Arijit De joins Adfactors PR as director

MUMBAI: Arijit De has taken up a new role as director at Adfactors PR, marking his return to frontline consulting after nearly three decades at the sharp end of communications, media and corporate affairs.

De joins India’s largest communications consulting firm following a four-and-a-half-year stint at Burson, where he served as chief client officer and was part of the India management team, advising top-tier multinational and Indian companies on positioning, narrative, issues and crisis management.

A senior strategic communications professional, De brings deep experience across financial services, conglomerates and global institutions. His career spans leadership roles at Standard Chartered, where he headed corporate communications for India and South Asia and earlier led group media relations in London; Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was India head of marketing and corporate affairs; and Reliance Capital, where he served as chief communications officer.

Before moving into corporate communications, De built a strong editorial career. As Mumbai bureau chief at Business Standard, he rebuilt the paper’s newsroom and covered India’s largest conglomerates, including the Tata group and the Aditya Birla group. He began his career as a reporter in the mid-1990s, covering sectors from telecoms and energy to FMCG and automobiles.

At Adfactors PR, which advises clients across more than 25 industries in 40 cities and was named one of PRovoke Media’s global “Agencies of the Decade”, De is expected to strengthen senior counsel and leadership across complex mandates.

From newsroom to boardroom and back to advisory, De’s move signals a familiar truth in Indian communications: when reputations are on the line, experience still talks loudest.