Sandeep Madan to join Ogilvy Africa as MD

Since Ogilvy Africa handles the Airtel account for the region, Madan's prior experience on the brand was a perfect fit with the agency's requirements.

Sandeep Madan is following Airtel to Africa. As the head of Rediffusion Y&R's Delhi branch, Madan was closely associated with this homegrown telecom brand for more than three years, until the business was shifted to JWT last year. Subsequently, Madan quit Rediffusion in January this year.

However, he will now work on brand Airtel in Africa. The telecom giant bought over Zain Telecommunications in June 2010, which marked its entry into 15 countries of the continent. The brand was launched in this market in October 2010. Ogilvy Africa, which handled the Zain Telecommunications' business, was awarded the Airtel brand as well.

As someone who has been hands-on with the Airtel business, Madan was a perfect fit and will join Ogilvy Africa as the managing director by the end of this month. He will be based in Kenya.

Madan holds a diploma in communication arts (advertising and media) from Hansraj College, Delhi, as well as a certificate in business management from XLRI. He has over 15 years of experience in communication management.

He has worked with agencies such as Publicis India as senior vice-president and McCann Erickson as client services director. He has also worked with Enterprise Nexus (now Bates 141) and Black and White Communications.

Apart from Airtel, some of the brands he has worked on are Hewlett Packard India, HCL Toshiba, General Motors India, Skoda Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Perfetti India, Aviva Life Insurance and Metlife India.