MAM
McCann India appoints Ashish Chakravarty as creative head
MUMBAI: McCann India has a top level change Ashish Chakravarty has returned to McCann Worldgroup as executive director and head of creative, India. He will report to McCann Asia Pacific chairman, McCann Worldgroup India CEO and CCO Prasoon Joshi.
In his earlier stint at McCann India as creative chief of McCann Delhi, he helped build agency’s Delhi office as one of the top leading operations in Delhi market.
He was till recently chief creative officer of WPP’s Contract overseeing creative output of Contract Advertising, iContract, Designsutra, and Core Consulting. He had joined Contract as national creative director in May 2013 from McCann.
Joshi said, “Ashish is a rare breed of creative talent who is backed by solid strategic thinking. He’s constantly rediscovering himself and genuinely interested in creating work with depth and effervescence at the same time. Moreover, he is a great team builder.”
Chakravarty said, “There is a certain degree of familiarity, and fondness that I have for McCann, having spent over a decade there. I enjoyed a fabulous run in my last stint, and it always felt good to see it continue from strength to strength.”
“On a personal note, I have a huge regard for Prasoon, both as a creative leader, and for the person that he is. Our bond runs deep, and we have a quirky chemistry of sorts; one that is maddening, and magical at the same time. And almost always results in some very good work. So, when the opportunity came to get back into the thick of it, and also in a more substantial way than before, I found it hard to resist,” he added.
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.
