Publicis Groupe South Asia has appointed Amitesh Rao as the Chief Executive Officer of Leo Burnett South Asia. In this role, Rao's remit will include all operations of Leo Burnett India, including Leo Burnett Orchard, across Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai, and the rest of South Asia. In addition, he will provide oversight on Publicis Health and Publicis Business.

Rao, with his cross-disciplinary and cross-category experience from various leadership roles, remarkable track record on client businesses and wealth of expertise across technology, data and creativity has been handpicked to lead Leo Burnett South Asia into its next stage of growth and creative ambitions. He joins from McCann India where he was the Executive Director, heading North and West Operations. Prior to this, Rao has also held top positions at TBWA, Rediffusion, and JWT and in his advertising stints worked across markets with marquee clients such as PepsiCo, Airtel, Nestl, Reckitt, Coke, Mastercard and Nissan.

His marketing and sales experience has been in the Telco and Data space with MTS and RPG.