VML India Appoints Roy as Managing Partner, Khanna as CSO

VML India announced two senior leadership appointments on March 24, 2026: Kunal Roy as Managing Partner – West & Growth Lead, and Shekhar Khanna as Chief Strategy Officer. Both roles take effect simultaneously as part of a coordinated national leadership restructuring at the WPP-owned creative agency.

Roy Brings Cross-Network Asia Experience to Mumbai Role

Roy joins with over 20 years of experience building businesses and agencies across Asia. Most recently, he served as CEO of Dentsu Creative Malaysia, where he integrated six separate companies into a single unified creative entity.

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Prior to that role, Roy served as Group Chief Strategy Officer at Publicis Groupe Malaysia, where the agency won three consecutive Effie Agency of the Year awards. The Effie Awards measure the measurable business results of creative work, not creative craft alone.

At VML India, Roy will oversee the Mumbai office and lead growth initiatives in direct partnership with CEO Babita Baruah. His client experience spans brands including McDonald's, Samsung, HSBC, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Adidas, and Visa across FMCG, financial services, technology, and healthcare.

"Growth today is about creating value in a way that has real business impact," Roy said. "By bringing together creativity, commerce and customer experience I'm eager to create lasting and meaningful value."

Khanna Appointment Follows 16-Year Tenure of Previous Strategy Head

Khanna brings 20 years of APAC experience across research, digital, creative, and media disciplines. His career spans Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, and Shanghai.

His appointment follows the departure of Pinaki Bhattacharya, who led strategy and client partnerships at VML India for 16 years. Khanna's role establishes a two-leader strategy structure, pairing him as CSO with Shubhrojyoti Roy as National Planning Director and Brand Experience Lead.

"Strategy has to do more than simplify, it has to connect," Khanna said. "The real opportunity is to integrate creativity, media, data and culture into a unified thinking system that drives real impact."

CEO Babita Baruah said the appointments reflect a broader growth focus. "Kunal and Shekhar join us at an exciting moment for VML India as we expand our capabilities and sharpen our focus on growth-led solutions."

Appointments Complete a 12-Month Leadership Rebuild

The Roy and Khanna hires are the latest steps in a phased leadership reconstruction at VML India spanning at least 12 months.

In March 2025, the agency appointed Kalpesh Patankar as Group Chief Creative Officer, joining from Leo Burnett Dubai. Later in 2025, Dhruv Warrior joined as Executive Creative Director for the Bangalore office.

The March 2026 appointments add operational growth leadership and a rebuilt strategy function, completing a sequence that moved from creative capability first to commercial and planning leadership. VML was formed through the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson in 2023, and Roy's experience consolidating six companies at Dentsu Creative Malaysia is directly relevant to the ongoing post-merger integration across the network's global offices.

Roy's geographic mandate, covering Mumbai and West India specifically, reflects the city's position as India's largest advertising market and headquarters for the majority of major multinational brand marketing operations in the country.

The combined APAC experience of Roy and Khanna totals over 40 years, covering India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and key Greater China markets.