Wunderman Thompson's Tarun Rai retires

Wunderman Thompson has announced that Tarun Rai, executive director of strategic initiatives across the APAC region, will be retiring after three-decades in the advertising industry.

Rai joined Wunderman Thompson in 1988 as an account executive and quickly rose through the ranks to become managing partner at global ad agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT) which merged with Wunderman in 2018 to form Wunderman Thompson. He then joined Worldwide media (a joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Times Group) as CEO for seven years.

Rai returned to JWT as Group CEO, South Asia – growing the agency by diversifying the organization’s capabilities, resulting in stronger collaboration between agency and clients and the onboarding of great national and international brands. After leading the merger between Wunderman and JWT, Rai was appointed chairman and Group CEO for South Asia and began to help steer the organisation through the pandemic.He was then appointed executive director of strategic initiatives across the APAC region in 2022.

Rai said that he owed his career to Wunderman Thompson and that the agency provided him innumerable opportunities to grow. "I have so many leaders of Wunderman Thompson and WPP to thank for placing their trust in me. It was an honor to lead exceptional teams in my different roles. Excellent professionals who made my job both easy and enjoyable," he said. "I am also indebted to all our clients who I have worked with over the last three decades, for their friendship and support. We partnered them in building some of the most powerful brands in the country. It has been an incredible journey – exciting, fulfilling and rewarding," Rai said.

In a statement, Ewen Sturgeon, CEO, international, Wunderman Thompson thanked Rai for his contribution towards the growth of the agency. “We would like to thank Rai for his leadership and contribution to Wunderman Thompson and the industry over the past thirty years. His leadership in India helped pave the way for great success for our agencies and we wish him a happy retirement,” he noted.

Recently, Storyboard18 did a deep dive into how Wunderman Thompson is evolving in India keeping its digital ambitions at the centre. The agency has completed over nine decades of operations in India, having started in 1929. It donned a new avatar after merging with global digital agency Wunderman in 2018 to form Wunderman Thompson (WT) in India. A couple of years and a pandemic later, the agency that created iconic campaigns for Air India, Maggi, Taj Mahal tea, Pepsi, Nike, and KitKat seems to be undergoing a change in both perception and composition. There have been high-profile exits and some internal elevations as well.

In October 2021, Wunderman Thompson brought in Shamsuddin Jasani, Dentsu's head of creative and group MD for South Asia at Isobar, as chief executive officer to replace Tarun Rai, who moved to become executive director, strategic initiatives–APAC.

Read more: Lost wonder? Will Wunderman Thompson regain the glory of its JWT days?