BENGALURU: Think Design chief executive Deepali Saini has been elevated to global chief experience design officer at Havas CX, the customer experience arm of Havas Group. In her expanded brief, Saini will continue to run Think Design in India while shaping the network’s worldwide experience design (XD) practice.
The move signals Havas CX’s ambition to place design leadership from India at the centre of its international growth. Saini now joins the global CX leadership board, where she will be responsible for harmonising experience design standards across markets, deepening integration with client programmes, and accelerating growth in new service areas.
Her mandate also includes strengthening design methodologies across geographies, mentoring talent, building proprietary frameworks, and setting ethical guidelines for deploying artificial intelligence in the design process — a theme gaining urgency across global networks.
Saini, who co-founded Think Design in 2004, has spent over two decades shaping design-led strategies for organisations in healthcare, banking, telecom, and public services. A graduate of NID Ahmedabad and ENSCI Paris, she is known for championing research-driven design and has taught methodology at NID.
“This is an opportunity to both honour the foundations we have laid in India and push the boundaries of what experience design can achieve globally,” Saini said. She credited Havas India chief Rana Barua and Havas CX global chief David Shulman for their backing in creating what she called “a truly borderless design practice.”
Her appointment underscores a wider trend of Indian design talent gaining global prominence within multinational networks, with Havas signalling that southeast Asia, India, and the middle east will be pivotal growth regions for its CX portfolio.