MUMBAI: CVL Srinivas, who has put in his papers at Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), will join GroupM to succeed Vikram Sakhuja as its South Asia CEO.

At SMG, Srini, as he is fondly known, was designated as SMG India chairman and LiquidThread APAC MD.

Effective from early 2013, Srini will be responsible for all GroupM operations in India, Pakistan, SriLanka and Bangladesh. He will also join the GroupM APAC executive committee.

In his new role, Srini will report to GroupM APAC CEO Mark Patterson.

Patterson said, " Srini was our first choice by some stretch for this role. In his previous roles in GroupM he excelled and he rejoins us with more and different experiences under his belt which will serve our clients , our people and our ambitions well. We have a world class business in the South Asia region and Srini has the skills, personality, relationships and attitude to build the business on strategy and with his own style and ideas too.”

“He will add huge value in South Asia, to our business in the wider APAC region and no doubt WW too. I am personally very excited and delighted to work with Srini closely once again as I am sure are many of his colleagues and friends in GroupM," he added.

Srinivas said, " I am really looking forward to taking up this role and going back to an organisation where I learnt the ropes and built a business . Vikram and his team have done a phenomenal job in growing the business and diversifying the service offerings to date I am thrilled to be joining a talented team and working with such a portfolio of powerful media brands and fantastic clients . Mark has outlined a vision for the business regionally and globally that I am excited and challenged about and one I look forward to participating in fully. "

Sakhjua , former GroupM Asia CEO, was announced as the global CEO for Maxus in July. “It has been a privilege and a joy over the past fifteen years to work with Srini as a client, a colleague and a competitor . Srini brings truly disruptive thinking to the party and to my mind is the best person I can think of to take GroupM South Asia to an increasingly integrated , digital , data driven and addressable age. Welcome back to the family Srini," Sakhuja said.

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