Leo Burnett appoints Grey's Dheeraj Sinha as Chief Strategy Officer, S Asia

Leo Burnett has brought on board Dheeraj Sinha as Chief Strategy Officer. He will be based out of the agency’s Mumbai office and will be responsible for planning across South Asia.

In his last role, Sinha had led the strategic planning function for Grey in India, South & South East Asia. In a career spanning 17 years, he has worked with McCann Erickson, Euro RSCG, Bates and Grey.

Confirming the development, Saurabh Varma, Chief Executive Officer – South Asia, Leo Burnett, said, “We are really excited that Dheeraj is joining us at this critical juncture in our evolution as an agency. We have incredible momentum as a team and both Raj and I were in the hunt for a partner. We wanted someone who can join us in our crusade to change the communication narrative in India. With Dheeraj, we hope to get radical convergence around our purpose and radical divergence around how to get there.”

On joining the agency, Sinha said, “There’s great energy around Leo Burnett in India, and I am looking forward to be a part of it and adding to the momentum. In my conversations with Saurabh and Raj, what stands out is their commitment to the product and culture, leading to growth, rather than the other way round. There’s also a serious ambition to create work that’s in line with how the world has changed. They have evidence of having done such work in the recent past. I see this as an opportunity to collaborate and build something that we can all be proud of.”

Sinha has worked on brands and businesses across markets such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh. He has spent time across categories on brands like Sensodyne, Indian Army, Britannia, 3M, ITC Juices, Maybank, Telekom Malaysia, Grameenphone, Reliance Mobile, Colgate, MasterCard, LG, DBS Bank, Tata AIA, TVS, Virgin Mobile, Max Bupa, Fiat, Reckitt Benckiser, Emirates, Dabur, Marico and CavinKare.

He is the author of two books on the Indian consumer market: ‘India Reloaded – Inside the Resurgent Indian Consumer Market’ and ‘Consumer India – Inside the Indian Mind and Wallet’.

He is also a three-time winner of the Atticus Awards and has won several effectiveness awards, including the Jay Chiat Planning Award, the Asian Marketing Effectiveness Award, Yahoo Big Idea Chair APAC Effies and the Effie awards in India.