Vikas Mehta, ex Mullen Lintas CEO, to be the new Ogilvy Africa CEO

BY NEETA NAIR

Vikas Mehta, who recently stepped down from the role of Chief Executive Officer of Mullen Lintas has confirmed to exchange4media that he will be joining Ogilvy Africa as the CEO. Mehta will be based in Nairobi (Kenya) and shall be working closely with Bharat Thakrar, CEO WPP Scangroup Africa (based in Nairobi) and Paul O'Donnell - CEO, Ogilvy EMEA (based in London). His role will be to bring the One Ogilvy offering (advertising, direct, digital, PR and influence) to life and further strengthen the agency's equity and business across the continent. Mehta will be looking after Ogilvy’s growth and business in the 28 countries in the African continent.

The transition is currently on and he shall formally join the company in December, 2019. Elaborating on his new role, Vikas Mehta says, “I have thoroughly enjoyed working in Developing and Emerging (D&E) markets across Asia and more recently, in India. Africa is the logical next step in the D&E world with immense opportunity. With Ogilvy's scale, depth and dominance in that region, it felt like the right time and the right network where I could contribute. At a personal level, it's a part of the world I know very little about. So the opportunity to immerse in so many new countries and cultures, simultaneously, is really exciting for the practitioner in me.”

Talking about the Mullen Lowe Lintas Group, the agency network he has been a part of for close to 15 years Vikas Mehta adds, “MullenLowe Group has been really kind to me and has given me very interesting roles to play in different countries in all these years.”

Mehta has a career spanning over two decades and he joined the Global MullenLowe Group in 2006. At the age of 31, he was named managing director – Lowe Vietnam, making him the youngest country head in the global network. In 2011, he was named regional growth officer for Lowe Asia-Pacific, where he managed businesses/agencies working across 15 countries. In 2013, Mehta returned to India as Group Chief marketing officer (CMO) for MullenLowe Lintas Group as the first ever agency CMO in Indian advertising. He also founded the Group’s omni-channel creative agency, PointNine Lintas in 2017. More recently, in 2019 he was appointed as the CEO of Mullen Lintas.

Ogilvy Africa is the largest network agency in Africa with offices in 24 countries and 900 employees across Central, East and West Africa. The agency, which has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, is the one of the most awarded integrated communications network in Africa. Some of the recent awards Ogilvy has won include 4 Cannes Lions, 5 Africa Gold Sabre awards, a Grand Clio award and 12 Grand Prix awards at the Dubai Lynx Festival. Ogilvy Africa handles Pan-African communication for various global and African brands including Airtel, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Safaricom, Equity Bank Group, Diageo and more.

Tags : Mullen Lintas Ogilvy Africa Vikas Mehta Bharat Thakrar Paul O'Donnell