Cheil Worldwide appoints Rahul Nanda as SVP - new business, digital

He will lead the growth and expansion of the agency's integrated media offering.

Cheil Worldwide SW Asia (Cheil India) has appointed Rahul Nanda as senior vice president " new business, digital. Nanda, moves from digital agency Webchutney where he was partner & president, until its sale to Dentsu India.

A digital domain specialist, Nanda comes with 19+ years of experience and expertise across various sectors including digital marketing, application development, mobile communications and DTH including an ISP. He will report to Rajesh Bhatia and lead the growth and expansion of the agency's integrated media offering as well as enhance its internal digital capabilities.

Confirming the appointment, Hari Krishnan, COO, Cheil Worldwide, SW Asia says, "Cheil India is growing exponentially and with digital being a key quotient for new business acquisition, Rahul's coming on board reflects this momentum. I am positive that his entrepreneurial genius will work in furthering our digitally-integrated vision."

"With the scale and skill of our digital offering today, I believe, we are rightly positioned to aggressively take our proposition to a much wider audience base. And we needed someone of the stature and pedigree of Rahul to fulfill that agenda," notes Rajesh Bhatia, SVP & head Digital, Cheil Worldwide, SW Asia.

Commenting on his joining, Nanda says, "I find this new role to be about future-proofing the agency and creating a truly 'digitally-integrated' agency." Nanda started his career with the National Informatics Centre as a Management Analyst, during the early Internet days in India. He then joined Avaya GlobalConnect as Head of eBusiness and looked after the India, APAC & Australia operations.

As partner & president of Webchutney, he handled a variety of responsibilities. These included finance, HR, administration, IT, client servicing and business development. He worked with major clients like Airtel, Barclays and HP. Prior to the Dentsu sell-off, he started the agency's mobile initiative focusing on mobile apps and games and VAS content.

Aside of his work schedule, Nanda is a guest lecturer at business schools such as ISB, 9.9 SoC, FMCC, Amity and LBSIM. He has also been a presenter and panelist at numerous digital media conferences and forums like iMedia, TiE, E4M, Google, Gov2.in events. He has also been a Mentor at the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), an IIM Ahmedabad initiative.