According to a press release, Tapan Pal, currently designated as the president of Zenith Media India, will be leaving the company, to explore other, personal options. There have been rumours that the Sahara Group is wooing Pal. However, when contacted by indiantelevision.com earlier this week, Pal said that he has not finalised any plans as of now but indicated that the rumours were could be attributed to his recent absence from work due to personal engagements.

ZenithOptimedia Asia regional head Roland Crouch has been quoted in the release as saying: “Tapan has done an outstanding job in building the business up over the past three years, to its current position. Zenith Media India is the media specialist of choice of leading advertisers like Hyundai Motors, Nokia, LML and Hatsun amongst others, with a national presence and an excellent team. I wish Tapan the best.”

And the next head of the business will be the well-known and highly respected Praveen Tripathi, who has nearly 25 years of experience in planning, research and media.

“I am delighted to be coming back, to Zenith India, and to be able to play this role in taking the brand to its rightful position in this market”, said Praveen Tripathi. “Interestingly Zenith Media, like India, is poised to take off here. In that, I feel that I am coming full circle, at the right time in the right place”.

Tripathi is currently based in Guangzhou. Over his two-decade career in India, he has been MD of Starcom India; has headed the media research practice of ORG-MARG (where he played a key role in all aspects of India’s first peoplemeter-based TV audience measurement system, and the NRS in 1995 and 1997).

Roland Crouch added: “Praveen is our dream choice. His unique combination of comprehensive experience, business leadership, team-building skills and strategic perspective is near-impossible to find in one person. We see him adding enormous value to our existing client assignments, building and leading our team, and taking us to the top-tier of media specialists in India. And we look to him to play an expanding role beyond India and in the Region.”

ZenithOptimedia claims to be one of the world’s biggest and most respected media businesses, with over 150 offices in 60 countries. It also claims to be the fastest-growing media brand in this region, currently ranked No. 2 in Asia (and the leader in key markets such as Greater China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Major regional clients include P&G, Nokia, HP-Compaq, HSBC and Nestle.

ZenithOptimedia, is globally branded as the ‘Return on Investment’ (ROI) agency, in keeping with the advertisers’ need for ever-increasing accountability of marketing spends.

All of the network’s tools have been updated and rewritten to support this new position, and a number of important new tools are being introduced along, with new processes. In the coming months, all these will be rolled-out in India.