FCB Ulka elevates in-house leaders to C-Suite roles

As part of its C-Suite team, FCB Ulka promotes Kulvinder Ahluwalia to CEO, Saad Khan as CSO, and Keigan Pinto as CCO to lead the agency’s next phase of growth in India.

Post the restructuring of its creative agencies and a new three agency structure - FCB Ulka, FCB Interface, and FCB India, FCB Ulka, led by Nitin Karkare as Vice Chairman, now announces its newly elevated C-Suite leadership team, bringing its young leaders to C-Suite roles to lead the agency’s next phase of growth in India.

Kulvinder Ahluwalia will now be Chief Executive Officer, Saad Khan will be Chief Strategy Officer and Keigan Pinto will be Chief Creative Officer. In their previous roles, Ahluwalia, Khan, and Pinto were the trio heading the account management, strategic planning, and creative at FCB Ulka’s Mumbai office.

Speaking on the occasion, Nitin Karkare, Vice Chairman, FCB Ulka, said, “Ulka is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2021. It is only appropriate that on this momentous occasion, we start getting the agency ready for the next 60 years. And what better way to do this than recognizing talent from within. Kulvinder, Saad and Keigan have played a key role in building the Mumbai office of FCB Ulka. And I am delighted that they will now lead the agency into the future.”

Kulvinder ‘Kulvie’, who joined the agency in 1996 as a Management Trainee, as part of Star One - one of the most comprehensive entry-level programs in the industry, is now the CEO. His shrewd business acumen and knack for fostering deep relationships with clients has helped him build some of India’s iconic brands for over 25 years now.

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Keigan belongs to a rare breed of creative professionals who can himself do everything from very precisely interpreting the client brief to generating the creative idea to writing the lyrics and scoring the music for the film. A Bollywood musician and a deeply insightful creative leader, Keigan has a pulse on popular culture. His work has been awarded at the most prestigious national and international platforms, putting the agency on the global map.

With over two decades of diverse experience in advertising and brand consulting, Saad brings to work solid problem-solving skills and an attitude that questions formulaic marketing. A vibrant and vivacious leader, Saad can energize his teams to address business problems and find opportunities. An ardent advocate of detail, data, and behavioral economics, his approach to strategy is to remove all the noise to get to the core problem.

“I believe future-readiness starts with talent. Empowering and enabling our best talent to perform at their very best has always been at the heart of my organizational philosophy. This elevation of our shining stars makes me truly proud because it embodies the spirit of #talentaboveallelse and is a demonstration of our belief in growing our future leaders from within. This new leadership partnership structure is what will make us future-ready and power our creative transformation journey for the next decade and beyond”, said, Rohit Ohri, Chairman & CEO, FCB Group India.