Virat Tandon appointed CEO, Mullen Lintas

Virat Tandon has been appointed CEO and Shriram Iyer has been named national creative director of the newly created agency.

Following the recent announcement regarding the launch of the new creative agency Mullen Lintas, with Amer Jaleel as chairman and CCO, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group has made some more new announcements. Virat Tandon has been named as the CEO, while Shriram Iyer will take charge as NCD for the newly created agency.

It is pertinent to note here that Mullen Lintas officially launches on August 1, and will be headquartered in Mumbai with offices in New Delhi (NCR) and Bengaluru. Speaking of the new agency, Joseph George, Group CEO, Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, says, "India has birthed several big brands over the last two decades. However, for a long time, the top agency brands have remained largely unchanged. Mullen Lintas is a product of the evolving marketing landscape, and with our 'big agency' ambition, we intend to partner brands whose ambitions are driven by a passionate pursuit of leadership, by presenting ourselves as a compelling challenger to the likes of Lowe Lintas, Ogilvy and JWT."

Tandon returns to India after a three year stint with Mullen Lowe Group in Singapore, where he served as global business director for the Unilever brands Lifebuoy and Fair & Lovely. He has been a part of the network for over a decade. He first joined Lowe Lintas in its New Delhi office in 2004 and has undertaken numerous senior leadership roles in the agency over time. He has worked in India on clients including Maruti Suzuki, Nestle, Domino's, Sony Audio, Dabur, NIIT, ITC, GSK, Holiday Inn and AT&T and previously ran Lowe's healthcare agency LinHealth, in India. Prior to joining Lowe Lintas, he worked with WPP agencies Rediffusion, Grey and Contract.

Speaking of this new agency, Tandon says, "Mullen Lintas is born ahead of the curve and intends to remain a mash-up of the enduring and the emerging. Our founding team has the pedigree and the class of massive brand successes under its belt. Big agencies are, today, dealing with the new marketing landscape and adapting their offerings to it. Our advantage is that Mullen Lintas has no such baggage and that allows us to leap-frog this need to change and adapt. We understand that a great brand needs a great narrative that flows seamlessly through screens, experiences, shopping environments and conversations. We will equip ourselves to play a pivotal role for our brands."

Also joining the Mullen Lintas leadership team is Shriram Iyer who takes on the role of national creative director. Speaking about his new role, Iyer says, "A great ambition for the agency and a wonderful team to work with, I am excited about what we can create. Our approach to enriching our capabilities is what we call 'core plus one'. While we continue to practise our core skill-sets, we will commit ourselves to adding people who bring with them a +1 skill or area of expertise. We believe this is critical and makes us 'present ready'."

Currently ECD and creative head for the Delhi offices of Lowe Lintas, Iyer moves to Mumbai in this new role. He has been with the group since 1998 and played various roles in the creative team at Lowe Lintas' Mumbai and Delhi offices. In his recent role, he has been instrumental in the success of clients such as Google, Micromax, OLX, Hero Motocorp, Havells and Maruti Suzuki, among others.

Amer Jaleel, chairman and CCO, Mullen Lintas, adds, "Virat has been a great business partner to me in managing the global mandate on Lifebuoy, and Shriram has been a driving force behind what Lowe Lintas Delhi has achieved in the past few years. I thoroughly enjoy working with both of them and couldn't have asked for better friends to start the Mullen Lintas journey with."

Mullen Lowe Lintas Group (formerly known as Lowe Lintas + Partners) is a marketing communication company of India, and one of the largest country operations of the Mullen Lowe Group (part of the Interpublic Group of Companies).