Mumbai: dentsu International CEO - APAC and India chairman Ashish Bhasin has put in his papers and Friday is his last day at the company. dentsu international has confirmed the development in an official statement.

Bhasin made the announcement in an internal email to his colleagues at dentsu where he broke the news that the company has accepted his request for early retirement.

“I have had a wonderful 13+ years and have enjoyed leading dentsu India and dentsu APAC. In this journey I was lucky to have a brilliant team, very supportive colleagues and have made some lovely friends for life. Dentsu is a great company and I wish them the very best,” he wrote.

He further added, “I am unable to comment on my future plans for now but in the meanwhile I am really looking forward to going to Harvard for the Advanced Management Program, for which I have secured admission for the next semester.”

Confirming that Ashish Bhasin is seeking early retirement from dentsu after 13 years with the business, the company, in an official statement, added that a successor will be announced in due course.

“To manage this transition, Simon Jones, CFO APAC & Belli Mathanda, COO APAC will work closely with our global CEO, Wendy Clark, who will have a greater focus on the region during this time supported by the APAC Executive team," dentsu said.

“This strong team is well placed to continue the positive transformation underway in the region as we simplify how we operate and bring together our leading capabilities in service of our clients in Creative, Media and CXM to realise our global ambition to be the most integrated agency network in the world,” stated the company.

It further added that in India, Peter Huijboom will continue his interim, day-to-day leadership of the business with the India leadership team, while the company is in the final stages of its search and appointment of a new CEO in India.

Bhasin joined dentsu in 2008 as India CEO and joined the global executive team when he was promoted to CEO, Asia Pacific in 2019.