Ayesha Ghosh joins Wieden+Kennedy India as Managing Director

Ghosh, joins the agency after six years at Taproot Dentsu, where she was CEO, based in Mumbai.

Wieden+Kennedy has today announced the appointment of Ayesha Ghosh as Managing Director for India. Ghosh, who will be based in Mumbai, will partner with Santosh “Paddy” Padhi, CCO of India.

Ghosh, who officially starts at W+K on July 15th, joins the agency after six years at Taproot Dentsu, where she was CEO, based in Mumbai. She joined Taproot in 2016 as General Manager, and after driving considerable business growth + profitability, building out the agency’s design offering, shaping the strategic approach to creative work, and structuring the talent base/agency culture, was promoted to CEO in 2021.

Prior to Taproot, Ghosh was part of the leadership team for Contract Advertising for over a decade, helping build and grow the agency’s presence. Here she worked closely with the consulting and design practices, to help expand sources of growth. Previous to Contract Advertising, she held permanent positions in a number of industry shops including Grey Worldwide, Trikaya Grey and PSL McCann Erickson.

Wieden+Kennedy recently began expanding its presence in India, moving into Mumbai with the hire of Padhi and now Ghosh.

Ghosh commented: “It’s astonishing how W+K consistently produces off-the-charts work, across the world. I hope to absorb some of that genius and with the help of a talented team in India and an ace like Paddy, create some genius of our own. With scattered attention, infinite distractions, only work that is honest and primal, will win for brands. And that’s what we mean to do.”

Santosh Padhi (Paddy) chief creative officer, Wieden + Kennedy, India commented: “I’m glad Ayesha is joining us to be part of this wonderful journey. She is absolutely blunt and honest when it comes to work, which is extremely important these days for our business. Clients too prefer to have conversations that cut to the chase. Ayesha and I have worked closely together for a good number of years at Taproot, we understand and complement each other. An organization is known by the kind of people that work for it and both of us will be focusing on putting together a crazy, talented bunch of people, across departments. And we believe that magic will follow.”

Neal Arthur, Global CEO, Wieden+Kennedy, commented: “Ayesha's first day is a great day for W+K. W+K India has big things ahead. Their collective creative ambition, optimism and connection to both local and global culture will no doubt usher in the next wave of transformation for the brands they work with. We are excited and grateful to have Ayesha with us.”

Current W+K Delhi managing director Gau Narayanan, who is leaving India and W+K to return home to the UK, will stay on in his current role to help with the transition through August.