Havas Creative Group India appoints Debopriyo Bhattacherjee as EVP & Planning Head – North

He will be based out of the Gurgaon office and will be reporting to Neeraj Bassi, Chief Strategy Officer, Havas Group India.

Havas Creative Group India has announced the appointment of Debopriyo (Debo) Bhattacherjee as EVP & Planning Head – North, effective immediately. In his new role, Debo will be responsible for providing strategic guidance to Havas Creative with a special focus on all brands of Reckitt and a portfolio of brands from the Dabur stable. He will also be spearheading many leading clients like Suzuki, Norton, Fortis, William Grants, ITC and working closely with the Senior Leadership team to drive new client acquisitions and ensuring seamless adoption of the process of integration and collaboration across the group.

Debo is a strategic planner with 17 years of work experience. He has worked with reputed agencies in India and Southeast Asia such as Ogilvy, Dentsu, DDB and McCann to name a few. He also served as the Head of Strategy Planning for over three years in Havas at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His expertise lies in solving business problems by sparking and nurturing creative possibilities. During his storied career, he has worked on a multitude of blue-chip accounts, namely, Unilever, Danone, Mondelez, L’Oréal, Coke, Mitsubishi, Toyota, Diageo, SABMiller, Carlsberg, Maxis, AXA, ICICI, PETRONAS and Tesco, among others.

Manas Lahiri, President – Havas Creative Group India, said, “Havas Gurgaon has had an amazing momentum in the last few years. And we now have some fantastic brands that require a senior strategic professional with multi-industry experience. Debo has both the experience and knowledge of handling brands across a wide range of categories. He has been part of the Havas network earlier and understands the culture of Integration that Havas offers to its clients. His unique perspectives and ideas will undoubtedly increase our abilities to produce interesting work for our client portfolio.”

Commenting on the appointment, Neeraj Bassi, Chief Strategy Officer, Havas Group India, said, “I am delighted to welcome Debo onboard. He brings a lot of value to the team because of his passion for understanding customer concerns and finding creative solutions to business problems. I’m confident that his strategic planning skills will help us continue to achieve our goal of making brands more meaningful.”

“I’m thrilled to join Havas Village Gurgaon and spearheading the planning for our key office in creative. For me, it is a homecoming to a network that I admire, and especially in India, it’s currently one of the most talked-about agencies with a tremendous momentum and an interesting mix of marquee clients in its portfolio. So, with the change in consumer behaviour specially post the pandemic, the endeavour will be to keep working on creating differentiated strategies for all the leading brands of Reckitt, Dabur, Suzuki and many others. I’m looking forward to working with the dynamic team of Havas Village India,” said Debo.

Debo is an alumnus of Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, New Delhi. It’s a passion that stimulates Debo to constantly develop his understanding of people and triggers a keen interest in unearthing conflicts and dilemmas we face in our lives. Debo loves taking long walks and enjoys clicking photos of things that make him take a second look.