Mumbai : Shiv Sethuraman, Chief Executive Officer at Percept One, has quit just six months after taking over the job. “Something really exciting and challenging has come up that I wish to pursue,” said Sethuraman, who was CEO at TBWA India Group before joining Percept earlier this year. “Percept was a short but enjoyable journey,” he said. Percept One is the integrated marketing and communications division of the company.
Sethuraman was brought in with the mandate to integrate all marketing and communications businesses of Percept. Sanjay Shukla, CEO at Percept Sports & Entertainment, will now have the additional task of handling Percept One. “Currently, Percept One needs integration and growth which he can handle till we recruit someone from the advertising industry to drive the business,” said Harindra Singh, founder, vice-president and managing director of Percept. Shukla has no advertising background.
Sethuraman joined TBWA India in 2008 from Ogilvy Paris, where he was managing director since 2005. Before that he was vice-president at Ogilvy’s Mumbai office. Singh said Percept’s marketing communications business is growing faster than the industry average and “it needs a senior leader who can drive growth”.
He spends more time on building the company’s live business that owns five intellectual properties including electronic dance music festival Sunburn, because “in India there is no standard operating procedure for the IP business and therefore it requires an entrepreneurial approach and more time”.
