R/GA Singapore hires JWT’s Sushobhan Mukherjee as planning director

R/GA, which recently opened shop in Singapore, has appointed JWT’s Sushobhan Mukherjee as planning director for that office. The agency has also hired Steve Kalifowitz in the role of group director, production. The two will be central to the office’s leadership and will support MasterCard’s global digital account. They will report to William Charnock, chief strategy officer, and John Antinori, EVP, chief production officer, respectively.

Mukherjee was most recently VP, strategic planning director, at JWT Mumbai. Previous to JWT, he was regional strategic planning director, APAC, at Publicis Singapore. In his previous positions, he worked with companies like Rediffusion DY&R, Discovery Communications, McCann Erickson, Trikaya Grey (now Grey Worldwide), and Mode Research (now TNS, the world’s largest market research firm).

 “Sushobhan is an experienced strategist with a deep understanding of consumers in Asia and the Middle East. His innovative thinking has earned him not only national and international acclaim recognized via industry awards but also the confidence of his clients in his ability to experiment with new, different, and successful approaches to brand building,” said Charnock. “This is exactly the type of strategic capability R/GA is building for our clients—not just in Singapore but all over the world. We are making the bet that strategic excellence in the digital age will involve this combination of innovation and experience epitomized by Sushobhan, one of the best practitioners in the region.”