GroupM appoints Ajit Varghese as CEO, Maxus Asia Pacific

Media agency conglomerate GroupM has promoted Ajit Varghese, MD, Maxus South Asia, to the role of CEO, Maxus Asia Pacific. In his new role, which comes into effect on January 1, 2014, Varghese will oversee Maxus operations in all Asia Pacific countries.

Varghese, 39, takes charge from Neil Stewart, who is being promoted to the new position of chief client officer, Maxus Global.

He will work closely with Stewart during a six-month transition period. In his new role, Varghese will report to both Mark Patterson, CEO, GroupM Asia Pacific and Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, Maxus Global.  He joined Maxus in 2006 from Madison.

Said Varghese: “The last seven years have been an exciting journey; we have built a strong portfolio of clients, secured their trust, delivered them a world-class product and picked up many accolades along the way.” Although he will relocate to Singapore, India will continue to be part of his scope and will, he said, remain close to his heart.

CVL Srinivas, CEO, GroupM South Asia, said: “Ajit has been an outstanding leader for Maxus and has helped create a very unique culture at Maxus and truly embodies the Maxus spirit. All of us at GroupM are very proud of his achievements and wish him the very best in his new role.” Varghese had incidentally taken charge of Maxus a few months after Srinivas left the agency as its CEO for India and Asia Pacific.

With Varghese taking charge of Maxus on an APAC basis, the media industry now has Indians at the helm at the global and regional levels. Last year, Vikram Sakhuja was appointed global CEO of the agency. Said Sakhuja on Varghese’s elevation: “I have no doubt that with his brand of entrepreneurial leadership, Maxus APAC will scale new heights.”

Asked about his most satisfying moments of his tenure at Maxus in India, Varghese listed five of them: “1: The fastest-growing agency, most dominant profile agency for more than three years in a row; 2: maximum number of awards year-on-year across all industry forums; 3: by far the most awarded in the new-age digital and technology fields across all industry forums for the last two years; 4: a team of 330+ people who demonstrate absolute quality of PACE (passionate, agile, collaborative and entrepreneurial) and a stable leadership team which has been in the system for more than five years; and 5: establishing the second agency Motivator, a force to reckon with in the last one-and-a-half years.”