Grey India appoints national planning director

India - Grey India has hired Bindu Sethi as its national planning director. Sethi will be based in the agency's Delhi wing and will be working closely with Jishnu Sen, chief operating officer of Grey India.

The position had been lying vacant since Naresh Gupta quit Grey to join Publicis India in early 2008. In the industry for two decades, Sethi comes with a diverse experience in providing brand strategies and solutions. She began her career at the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB), New Delhi as a research trainee, going on to become an executive committee member at Hindustan Thompson Associates (now JWT).

At HTA, Sethi developed and headed the strategic planning department for eight years. She also led the strategic thinking and consumer insight works on popular brands such as Horlicks and Maggi for more than 10 years, making the brands market leaders in their categories. She was also responsible for developing the thinking behind how communication works with rural consumers, which led to the formation of the social communication division of HTA.

In 2002, she shifted to the client side, when she partnered Hindustan Lever Limited as general marketing manager on the personal and hair care portfolios. Sethi has also worked on Unilever's family health brand portfolio, comprising three brands in seven South Asian and Southeast Asian markets.

At Grey, she will focus on building strategic and 360 degree capabilities with the servicing teams, as also build a strategic department to lead the agency with thought leadership.

Sethi said: "The challenge of creating a strategic culture at Grey is attractive and possible since the intent is right. I was pretty clear that I would go back to full time work only if I found a team that would want to do it right - this Grey team is one that wants to do just that."

Sen said: "Improving the quality of our product, both strategic and creative, is one of my highest priorities. To this end, convincing a star like Bindu to join our movement is a coup that will hugely benefit us and our clients."

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