2020 saw a list of marquee OOH appointments along with influential heads moving on from their leadership post. e4m takes a look at some of these prominent developments The Covid-19 pandemic hit the Out-Of-Home (OOH) industry very hard and the sector had a tough time returning to business as usual. However, even in the pandemic market, the year saw some high-profile movements and leadership appointments. Many stepped down from their leadership positions to pursue different career paths or join new avenues in the OOH ecosystem itself. Some also decided to take a break from the industry citing personal exigencies. The newly appointed leaders, meanwhile, have already started working on measurement tools for the OOH space and are playing a key role in taking the medium towards a forward-looking digital path. Here are the newsmakers of the year. Jayesh Yagnik At the beginning of the year, we saw Yagnik being promoted as the CEO of MOMS Outdoor Media Solutions. He has been with the agency for 17 years, climbing the corporate ladder. He was appointed COO in 2015. Yagnik has over 20 years of experience in the OOH industry, and the role was the right fit for him as he has played a pivotal role in the growth of the agency. He is a trailblazer when it comes to innovation in the OOH space. His expertise lies in measurement and data and has been instrumental in the agency bagging various account mandates.   Charanjeet Singh Arora Kinetic India’s former Co-CEO Arora put down his papers in September 2020. Announcing his decision to depart, Arora said that he doesn’t know how the market situation is going to look due to Covid and so has moved to Indonesia to reunite with his family. Arora was pivotal in driving team transformations across media, office automation, and logistics. He had been associated with the agency for three years.   Rachana Lokhande Lokhande resigned from her position as CO-CEO of Kinetic India in June. Her association with the agency lasted four and a half years. Interestingly, in November 2020, Lokhande was elected as an honorary member of the Board of Advisors of the Indian Outdoor Advertising Association (IOAA). Her rich experience in handling a large agency business house will bring in a client’s viewpoint to the IOAA Board’s discussion. This new role will help in improving the merits of the OOH industry in terms of the offerings it can provide brands with.   Ajay Mehta Mehta was appointed the MD of Cinema (ITV) and Kinetic (OOH) in June 2020. The appointment came at a time when Rachana Lokhande stepped down as Co-CEO of Kinetic India. Now all the leadership teams of Kinetic India report to Mehta and he reports to Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia. Mehta will be contributing to the growth of the business of the Out-Of-Home division. Under his leadership, Kinetic India launched India On The Move, an OOH planning tool apt for the pandemic market environment.   Haresh Nayak Dentsu Aegis Network in April promoted Nayak as President of Posterscope Asia Pacific, in addition to his current role as Managing Director of Posterscope India. Nayak has over two decades of experience in the OOH industry. With his new role, he will be driving long-term, sustainable growth by bringing automation, intelligence, accountability and growth into the business.   Pratap Bose In May 2020, Bose, the Chairman and Founding Partner of The Social Street, stepped down from his post. He had co-founded the OOH agency in 2015. Bose is also an advertising veteran and is a former President of The Advertising Club.   Sujit Banerjee Ecosys OOH, a Publicis-owned agency, saw Sujit Banerjee resigning from his post as CEO. Banerjee had been with the agency for five years. He had been instrumental in conceptualizing clutter-breaking OOH campaigns for prominent brands like Audi, Renault, Fiat, Jeep, Acer, Ola and Jockey. Announcing his resignation, Banerjee shared that he will be going on a sabbatical.   Naresh Bhandari Towards the end of November, Naresh Bhandari moved on from his post of COO of Outdoor Media Integrated. Bhandari was heading the outdoor division of Laqshya Media Group, OMI (Outdoor Media Integrated). He had been a part of the Laqshya Media Group for more than seven years and used to report to Atul Srivastava, CEO, Laqshya Media Pvt. Ltd.   Bhandari joined Laqshya Media Group in 2013 as VP in the Bangalore division. In 2016, he was promoted as Sr. VP, and in 2017, he became the COO. He has curated impactful campaigns and conceptualized strategies for clients like Tanishq, Xiaomi, and Titan to name a few. Announcing his resignation, Bhandari, on his LinkedIn, shared that he had been seeking a new challenge, a new summit to conquer and to chase a passion that has been within him for some time. We will have to wait to see what new avenue Bhandari will move on to.   Nabendu Bhattacharyya The most recent and latest development was from OOH agency Milestone Brandcom. In December 2020, Nabendu Bhattacharyya decided to move on from his role as CEO and MD of Milestone Brandcom, the India-based OOH specialist agency from the house of Dentsu International. His last working day will be 31st December 2020. Bhattacharyya has served the agency for six years and is moving on to pursue his personal interests.