With Ogilvy’s announcement of Amritsar-born Devika (Dev) Bulchandani as its Global Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the list of Indian-origin CEOs at global companies grows. Her announcement comes days after Starbucks appointed Pune-born Laxman Narasimhan as its new CEO.
Bulchandani joins an illustrious list which includes Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen, Deloitte’s Punit Renjen and FedEx’s Raj Subramaniam.
Bulchandani, the driving force behind the famous and long-running "Priceless" campaign of Mastercard, has several exploits to her name and is a known face in the industry and a powerful woman executive who had won several accolades.
Who is Devika Bulchandani?
Born in Punjab’s Amritsar, Bulchandani spent 26 years at McCann, leading the company’s growth in various roles including as President of North America business.
Apart from the Mastercard "Priceless", she also led the company’s "True Name" campaign to empower transgender and non-binary people to display their chosen name on their Mastercard in a first-of-its-kind feature launched in 2019.
Bulchandani is known for ideas that capture the “cultural zeitgeist”, the mood of the people in a period of history. She was also behind the "Fearless Girl" campaign which is a symbol of women’s equality and one of the most awarded in the history of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Bulchandani has won several accolades in her career. These include NY Power Woman by Moves Magazine, US Advertising Agency Head of the Year by Campaign Magazine, Working Mother of the Year by She Runs It, and ADCOLOR Innovator.
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In her most recent role, Bulchandani served as Global President and CEO of Ogilvy North America. In her new leadership role, the prominent ad person Bulchandani will manage the creative network’s business across 131 offices in 93 countries. She will head Ogilvy’s businesses which span Advertising, Public Relations, Experience, Consulting, and Health units. She will also join WPP’s Executive Committee as she takes on her new role.
She will be honoured by New York Women in Communications (NYWIC) at the 2022 Matrix Awards next month which is given to women who make a difference, build community and inspire the next generation of female leaders in their respective fields.
(With inputs from IANS)
