GroupM India has announced the elevations of Navin Khemka as CEO and Sonali Malaviya as chief strategy and transformation officer for EssenceMediacom South Asia. The move was undertaken after the company’s announcement of the global merger of Essence and MediaCom to form EssenceMediacom earlier this year. According to the company, Khemka and Malaviya will drive the integration of the digital and data-driven DNA of Essence with MediaCom’s multichannel, audience planning and strategic media expertise, facilitating client growth globally through an agile response to an ever-evolving media landscape, it claimed.
For Rupert McPetrie, CEO, EssenceMediacom APAC, the appointment of Navin as CEO and Sonali as chief strategy and transformation officer for EssenceMediacom South Asia provides us with very strong leadership and direction as we build our new agency and transform the work we do for our clients.
Both Khemka and Malaviya will be based out of Gurgaon. The former will report to Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia and Rupert McPetrie, CEO – EssenceMediacom APAC, and the latter will report to Navin. Both will continue to be a part of GroupM South Asia Exco, the company asserted further. Both will work together to bring additional specialisations such as e-commerce, addressable content and digital out-of-home (OOH), to the offerings, while ensuring best-in-class core capabilities.