Gautam Mehra promoted to Chief Data & Product Officer Asia Pacific at Dentsu International
Dentsu International announces the promotion of Gautam Mehra to Chief Data & Product Officer Asia Pacific, with the objective of building a strong and unified APAC data and product offering across the network.
Based in Mumbai Mehra will report to Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle APAC. The role will take effect immediately.
Most recently Chief Data Officer and CEO of Dentsu Programmatic for South Asia, Mehra was responsible for driving the data quotient in the market both internally and with clients. Notably, he led the creation of Dentsu’s proprietary adtech product, the Dentsu Marketing Cloud ecosystem – a cohesive system that brings together a slew of Dentsu proprietary ecosystems such as the Facebook Marketing Partner (Ad-Tech) Badged DMC Explore, Dentsu Play, Dentsu TrueValue and other proprietary mar-tech tools used in over 32 markets globally. He has also led the unification of the Data Sciences and Amnet teams to create Dentsu Programmatic, the leading programmatic player in India today.
Mehra started his career 20 years ago with his entrepreneurial venture, which was one of the first Web Development firms in India. Over the years, he did several stints in digital advertising working with the top brands in the country such as Viacom, Government of India, Standard Chartered Bank and Microsoft. In 2013, he joined Dentsu following the acquisition of Communicate2 and led the Social & Display businesses of iProspect, the leading performance marketing and search agency of the country. Subsequently in 2016, he took on the role of Chief Data Officer for South Asia and has driven the groups data narrative in the sub-region.
Ashish Bhasin, Dentsu Asia Pacific CEO, said: “Data is central to our business strategy and the ability to handle data well and utilize it to its full capacity is critical in fine tuning way of reaching, interacting, and causing a reaction from the consumers; it ensures advertising efforts are in the right direction.”
“Having Gautam drive this data agenda for us is crucial in the era of data explosion. He has earned a reputation of developing and delivering highly innovative data-led initiatives while embodying the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurism. This is a well-deserved promotion and I look forward to working closely with him,” Bhasin added.
Zhengda Shen, President of Merkle APAC, said: “Organizations are constantly challenged to evolve with agility and speed and adapt to ever changing consumer dynamics. Providing leadership for clients by integrating data, media, content and technology to navigate through this shifting landscape is a critical function of agencies. Gautam’s track record for driving innovations and developing globally scaled solutions makes him perfectly placed to help our clients in the region and to ensure that dentsu international continues to lead through innovation.”
Mehra said: “There are almost no limits to what we can uncover by studying consumer behavior and their interplay with brands. I’m excited to apply my leadership, knowledge, and experience in delivering globally adopted tech driven products and solutions to further the data-driven culture of dentsu international and to build the practice across APAC, further cementing our dominance in this area within the region in using cutting edge technology to solve everyday client challenges.”