Ramesh Narayan, would have been a journalist if it had been a more remunerative field during the early eighties, when he started off his career. He confesses that he opted for advertising so that he could be a copywriter and be close to his first love, writing.
In the course of a two and a half decade stint, he founded and ran an advertising agency called Canco Advertising, occupied almost every leadership position in the advertising industry – including President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Advertising Club, Bombay and he also represented the industry in international professional associations.
But he did not lose touch with journalism and wrote regular columns in Mid-Day, The Indian Express, The Sunday Observer, DNA, Business India and The Hindu Business Line.
After bagging a slew of creative and other awards, Ramesh decided to wind up his advertising agency in 2006 at the age of 50 “to keep a promise he had made to himself”.
Since then he has been running an organic farm off Bangalore, doing some communication consultancy, writing columns and actively associating with many good causes. “I’m lucky I can devote all my time to my hobbies, my passions and my family,” he says.
The first thing he did after withdrawing from the hectic pace of the advertising industry was to write a book, “Reflections: The Marketing and Advertising World Around Me”, which was critically acclaimed. He retains his contacts with the advertising industry and is still on the managing committee of the International Advertising Industry.
Recently, he drove what has been hailed as the largest public service campaign attempted by the advertising industry in India to raise awareness and money for Dr. Rajendra Pachauri’s Lighting a Billion Lives project.
Ramesh also used his photographic skills to hold a widely-acclaimed exhibition in aid of an NGO called Alert India. He holds the landscapes of Maui in Hawaii and the lunarscapes of Mansarovar in Tibet as the most vivid images his lens has been privileged to capture.
A member of the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Bombay, Ramesh takes active interest in Community Service activities and is a member of the Education, Public Awards and Bulletin Committees. Not many members have registered the fact that Ramesh Narayan is the brain behind the pioneering Bhavishya-Yaan project which is helping change the lives of children from less privileged backgrounds and studying at the ill-kempt municipal schools in the city of Bombay.
Ramesh Narayan continues to serve the advertising industry as a Trustee of STACA ( Standing Committee on Advertising). He is also the Chairman of the Awards Governing Council for the Abbys at Goafest 2016.