Amitesh Rao appointed as CEO of Leo Burnett South Asia

Rao will oversee Leo Burnett India's operations, including Leo Burnett Orchard, across Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, and rest of South Asia.

Publicis Groupe South Asia has announced the appointment of Amitesh Rao as the chief executive officer of Leo Burnett South Asia. He will provide oversight on Publicis Health and Publicis Business.

The role will report into Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia and will work closely with Rajdeepak Das, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe India and chairman, Leo Burnett South Asia.

Rao, with his cross-disciplinary and cross-category experience from various leadership roles, remarkable track record on client businesses and wealth of expertise across technology, data and creativity has been handpicked to lead Leo Burnett South Asia into its next stage of growth and creative ambitions.

An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, Rao comes with more than 25 years of leadership experience across advertising, marketing and technology entrepreneurship in gaming and simulation. He joins from McCann India where he was the executive director, heading North and West Operations.

Prior to this, Rao has also held top positions at TBWA, Rediffusion, and JWT and in his advertising stints worked across markets with marquee clients such as PepsiCo, Airtel, Nestlé, Reckitt, Coke, Mastercard and Nissan.  His marketing and sales experience has been in the Telco and Data space with MTS and RPG.

Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia, said, “We are in an age of constant invention and re-invention and in Amitesh, we found the perfect leader who brings both a thorough appreciation of the power of creativity in building strong brands and an intimate understanding and fluency in diverse languages of technology, gaming, data, and platforms."

Rao added, “I look forward to leading Leo Burnett South Asia in an era where the confluence of technology and creativity is redefining the playing field. I hope to bring new perspective on client businesses, strengthen seamless solutions and look forward to accelerating growth for Leo Burnett and its clients.”

Rajdeepak Das, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe India and chairman, Leo Burnett South Asia, said, “Having built Leo Burnett South Asia  over the last 10 years and making it synonymous with iconic, inspiring creativity that transforms brands and businesses, I am delighted to find in Amitesh a leader who resonates with LB’s ethos and brings with him strong and diverse experience that can take Leo Burnett South Asia to the next level of success and build on the agency’s stellar offerings.”