Cheil's Hari Krishnan moves to ZenithOptimedia as MD

He takes charge of Zenith's pan-India operations.

Zenith Optimedia (ZO) Group has appointed Hari Krishnan as managing director, ZenithOptimedia India. Based out of Gurgaon, he takes charge of ZO's pan-India operations. He moves in from Cheil Worldwide SW Asia where he was chief operating officer.

Says Anupriya Acharya, group CEO, ZO, "Hari's appointment is in line with our strategic choice of getting diverse talent on board to accelerate our transformation agenda. The market and marketers are evolving fast to keep up with the convergence in the marketplace and the changing, more complex, consumer journeys. Hari's rich experience in brands and integrating different verticals will add immense value to our clients."

Speaking on his appointment, Krishnan states, "The consumer journey is ever-evolving and brands are getting challenged on an hourly basis. ZO is right now at a place where the next level of possibility is being invented. Not many agencies take bold steps like this and I am glad to work among people who are embracing new thinking, new perspectives and new ideas."

Krishnan has spent over 22 years in advertising agencies like Bates, Ogilvy, Grey, and JWT and worked across product categories on various brands like Samsung, PepsiCo, Vodafone and Nokia. He led WPP's first co-located, integrated set-up for Ford in India, the Blue Hive, by bringing together separate teams from JWT, Mindshare and Wunderman Digital.

Subsequently he joined Cheil as COO where he was part of the massive growth and integration journey - from 135 people to 480; capability expansion from ATL to digital, activation, visual merchandising and retail. He also worked closely with Lodestar UM to set up a joint Cheil-Lodestar operation. Under his leadership, Cheil also added quite a lot of new businesses.

ZO Group's client list in India includes Nestle, OLX, Micromax, LVMH Group, Honda, Uninor, Jabong, Yatra, Toshiba, Viber and Fabfurnish. Through Resultrix, it also handles the digital duties of MaxBupa, ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Star India, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Tata AIG Life Insurance, Musafir, and Games 24X7, among others.