MAM
Neeraj Bassi to move on from Havas Group India
Mumbai: Havas Group India chief strategy officer Neeraj Bassi has decided to move on from the network. He joined the network in April 2020 and was leading the strategy function.
Bassi, who reports to Havas Group India group CEO Rana Barua, will help in the transition and continue till March 2022, the agency said.
Talking about Bassi’s exit, Rana Barua, said, “It was fantastic working with Neeraj, the last two years. I wish him all the best for his future endeavors.”
Neeraj Bassi added, “I had an enriching experience with Havas Group India over the last two years. As I move on, I would like to wish Rana, Bobby and the entire leadership at Havas Group India all the very best.”
Bassi was formerly with Publicis India, where he headed strategy and was the managing partner. He leverages more than two decades of varied experience across categories, having worked with agencies such as Ogilvy, Wunderman Thompson, McCann and market research networks-TNS, IMRB, NFO in India and overseas.
He has also provided strategic guidance and brand solutions to Unilever, Audi, Cadbury Dairy Milk, BMW, Honda, Asian Paints, Nestle, Philips, HSBC, Adidas, Voltas, Sprite, Max Life, and Dabur among others. Bassi teaches at his alma-mater MICA Ahmedabad.
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.
