Mumbai: Pinaki Bhattacharya has been appointed as the National Planning Director, J. Walter Thompson India.
Pinaki has been with J. Walter Thompson for over 6 years now and in his last role as Senior Vice President and Executive Planning Director, he has been the planning lead on many of the marque brands in the Delhi office.
With over 20 years of experience, Pinaki has worked across diverse categories such as Food & Beverages, Nutrition, Confectioneries, Technology, Automobile and Durables. Besides building brands and creating winning solutions for brands, Pinaki is a fabulous team leader and mentor to young planners.
In his role as NPD, Pinaki along with Mythili Chandrasekar (National Planning Director) will work closely with Bindu Sethi- Chief Strategy Officer to champion the just launched, new J Walter Thompson way of working – The Pioneering Process”.
With the relentless urge to offer unique and effective growth strategy to brands, JWT aims at encouraging interactive, exciting and collaborative ways to produce brand solutions that meaningfully connect with people.
Announcing Pinaki’s appointment, Tarun Rai, CEO, J. Walter Thompson South Asia said; “The planning function has always been J Walter Thompson’s strong suit. After all, we invented the planning function in New York, way back in 1968. With so much disruption in just about every aspect of marketing and communication, Planning as a function assumes even greater importance today. The focus of JWT Planning is on solving our clients’ business problems and our new collaborative process – The Pioneering Process – seeks to do just that. It gives me great pleasure to announce Pinaki’s new role as a National Planning Director. Bindu Sethi, our Chief Strategy Officer, now has two senior colleagues in, Mythili and Pinaki to lead the largest team of planners in India.”
“Pinaki is a real asset to the team. There are a few senior planners in India who are able to bring consumer insight into category and brand solution thinking. Mythili adds dimension to our trio by bringing a unique creative edge into the planning thinking process.” says Bindu Sethi, Chief Strategy Officer.
“It’s been six wonderful years of working on and learning from some of the most exciting brands and interesting categories. The new role gives me a wider canvas of brands and people that I hope to influence and help grow. Taking on new roles and challenges that are otherwise daunting seem easier when you are at JWT because of the wonderful and absolutely top class teams and leaders that one is surrounded by- both, within the agency and in our client organisations.”, said Pinaki Bhattacharya, National Planning Director, J Walter Thompson India.
Outside of work, he tries to find time to interact with and share his experience with students of management across different Institutes. He also is a keen follower of political developments around the world and a cricket buff.