Breaking news: TBWA names Lowe's Rahul Sengupta as NCD

TBWA India has picked Lowe Worldwide's executive creative director Rahul Sengupta (pictured, right) as its national creative director. Sengupta, best known for work on brands like Bajaj and ICICI, will come on board TBWA India from November 3 as he finishes pending projects at Lowe. Post the buyout by Omnicom of the stakes of the Indian promoters, TBWA has been on the hunt for a national creative director.

Speaking to Campaign India, Shiv Sethuraman, CEO, TBWA India (pictured, left) said, "I was looking for some specific qualities in the kind of person who would lead TBWA India creatively. I wanted someone who had a proven track record of working on big brands. Among the people that I met, there were very few people who had done big sustainable campaigns for big clients on a pan India basis. That quality struck me while going through Rahul's portfolio. His work on brands like indya.com, Bajaj two wheelers, Tanishq, ICICI were all testimony to this." He added, "I was keen to hire an NCD who could creatively partner me in building the next level of TBWA. Rahul has that ambition."

Talking about his new assignment, Sengupta said, "With Shiv coming on board, it seemed like a young set-up. When I accepted the offer, I knew the agency was on the eve of change. But the overriding factor that made up my mind was the presence of like-minded people and brands that give one the canvas to do great work." Asked whether he would be looking to hire former colleagues, Sengupta replied, "The temptation is huge given the shortage of talent in the industry. It's generally been a tradition to build your team in that way but it also depends on the requirements at TBWA."

"In the long term, the way ahead would be to set up a long term creative vision for the company. In the short term, we need to identify the low hanging fruits and go after them in a focused manner. With Rahul coming on board and subsequent to the last few weeks of moves that we have made, I think the creative leadership of the organization is complete," said Sethuraman.