Indiantelevision.com Team

(Updated 30 July 2010 9:45 pm)
(30 July 2010 7:10 pm)

MUMBAI: The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) today elected Interface Communication executive director Nagesh Alai as its new president, ending a month-old high drama from the day Dentsu India chairman Sandeep Goyal announced that he would contest the elections to break the monopoly of the big boys.

In a tightly fought contest, Alai won the post beating Goyal by two votes.

Alai replaces JWT India CEO Colvyn Harris whose one-year term in the office gets over on 31 July.

Meanwhile, Lintas Media Group chairman and CEO Lynn de Souza has been elected as vice president.

"This is for the first time that the AAAI has had an election and because of this the entire industry came together to bring up many contentious issues. These include issues such as bringing more agencies outside Mumbai into the fold, adding smaller agencies and building respect for the awards. With this election behind us, we will now be addressing these and many other issues," said de Souza.

The other members of the committee are Carat Media Services India chairperson Ashish Bhasin, Publicis Communications South Asia CEO Nakul Chopra, Madison Communications chairperson and MD Sam Balsara, RK Swamy/BBDO MD and CEO Srinivasan K Swamy, Advertising & Sales Promotion Company CEO Surajit Nag, Innocean Worldwide executive director Vivek Srivastava, Contract Advertising CEO Umesh Shrikhande, Fifth Estate Communications MD Ganesh Baliga, Crayons Advertising MD Kunal Lalani, Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kamal Basu, Dentsu Marcom's Tanya Goyal, Multimedia Aquarius MD Neville Gomes and Pranav Premnarayan of Prem Associates.

Harris, meanwhile, will be member of the committee as immediate past president.