Jishnu Sen Dies After Prolonged Illness; Advertising Industry Mourns Former Grey India CEO

JISHNU SEN, an advertising and marketing veteran died on July 5, 2026 in Bengaluru, Karnataka after prolonged illness. He was the former CEO of Grey India, the global advertising agency headquartered in New York, USA. Sen had a distinguished leadership career and image in the advertising and marketing sector and held various senior roles while collaborating with the top consumer-facing businesses.

The news of Sen’s death was shared on the internet by his cousin Shubho Sengupta, former national creative director at Interactive Avenues. Sengupta remembered him as someone with a “long and distinguished career in the field of advertising and marketing”. He further added that despite dealing with an ailment over the past few years, Sen continued to live with “tremendous life force”. Sengupta did not disclose further details about Sen's ailments.

With a career spanning over more than 20 years, Jishnu Sen tackled diverse brands across various companies that includes Future Group, Britannia, Reliance Telecom, Pepsi, GSK, Yum Foods, Colgate-Palmolive, and Ferrero among others.

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Who Was Jishnu Sen?

Jishnu Sen commenced his career in 1992 as an account executive. Over the years, he has achieved a lot in his career and rose through the ranks in advertising and marketing leadership roles and responsibilities. He held the position of the CEO of Grey Group India between 2007 and 2014. During the period of 2015 to 2016, he served as the Director of Brand Strategy at Essar Telecom Retail Ltd. He served as a Chief Marketing Officer at Big Bazaar - Future Retail from 2017 to 2020. 

He worked as a Growth and Marketing Advisor at Porter from 2012's beginning. In his later years, he focused on helping consumer tech startups, according to the details mentioned on his LinkedIn account. Jayshree Sundar, former president (North region) at Leo Burnett and Sen’s former colleague, said that he devoted his final years to mentoring several consumer related tech startups and companies, working with emerging brands in the field of media and marketing.

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Jishnu Sen: From Agency Servicing to Regional Leadership

A turning point in Jishnu Sen’s career came at Grey India, where he rose from heading the Mumbai office to Chief Operating Officer. He eventually became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Grey India group. Sen led Grey India with a mandate covering the advertising and digital businesses.

Jishnu Sen described himself as “someone who is passionate about building brands” and as a “strategic marketer by training and business leader by choice”. His death marks the loss of an experienced industry leader whose work connected with brand strategy, agency creativity, and business growth.

(Edited by Vaishnavi Sivadasan)

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