MUMBAI: Ending a 14-year stint at Ogilvy, Sanjay Thapar is joining Bates India as chief executive officer.

Thapar was North head at Ogilvy. In his new role, he will be relocating to Mumbai in July to assume the new assignment.

In January this year, Bates lost two of its senior executives - Sonal Dabral (regional ECD and chairman) and Sandeep Pathak (CEO). Consequently WPP India country head Ranjan Kapur was named the chairman of Bates India.

Confirming the news to indiantelevision.com, Thapar said, "The assignment with Bates seemed challenging and I thought it would be a good move. Moreover I am moving within the network itself."

Both Ogilvy and Bates have the same leadership in the region headed by Tim Isaac who serves a dual role of Bates Asia chairman and Ogilvy Asia Pacific chairman.

Thapar joined O&M in 1998 as manager at the Kolkata branch and was relocated to the Delhi branch in 2002 as branch head for the advertising function. In 2004 when he was promoted as president of the Delhi branch, where he was given the responsibility of looking after all the functions of O&M Delhi, broadening his sphere from advertising to other functions as well. He was in charge of Ogilvy Landscapes (outdoor media), Ogilvy Outreach (rural communication), OgilvyLive (ground level brand communication), Ogilvy Signscapes (retail brand identity) and OgilvyAction in Delhi.