Sourabh Mishra joins Bates as national planning head

Mishra moves in from Saatchi & Saatchi India, where he is chief strategy officer. He will commence his new role in October, 2012.

Bates India has announced that it has taken on board Sourabh Mishra as national planning head and group chief strategy officer. He will commence his new role in October, 2012.

Mishra will be based in Mumbai and lead strategic planning and brand management at Bates across its offices in India. His mandate will be to strongly integrate media and discipline-neutral solutions into Bates' core planning process and practices.

It may be recalled that the agency recently lost its regional planning head, Dheeraj Sinha. It also saw the exit of two of its senior executives, Sonal Dabral (regional executive director and chairman) and Sandeep Pathak (CEO) in January this year.

Mishra says, "I am very excited to be a part of Bates in the current juncture of its journey. Bates' holistic solutions-driven approach and the 'changengage' philosophy represent an opportunity to create solutions for today's fast changing times, driven by engagement ideas that provoke conversations among brands and customers."

Mishra will join Bates from Saatchi & Saatchi India, where he is currently chief strategy officer.

In an official communiqué, Sanjay Thapar, chief executive officer, Bates India, says, "We are excited to welcome Mishra within the Bates fold and have him as part of the leadership team. We have great confidence in his abilities and are privileged to have recruited someone of his calibre into the business."

Mishra, who holds a post graduate diploma in marketing from The Times School of Marketing, started his career as a management trainee with Contract Advertising in 1992, where he worked for seven years. In 1999, he moved to BPL Telecom business group, where he worked for less than a year as senior manager, brand planning.

Subsequently, he joined Ogilvy Bengaluru as planning director in 2000, before moving to McCann Erickson, Bengaluru as planning director in 2001. After a short stint of a year at McCann, he joined Ogilvy's Mumbai office in 2002 at the same position. In 2004, Mishra moved to Everest Brand Solutions as vice-president and national planning director, where he worked till 2007. In between, he had joined Reliance Capital as vice-president, branding, research and planning for five months. In 2007, he joined TBWA as chief strategy officer, before moving to Saatchi & Saatchi in 2009.