In the last eight days, three top-level executives have quit Dentsu International India. The latest to move on is the company’s South Asia Chief HR Officer (CHRO) Rohit Suri. Multiple sources close to the development have confirmed the news to Storyboard18. Suri was not reachable for comment at the time of filing this story. He joined the Japanese ad network in September 2021.
According to sources close to the development, Suri is joining a major global OTT platform.
Earlier today, Narayan Devanathan, the company’s chief client officer resigned to pursue interests outside the advertising industry. Last week, Sidharth Rao, CEO, dentsuMB Group, announced his departure. A press note sent by the company stated that its India market will be led by key leaders like Divya Karani, Amit Wadhwa and Anubhav Sonthalia. There are several vacant spots in the firm; the network company still has no CEO to run the show in India. Senior executives at Dentsu India are approaching the heads of other networks for jobs, the chief of a leading advertising network said on condition of anonymity.
In our bi-weekly column MC Insider, which was released today, we indicated that an impromptu management meeting was scheduled by Dentsu’s HQ to share a few updates. A mole told us that a high-profile exit was underway (Narayan Devanathan) and there was one more in line (Rohit Suri). Both the news have been confirmed by several industry sources. Storyboard18 was the first to report about the exodus and has been reporting about people developments with a close lens over the last eight months.
The Indian unit of Dentsu Group Inc has been rocked by a series of senior-level exits since August 2021, potentially causing more departures and deepening turmoil at the advertising company. Storyboard18 has learnt that a few more senior-level executives are on their way out.
n March, Storyboard18 had reached out to Wendy Clark, Global CEO, Dentsu International to understand the company’s plans for getting a CEO for the Indian market and the state of business here. We reached out to her again today for comments. There was no response to the questions that were sent by Storyboard18.