Mumbai: BBDO Group India has appointed Ankit Singh as National Strategy Director, further strengthening its strategic leadership as the agency network continues to build one of India’s most formidable strategy capabilities.
Singh will join an experienced strategy leadership team comprising Saad Khan, Chief Strategy Officer, ULKA, and Shashank Lanjekar, Chief Strategy Officer, BBDO India. Together, they will lead the strategic agenda across the network, helping clients address complex business challenges through culturally relevant and commercially impactful ideas.
Bringing close to two decades of experience, Singh joins BBDO Group India from Cheil X, where he led integrated growth strategies across creative, commerce and customer experience. During his tenure, he played a key role in helping the agency rise into the top tier of the Effie rankings.
Jitender Dabas, CEO, BBDO Group said, “Our ambition at BBDO Group isn’t just better advertising — it’s solving bigger business problems. That’s exactly the school of planning Ankit comes from: define the right problem, find the deep human truth, build ideas that live at the edge of culture. He joins Saad Khan and Shashank Lanjekar, who already lead strategy across ULKA and BBDO India, as we build one of the strongest strategy communities in the industry — a place where the best strategic talent comes to work on the toughest problems. Welcome, Ankit. Let’s build that future together.”
Ankit Singh said, “The opportunities that excite me the most are the ones where you get to build, and BBDO feels like exactly that—a chance to join a story that’s still being written. As part of the world’s largest creative network, it has a strong legacy and, more importantly, a shared ambition to shape what’s next. I’m looking forward to helping write the next chapter with the talented teams across BBDO Group India.”
Over the course of his career, Singh has worked with several leading global brands including Apple, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Uber, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, Airtel, Haleon, Tinder, Reckitt, Ferrero and Hilton, helping drive business transformation and long-term brand growth. His strategic leadership has contributed to multiple wins at the Effies, Cannes Lions and WARC Awards for Asian Strategy while delivering measurable business outcomes.
Prior to joining Cheil X, Singh held senior leadership positions at Leo, BBH Group and GREY Worldwide. He also led brand marketing for Hilton across South Asia, giving him a combination of agency and client-side experience.
The appointment reflects BBDO Group India’s continued focus on building a strategy-led organisation under the leadership of Jitender Dabas. Before assuming the role of Group CEO, Dabas served as Chief Strategy Officer at McCann Worldgroup India, where he helped establish the agency as one of the industry’s leading strategy and effectiveness powerhouses. During his tenure, McCann India was named India EFFIE Agency of the Year for five years and was recognised as the World’s Most Effective Agency Office in the 2017 WARC Effectiveness Index.
