Cheil Beefs up Creative Team

The agency has made seven new appointments in art and copy.

Cheil Worldwide SW Asia (Cheil India) has appointed seven new members to its creative team. They include Jayant Mathew as group creative director - Art; Varun Goswami as senior creative director - Copy; Joy Sen Gupta as senior creative director - Art; Prashant Sharma as senior creative director - Art; Navajyoti Pegu (Oyio) as senior creative director - Copy; Prasanth G as senior creative director - Art and Ankur Kalita - creative director - Copy.

"This creative infusion will give impetus to our philosophy of ideas that move in creating winning solutions for our clients," says Hari Krishnan, COO, Cheil Worldwide, SW Asia. At Cheil India, Mathew will be partnering Navin Theeng, group creative director - Copy. Both Goswami and Sen Gupta will be working as a team as will be the case with Sharma and Pegu. Prasanth G will be working on brand Samsung for SAARC and Kalita will report to Theeng.

"We are always on the lookout for talent and we have been steadily filling the place with good people at all levels. This time, however, an opportunity presented itself because of which we were able to open our doors to all these guys in a matter of a couple of months," states Nima DT Namchu, chief creative officer, Cheil Worldwide, SW Asia.

Mathew moves from Publicis where he was creative director. He started his career at Contract-Chennai in the '90s and then moved on to Contract-Delhi. He has since worked at Rediff, McCann, Grey, Saatchi & Saatchi and Capital and Publicis. He has worked on campaigns for Epson Printers, NIIT, Virgin Atlantic, India Today, Mastercard, Microsoft, Hyundai and Incredible India, among others. He has also been a recipient of a few awards that include a gold at PATA (Pacific Asian Tourism Awards).

Goswami joins from Lowe Delhi where he was a unit creative director. He started his career over a decade ago as a copywriter with iB&W Communications. Since then, he has been a part of creative teams at agencies such as BBDO India, Contract and JWT. During the course of his career, he has worked on brands such as PepsiCo, AVIVA, Hindustan Times, Nestle and Micromax. His work has received recognition including a Gold at Spikes for AVIVA's Great Wall of Education, half a dozen Creative Abbys, 3 Effies, and Delhi's only Gold at the Mirchi Kaan Awards 2013.

Sen Gupta also moves from Lowe Delhi where he was a unit creative director. In a career spanning 12 years, he has worked with agencies like BBDO India, Contract and JWT, on a host of prestigious brands like Nestle, Airtel, PepsiCo, AVIVA, Micromax, and Hindustan Times. He has received half a dozen Creative Abbys, 3 Effies, a Gold at Mirchi Kaan Awards, and a Gold at Spikes for AVIVA's Great Wall of Education.

Sharma joins from McCann World Group where he was creative director - Art. His professional career spans agencies like Euro RSCG, Contract and Leo Burnett. He has worked under creative professionals like Satbir Singh and Ashish Chakravarty. He has been recognised at Cannes Lions, One Show, Clio Awards, Adfest, New York Festival, Goafest and Adstars. His work has also been featured in The Work and Luerzer's Archive.

Pegu (Oyio) has moved from McCann World Group, where he was creative director. Pegu began his advertising career in 2002 at Leo Burnett, Delhi. He then joined Euro RSCG as a writer and went on to become a senior copywriter. This was followed by Ambience Publicis and then by Contract. He then moved to Havas (then Euro RSCG), as Associate Creative Director under Satbir Singh. In 2009 he joined McCann, under the leadership of Prasoon Joshi and Ashish Chakravarty, where he handled accounts like DishTV, Videocon, ESPN and Blackberry.

Prasanth G joins from JWT he was working as creative director Art, and handled the businesses of Aquafina, Frito Lay, ITC Hotels, Pepsi SONY and Tropicana. He began his advertising career with TBWA Delhi in early 2000. He comes with 14 years of experience in the industry and has worked with agencies such as BATES, Percept H, and A Advertising (now Wieden+Kennedy). Prasanth has won Merit Awards and metals at both international and national Award shows such as ONE SHOW Design,Spikes Asia, Graphis and Goafest.

Kalita has moved from McCann World Group, where he was creative leader in the New Delhi Office. He has worked at Contract, Grey Worldwide and Euro RSCG. Some of the brands he has worked on in the past include NIIT, Domino's, Honda, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, Aircel, Voltas and Max New York Life. Kalita has made the lists at Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia (Gold), Asia-Pacific Adfest (multiple Silvers & Finalist), multiple Abby Awards, and the Effie Awards (Bronze) among others. He has also been part of the jury at the Busan International Advertising Festival (Adstars, Korea).

Cheil set up the agency office in India in 2003 with just 12 team members and today has over 450 team members.