Bates loses Dheeraj Sinha

The development comes a day after the announcement of Sanjay Thapar's appointment as chief executive officer for Bates India.

Dheeraj Sinha, regional planning director, Bates India, has put in his papers at the agency. afaqs! has learned the news from highly placed sources in the industry on grounds of anonymity. Apparently, an internal mail has been sent across to the team to announce his exit.

The development comes a day after the announcement of Sanjay Thapar's appointment as chief executive officer for Bates India. Prior to joining Bates, Thapar served as head, North, Ogilvy India.

It may be recalled that Bates saw the exit of two of its senior executives - Sonal Dabral (regional executive director and chairman) and Sandeep Pathak (CEO) in January this year.

Before joining Bates in 2005, Sinha was at Euro RSCG. He has also worked for McCann Erickson.

Last year, Sinha launched his first book, 'Consumer India: Inside the Indian Mind and Wallet'. He has won several effectiveness awards, including the Jay Chiat Planning Award, the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Award, as well as the Effy Award.

An alumnus of Delhi University and MICA, Sinha has worked across categories including telecom, finance, FMCG, media, automotive, consumer durables, information technology, tourism and food businesses.

Some of the brands that Sinha has worked closely on, in terms of brand strategy, include Colgate, Fiat, Virgin Mobile, MasterCard, LG, Reckitt Benckiser, AIG, DBS, TVS Motorcycles, Max Bupa, Marico, Dabur and Cavin Kare.

Sinha's next destination is unknown at the moment.