Wunderman Thompson South Asia Group announces senior appointments

Nikhil Thakkar has been appointed as VP & Strategic Planning Director in Gurgaon and Antara Dey has joined the Kolkata office as Account Director.

Wunderman Thompson South Asia Group has announced several new appointments to its planning team. Nikhil Thakkar has been appointed as VP & Strategic Planning Director in Gurgaon, Richa Dholi has been appointed VP, strategy planning in Mumbai, and Antara Dey has joined the Kolkata office as account director.

Nikhil comes with 14 years of experience in market research, advertising and brand strategy. He has worked across diverse categories ranging from HFDs, mobility, white goods, home furnishing to tech startups. Nikhil had worked with Wunderman Thompson for 6 years. Prior to joining back has had a stint with Leo Burnett where he led strategy for the Iodex and Airtel accounts.

Richa is the strategy lead on Wunderman Thompson India's Unilever brands in Mumbai, lending her extensive experience in the marketing and digital ecosystem to the businesses. She has honed her strategic thinking and critical insights working with leading FMCG and lifestyle brands at Capgemini, Ogilvy, Lowe, McCann and most recently at India’s very own Twitter, Koo.

Antara comes with 10 years of experience spanning multiple industries and categories. She has done time in the marketing function in organizations such as Matrix Clothing, Trujet Airlines, Tata Steel and Bennett & Coleman. And in her last assignment she has worked with some blue-chip brands spanning categories such as foods, beverages, beauty, e-com and fashion.

Last year, another senior planner, Ayan Banik was appointed at the Kolkata office. With over 20 years of experience across some of the biggest and most respected agencies in the country, Ayan joined as Senior VP Brand Strategy. Working on an enviable repertoire of brands across diverse categories, Ayan was also part of the core team that won the first ever Cannes Glass Lion for both Cheil and Samsung India.

Commenting on the new appointments, Pinaki Bhattacharya, chief strategy officer, Wunderman Thompson India, said, “The agency is an at exciting point in its transformation journey and finding strategists that fit our transformed purpose is a challenging one. We need them to have a robust understanding of brands, of levers of brand growth, of consumer journeys and modern marketing. With a pulse on popular and emerging culture. And above all, they need to be interesting people.

Not an easy mix to find, you would agree! Which is why I am delighted to have Nikhil, Richa and Antara join the strategy team at Wunderman Thompson. In them we have found just the kind of strategists we want. I am looking forward to working with them and to some really exciting work on the brands they are working on.”