Malhotra leaves Ogilvy Mumbai to take up Bates CHI&Partners President & Head of Mumbai role

Asheesh Malhotra has been appointed, President and Head of Mumbai at Bates CHI&Partners.

Malhotra (left) has 18 years in the industry and moves from WPP sister, Ogilvy Mumbai wher he has worked since 2009. His last position as Senior Vice President saw him leading the business on the largest Unilever portfolio – the Beverages division for South Asia. Besides Unilever, he also led the CASTROL lubricants global hub in India, BP corporate and a clutch of Financial businesses –  Bank Of India, SBI Life Insurance and Federal Bank. He is a new business junkie and a significant part of his portfolio is a result of the businesses he had pitched for.

From 2001 to 2009, Malhotra worked at Lowe Mumbai where he headed the Prudential Life Insurance brand since its inception in India. A few years on the business saw him win two Effie silvers (on a hitherto dead serious category like life insurance ), besides contributing in making the brand the number one private life insurer in India for seven years in a row. He also headed the J&J Baby business there.

Malhotra will report to CEO Srikanth VS.  He will work closely with Chief Strategy Officer Sourabh Mishra and Chief Creative Officer Manmohan Anchan (Maac), NCD Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar and other members of the management team, to drive the India growth agenda.

“Asheesh is one of the most talented people in our business today. In particular, he shines at growing existing client relationships and winning new business. His appointment is key to our growth agenda, by demonstrating fully our ability to deliver ‘Big Ideas for Ambitious Brands’,” said V.S. Srikanth.

“Bates CHI&Partners is a true blue new model agency. It breaks the traditional mould of ‘in-house only talent and resources’, and instead practices true collaboration by pulling together the best resources that the world has to offer, especially in the disciplines of digital, social and retail. As a result, we can offer solutions that are designed to break through more quickly, thus saving clients loads of media bucks. Recent interactions with clients have reaffirmed the need for such a nimble and creative agency model.” said Malhotra.