The Hindu Business Line : Bates CEO Agarwal resigns

MR Rajiv Agarwal, Managing Director & CEO of Bates India, has resigned. He has put in his papers for the second time to Mr Ranjan Kapur, Country Manager, WPP.

Prior to joining Bates, Mr Agarwal had had an eight-month stint with rmg David, another WPP group company.

Mr Kapur has been additionally designated as the Non-Executive Chairman of the group to facilitate the integration of Bates India into the WPP fold.

Without explaining the reasons behind his sudden departure, Mr Agarwal told Business Line, "I have no comments to make. Right now I am in Delhi and on vacation. But I still have a lot of advertising left in me."

Meanwhile, a press release, sent out earlier by Bates India, quotes Mr Agarwal as stating, "I am sad at the thought of leaving Bates. As much as I will miss them, I am privileged to have spent my 25th year in advertising at Bates India, and with them."

The board of Bates India has accepted Mr Agarwal's decision to leave and his replacement would be announced shortly.

Meanwhile, Mr Ujjal Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, Bates India, would continue to coordinate the day-to-day affairs of the agency.

The release also states that Mr Agarwal would be missed in the organisation specially due to "the passion that he brought to the business and for his contributions to strategy and creative evaluation."

Mr Agarwal joined Bates in February 2003 and witnessed the agency changing hands from Publicis to WPP. He played an important role in maintaining Bates' individual entity even after acquisition by WPP.

Mr Agarwal started his career with Rediffusion, and then moved on to set up Enterprise with Mr Mohammed Khan. After that, he headed to set up another new agency, Nexus, and then came back to Enterprise-Nexus once again.