Dentsu International names Narayan Devanathan as Chief Client Officer for India

Narayan will report into Peter Huijboom, Global CEO Media and Global Clients and interim Co-CEO for India.

As a key part of the dentsu India 2.0 transformation agenda, dentsu international has announced the creation of a new market leadership role of Chief Client Officer (CCO) and elevated Narayan Devanathan to this role for India. Most recently, Narayan was CEO, dentsu Solutions, President, Strategy & Integration, dentsu India, as well as APAC Lead for Strategy & Consulting, dentsu Creative.

While a CEO for dentsu India is being recruited, Narayan will report into Peter Huijboom, Global CEO Media and Global Clients and interim Co-CEO for India.

Narayan will be responsible for driving a renewed focus on client-centric solutions and will partner Amit Wadhwa (CEO – Creative Service Line), Divya Karani (CEO – Media Service Line) and Anubhav Sonthalia (CEO – CXM Service Line) to deliver the best of dentsu’s solutions across the spectrum of business challenges that clients face in an ever-changing world while making our business easier to navigate for our clients.

For the record, dentsu India 2.0 is part of dentsu international’s global journey to transform into the world’s most integrated group by 2024. A key milestone on this journey is to reorganize the network’s 160 brands to six strong global brands (seven for India) – all in the service of providing clients simpler and easier access to the best cross-disciplinary talent to deliver brand and business outcomes.

Speaking on the appointment, Peter Hujiboom said, “India is a key part of the global dentsu story, and Narayan, in turn, is a key member of the India leadership team. As we embark on the next leg of the dentsu India 2.0 journey, he will be focusing his energy, expertise and experience in helping bring together the capabilities of 3200+ dentsu talents seamlessly to make dentsu our clients’ partner of choice. With this appointment as Chief Client Officer for India, Narayan will be moving away from his other roles in India and APAC with immediate effect.”

Narayan Devanathan added, “Transformation is easier said than done, but like integration, it’s a process. What matters most are the outcomes. Through relentless customer-centricity, outcome-driving solutions and next practice consulting, our aim for dentsu India 2.0 is not just to transform ourselves but to transform our clients’ business – sustainably, for good. To this end, we will deploy the power of creativity, a consummate understanding of people and data, and keep our eye on the only prize that matters: meaningful progress for our clients, their customers, and society. To me, this is what my new role as Chief Client Officer means. And this will be my only focus.”