Noshir Desai, former CEO of Karishma Advertising and later media head at Lintas, passed away in Mumbai on 6th September 2023.
Noshir was a veteran of many years belonging to the MCM era where he began his career. He then moved to Everest Advertising and later on worked with Lintas in Account Management where he was instrumental in building the Four Square cigarettes brand for GPI. Noshir was a solid personality with excellent client relations. A very hardworking professional who never believed in giving up.
In the late ’80s when the big agencies were setting up sister agencies, he was identified to head Karishma Advertising. He took on that mantle and built Karishma as a creative boutique in the next few years partnering creative stalwart Quentin Coelho. The agency produced some great work and won awards in India. While it started as a Mumbai-based agency, Noshir ensured that the footprint of Karishma extended to Delhi and Kolkata. I had the opportunity to work with him and he was instrumental in giving me that break at Karishma.
Being a sister agency of the big parent agency, winning new business was always a challenge but Noshir had a knack for smelling new business and ensured that Karishma was invited for the pitch along with the other biggies. He was always hungry for new business and was very agile and well networked in the industry.
A legendary personality, he will be missed from the advertising world. His contribution to Lintas and the advertising industry will always be remembered.
(The author, Ganapathy Viswanathan, is an independent communication consultant.)
