MUMBAI: Law & Kenneth founder and chairman Praveen Kenneth announced his retirement from active engagement on the sidelines of the final sale of his shareholding, in Paris.

Law & Kenneth was the largest independent communication companies in India before becoming a part of Publicis Groupe in January 2014, to create L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi.

Over the next six months during the transition, Kenneth will be involved in mentoring and guiding the teams.

Anil Nair, the CEO and MD, who has been groomed over the past 24 months, and running the operations will now be leading the company.

Publicis chairman of the supervisory board Maurice Levy said: "Praveen has been with us slightly after opening Publicis in India (1999) and had led the agency to growth and creative excellence. He then decided to launch Law & Kenneth ( 2002), which also has been a great success."

Kenneth stated: "The incredible success story of Law & Kenneth and L&K| Saatchi & Saatchi has been nothing less than a magical testimony of "making the impossible, possible."

"Building from zero, to four offices, 400-plus amazing people and being in the top 10. Winning at Cannes, D&AD, epic pitch wins and first class clients. It's been a dream run," he added.

L&K | Saatchi & Saatchi has an enviable list of blue chip clients, which includes Renault India, HeroMotoCorp, Kent RO, P&G, Dabur, Pepper Fry, Jockey, Mondelez, Godrej Interio and Exide Insurance. It won two silvers at Cannes in 2016, and won again in 2017, and this time a Gold.