Pratik Thakar, EVP, chief strategist, Greater China at McCann Worldgroup tipped to resign

Thakar (pictured) handed in his resignation in late February and will depart from the agency in mid-March, a source said he would continue to stay in the China market.

A long-serving employee of McCann Worldgroup for close to 10 years, Thakar was deputy MD & chief strategy officer at McCann Worldgroup Malaysia from 2003 to 2007.

He relocated to McCann China office as EVP & chief planning offer in 2007 for over three years and was promoted to his current role since January 2011.

During his tenure at McCann, Thakar worked on extensive client portfolio including L’Oreal, MasterCard, GM Asia Pacific, Microsoft, Maybelline, China Mobile and Bank of China.

Thankar’s resignation follows other long-serving executives who have departed from the McCann Greater China leadership team in the past few months, including: Jason Chau, who resigned from his role as managing director of MRM Greater China at the end of 2011 after 12 years with the agency and joined SapientNitro China in the newly-created position of managing director on 13 December; and David Shen, 11-year McCann veteran and MD of McCann Healthcare China, who resigned to take up the CEO role at China Health Media on 30 January 2012.