The Hindu Business Line : O&M's Sabnavis to head Agency's new wing

Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific has appointed Mr Madhukar Sabnavis to the newly-created position of Regional Director, Thought Leadership, to develop world-class thinking on brands and communications in the Asia region.

The position is the first such appointment among agency networks in Asia.

"Ogilvy in Asia has always been a thought leader in the marketing communications industry," says Mr Miles Young, Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific.

Exciting phase

"Now, as Asia enters the most exciting phase of its history, we have created the post of Regional Director, Thought Leadership.

Mr Sabnavis is well known as one of the best brains in the Indian advertising business and is the ideal choice for this job due to his track record in driving outstanding thought leadership projects within a highly-creative environment."

Great recognition

Mr Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather India said, "This is a great recognition of Madhukar's achievements over the last many years. His contribution to our clients and brands has been significant, and his insights have helped many Creative Directors to produce outstanding work."

Mr Sabnavis has been with Ogilvy India for 18 years, with the last four years heading the brand planning and consumer knowledge discipline in which he led Ogilvy's 20-member Indian planning group to build consumer knowledge bases for brand teams to leverage and initiated brand-concept-related projects.

"What particularly interests and excites me is understanding consumers and culture, and how brands evolve as also making connections between them," he says.