Mike Follett, senior vice president, strategy and planning, DDB Mudra is moving on from the agency. Follett, who joined DDB Mudra eighteen months back, is moving to join London based agency The Red Brick Road. He will be leading planning on the Tesco account.
Confirming the news, Follett said, “I’m sad to be leaving India. I’ve helped build DDB Mudra in the last 18 months and it’s been the single best job in my career. However, it’s been difficult for my wife to find a job in India and in the end, this was a personal decision I had to make. India has been a wonderful experience, and I am happy that I was able to contribute in helping to shape and form a new agency like DDB Mudra.”
Talking about his next assignement, Follett said, “Friends of mine at The Red Brick Road offered me this opportunity and I am looking forward to it.”
Madhukar Kamath, MD and CEO, Mudra Group said, “Mike is one of the finest minds in the business, he’s an extremely good planner and trainer and we are going to miss him a lot. He got the concept of India and he understood cultural nuances incredibly fast which is not something that one usually sees. He has never looked upon himself as an expat. However, we understand that he has to leave for personal reasons and we respect that decision. We are hopeful that he may decide to come back to India at some point in the future and if that happens, our doors are always open.”
Kamath said the agency was not going to announce Follett’s replacement immediately. “We have identified a planner but we will take a while to make the announcement,” he added.
Follet had joined the agency in late 2009 from Tribal DDB, New York where he was head of planning for North America. Prior to that, he was with DDB London for seven years. At DDB Mudra, Follett was leading planning for the agency’s four units, DDB Mudra, RAPP India, Tribal DDB India and Mudra Health and Lifestyle.
