huge, Kinesso, Matterkind and R/GA. During his 18 years at IPG, Philippe has also overseen communications, business development, strategy and talent functions, and he remains the Chief Strategy Officer for IPG. Prior to being named COO at IPG, Philippe also held the role of CEO of Mediabrands, leading the 10,500-person unit that oversees marketing investment for many of the world’s most iconic brands. He has served on the boards of several IPG companies, including Huge and the IPG-backed O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul; he mentors start-ups as part of R/GA’s Accelerator; and he served as interim CEO of FCB for much of 2013, during the agency’s leadership transition. Originally from Mexico, Philippe holds an A.B. from Harvard University. He started his career as part of a team that built and ultimately sold an artificial intelligence software company to Apple Computer.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
