Ex-BBDO Exec Joins Austin Kelley

Nik Mainthia, who took over as svp, media director at Austin Kelley Advertising last week, got his first job in media at Ted Bates after attending college in the U.S. He returned to his native India in 1980 for what he believed would be a brief stint with Lintas, but wound up staying eight years as his responsibilities increased, longing all the while to return to the States.

The U.S. media industry “was still light-years ahead, and I was really missing out,” said the 50-year-old executive, most recently evp, media director at Omnicom Group’s OMD in Atlanta.