Diwan Arun Nanda demits charge as Rediffusion chairman

Diwan Arun Nanda has stepped down from the chairmanship of Rediffusion after five decades at the helm of the agency. A statement from the agency states that Nanda is demitting charge because of his indifferent health, and advancing age.

The chairmanship of the agency’s board now moves onto Dr. Sandeep Goyal, who has worked directly under Diwan Nanda for many years. He will also continue to be managing director of Rediffusion.

“Rediffusion’s 50 years has been a dream run. I enjoyed every moment of the very many hundreds of client interactions, the strategy sessions, the creation of the campaigns and the launching of the brands … at the Board level I must thank Ajit Balakrishnan, Suresh Talwar and Sunil Phataphekar, my co-directors for years, for their sage advice and support to me as Chairman,” says Nanda. “The agency under Sandeep is in good hands and I am happy to pass on the baton to him at Rediffusion.”

Nanda was the first gold medallist of the very first batch of IIM-A in 1966; he was also in the first batch of management trainees ever recruited by Hindustan Lever. He is credited to be the brain behind the ‘lightning strikes’ mnemonic of Rin of which he was brand manager at Lever. Nanda then moved onto creative agency, moving on in 1973 to set up Rediffusion.

A two time AAAI (Advertising Agencies Association of India) President and recipient of the Lifetme Achievement Award in the early 2000s, Diwan Arun Nanda served on the Boards of Air India, Eveready, Kingfisher Airlines, Yes Bank and many more. From 1983 to 1991, Nanda was the advisor to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. He was also Chairman of Dentsu Young & Rubicam, the Asian joint venture of the two advertising giants.

With nine books on business, marketing and advertising to his credit, Dr. Sandeep has been the Group CEO of Zee Telefilms, was chairman of Dentsu India, chairman of Snapchat India and also served as head of the Punjab CSR Authority.