Nanda is demitting charge because of his indifferent health, and advancing age, said the agency. Goyal will also continue to be the Managing Director of Rediffusion
Rediffusion has announced that Sandeep Goyal will become the agency’s new Chairman and Managing Director.
Diwan Arun Nanda has stepped down from the chairmanship of Rediffusion after 50 years at the helm of the agency.
Nanda is demitting charge because of his indifferent health, and advancing age, said the agency.
“The chairmanship of the agency’s Board moves onto his protégé, Sandeep Goyal, who has worked directly under Diwan Nanda for many years. Goyal will also continue to be the Managing Director of Rediffusion,” said the agency in a statement.
Nanda was the first gold medallist of the very first batch of IIM-A in 1966; he was also in the first batch of management trainees ever recruited by Hindustan Lever. Nanda is credited to be the brain behind the ‘lightning strikes’ mnemonic of Rin of which he was Brand Manager at Lever. Nanda then moved on to MCM, the hottest creative shop of those times, moving on in 1973 to set up Rediffusion.
A two-time AAAI President and recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in the early 2000s, Diwan Arun Nanda served on the Boards of Air India, Eveready, Kingfisher Airlines, Yes Bank and many more. From 1983 to 1991, Nanda was an advisor to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Nanda was also Chairman of Dentsu Young & Rubicam, the Asian joint venture of the two advertising giants.
“Rediffusion’s 50 years have been a dream run. I enjoyed every moment of the very many hundreds of client interactions, the strategy sessions, the creating of the campaigns and the launching of the brands … at the Board level I must thank Ajit Balakrishnan, Suresh Talwar and Sunil Phataphekar, my co-directors for years, for their sage advice always and support to me as Chairman,” said Diwan Nanda. “The agency under Sandeep is in good hands and I am happy to pass on the baton to him at Rediffusion.”
Goyal is a gold medallist in English Literature. He is an MBA and PhD from FMS-Delhi. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He has been the Group CEO of Zee Telefilms, was Chairman of Dentsu India, Chairman of Snapchat India and also served as head of the Punjab CSR Authority.
