Dheeraj Sinha to leave Bates after seven years

Sinha’s announcement follows recent departures of Bates India chief executive Sandeep Pathak and regional creative director Sonal Dabral.

Reports in the Indian business press have indicated that Sinha was tipped to succeed Pathak, but the role is to be filled by former Ogilvy India group president (North and East) Sanjay Thapar in July.

However, Sinha told Campaign that his departure was an amicable one and that he was looking for a change after a period of nearly eight years with the network. He did confirm what his next move would be, but has said in a sparate statement that "a couple of very tempting offers" were on the table. He is the author of a book entitled Consumer India and is currently working on a second project.

In a statement, Bates' regional chairman Tim Isaac thanked Sinha for "all he has done for us throughout our Asia-Pacific network to set us up for a bright future". Sinha played a lead role in implementing the agency's 'changengage' framework.

He joined Bates as vice-president of strategic planning back in 2005, becoming regional planning director for the network in March 2011. Prior to that, he served as planning director at Euro RSCG.