Y&R Dubai’s Kalpesh Patankar is to be the UAE’s sole jury member at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in June.
The creative director, who has won 22 Cannes Lions, will be a judge on the press jury and follows in the footsteps of Leo Burnett Dubai’s creative director Mohamed Oudaha, who was last year’s representative on the same jury.
The UAE’s jury member is nominated by Motivate and Motivate Val Morgan, representatives of Cannes Lions in the country. Ian Fairservice, managing partner of Motivate and the UAE representative of Cannes Lions, said: “We are delighted that Kal will be coming to Cannes with us this year as a jury member and I’m confident that the experience and flair which he will bring to the judging process will be invaluable, and that he will be a great ambassador for our region.”
Patankar, who started his career at Saatchi & Saatchi in Mumbai, said: “Print has become secondary in many ways, but there’s still so much to do. Every year we still have surprises in the category, so I’m looking forward to seeing how print is evolving.”
This year’s festival runs from 15-21 June.