Prashanth Challapalli elevated to COO for Leo Burnett Orchard

The Leo Group has elevated Prashanth Challapalli as the Chief Operating Officer for Leo Burnett Orchard. In his new role, he will report to Dheeraj Sinha, Managing Director – India & Chief Strategy Officer – South Asia, Leo Burnett, and Rajdeepak Das, Managing Director – India & Chief Creative Officer, South Asia, Leo Burnett.

Prashanth has been an integral part of the Group since the last 18 months as the Chief Integration Officer for Leo Burnett South Asia, driving the integration agendafor key clients such as Google, P&G, McDonald’s and TVS Motorcycles. He is one of the rare professionals who has the experience of running both mainline advertising-led and digital-led businesses. Out of his 20 years’ experience, he spent the first 11 years in agencies such as Ogilvy, Lowe, Y&R, Dentsu & Publicis Ambience handling brands like Lakme, Fair & Lovely, Pepsodent, FedEx, Marico, Tetley and Exide. In 2009, he started Jack in the Box Worldwide, one of the most awarded digital agencies in India with campaigns like Kolaveri, Pepsi IPL and 7Up to its credit. He then ran iContract for 4 years winning big brands like Google, YouTube, Amazon, Kindle, Dettol, Durex, Vaseline, Hotstar and Kissan, amongst others.

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Welcoming Prashanth to his new mandate, Dheeraj Sinha, Managing Director – India & Chief Strategy Officer – South Asia, Leo Burnett said, “One of Prashanth’s greatest assets is his knowledge and experience in driving Power of One solutions, tapping into all the Publicis Groupe companies to bring the power of creative, digital, data, content, shopper marketing, media, PR, production and entertainment to solve business problems. As we build brands and businesses that talk to consumers who live in a digitally-enabled world, Prashanth’s significant experience in this domain will be highly valuable. I have known Prashanth to get into the details of the business and lead from the front. I am convinced that he will add value to our client’s businesses and take Leo Burnett Orchard to new heights.”

Excited about the road ahead, Prashanth said, “Leo Burnett Orchard has a great set of brands and people. It is the perfect canvas for me to build the Power of One story further. The last 18 months of my role in the Group as the Chief Integration Officer have given me a really good understanding of the skill sets we have built across different specialisations. I am really looking forward to bringing these together for our clients at Leo Burnett Orchard.”

Commenting on the strategy for Leo Burnett Orchard, Sinha added, “We have had a tremendous momentum at the Leo Burnett Group in the past few years. Our strategy for Leo Burnett and Leo Burnett Orchard is that of – one company, two brands. Both brands are extremely powerful with their own stellar list of clients, work and talent. Both come from the same DNA, use the power of HumanKind thinking and are backed by Publicis Groupe’s Power of One solutions. Leo Burnett Orchard has always been our top priority in terms of investment. There is no doubt in my mind that this will be a significant year for Leo Burnett Orchard for achieving growth and reputation.”

Prashanth replaces Mahuya Chaturvedi, who is moving on from the organisation. He will be based out of Leo Burnett Orchard’s Mumbai office.