MPW 2022: How Ogilvy's Global CEO Devika Bulchandani is overseeing ad giant's vast empire

In advertising circ-les, she is known as “Dev”. Not surprising in an industry where brevity is the name of the game. As Ogilvy’s Global CEO, Devika Bulchandani oversees the business of an entity that is well-regarded for its creative output. It is a part of the £12.8-billion global advertising powerhouse WPP Plc., which apart from Ogilvy, owns agencies like Wunderman Thomson, Grey, GroupM, etc.

Bulchandani, 53, who joined Ogilvy in March 2021 as Global President and CEO of North America, took over the corner office in September 2022. She completed her schooling from Welham Girls’ School in Dehradun, followed by a Bachelor’s in English and Psychology from Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College. The move to the US was for a Master’s in Communications at the University of South California, from where she graduated in 1992.

Before Ogilvy, Bulchandani had spent over two decades at ad agency McCann Worldgroup, which was marked by the success of the Mastercard advertising concept that turned into a global marketing platform. The other prominent clients she worked for included Kraft and Unilever, with the big break coming from the ‘Fearless Girl’ campaign in 2017 that focussed on workplace gender diversity. A statement put out by Ogilvy stated that Bulchandani would be responsible for the agency’s businesses across 131 offices in 93 countries and include areas such as advertising, public relations, experience, consulting and health. Now, that is some serious responsibility to juggle and still come out on top smelling like roses.