Creative ad legend Piyush Pandey promoted to the global chief creative officer role at Ogilvy

December 6 2018, 12:20 am | BY Kim Shaw | 1 Comment

Ad legend Piyush Pandey has been promoted to the global chief creative officer at Ogilvy, months after the departure of Tham Khai Meng, who was fired following an internal investigation.

Pandey (left), who will take up the new role in January, is currently Executive Chairman and Creative Director of Ogilvy South Asia and will retain that position but will also be tasked with overseeing the creative product of the global Ogilvy network. He will remain based in Mumbai.

Says John Seifert, chief executive, Ogilvy Worldwide: “We could not be more thrilled that Piyush will be serving as our chief creative officer, worldwide and my creative partner.

“Piyush is a true industry icon who is uniquely suited to lead our global creative efforts. Creativity has and will always be at the heart of the Ogilvy brand and culture. He is the perfect leader to shepherd that legacy as we continue to focus on making brands matter as the leading creative network in the world.”

The legendary Pandey, who, together with his brother Prasoon, was honoured with the Lion of St Mark in Cannes this year, joined Ogilvy over three decades ago. He has held various positions since then including creative director at Ogilvy Mumbai and executive chairman for Ogilvy India and South Asia.

In additional news, Ogilvy also announced that it will expand its Worldwide Creative Council from 12 members to 20; the 20 members, of which half will be comprised of female creative leaders, will be announced in January of 2019.

Pandey’s appointment and the corresponding Worldwide Creative Council expansion is the next step in the execution of Ogilvy’s Next Chapter transformation. The agency remains focused on accelerating the diversity within its creative ranks, through both external recruitment and more dedicated internal talent development and network mobility. At last year’s Cannes Lions, Ogilvy announced its commitment [in partnership with the 3% Movement] to recruit 20 senior women in creative globally by 2020, and it is proud to have taken a big step towards that goal.

In corresponding creative talent news, Joe Sciarrotta becomes Deputy Chief Creative Officer, Worldwide, reporting to Piyush Pandey and John Seifert. Sciarrotta will continue to lead creative work assignments for several of our top 50 clients while taking on new duties at the worldwide creative level.