MUMBAI: GroupM has hired Ashoke Sengupta as its CFO for South Asia. Sengupta, who joins GroupM from Microsoft, where he was the head of corporate finance, takes over from Choodamani Parameshwar.
 
 
Sengupta brings in extensive experience in managing finance for FMCG (P&G) as well as services sector (Reuters and Microsoft India). He will be responsible for finance and administration for all GroupM companies in the four countries of South Asia. GroupM in South Asia comprises its three media agencies - MindShare, Maxus and mediaedge:cia -, BroadMind, M One, Dialect, ATG, MCI and Out of Home.
 
 
Parameshwar, on the other hand, has moved into the crucial internal audit area - as WPP focuses more strongly than ever in ensuring that all its operating companies remain SoX compliant at all times. He will be working directly with Asia Pacific CFO George Yeoh for this role. Apart from this, he continues to oversee the finance and admin function at mediaedge:CIA India.
 
 
Another significant development is that GroupM India national finance director Prashant Modi has been promoted and relocated to Singapore in April. Modi, who currently reports to Parameshwar will now be director, finance and admin. for South East Asia. Modi will handle finance and admin for Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines, apart from Singapore. He will work with MindShare CEO South East Asia Nick Waters. Modi has been a key contributor to managing the spectacular growth of GroupM's specialist units, and has developed market leading practices in managing finance for consulting, entertainment and BTL areas.
GroupM South Asia is increasingly being seen as a powerhouse of talent by the global company, and Modi is the tenth manager to be promoted and moved to operations in the network, outside of India in the last few months.

As a direct result of Modi's promotion, Sridhar Ramasubramanium, who is currently head of commercial operations at MindShare Fulcrum, will take over as national finance director. Ramasubramanium has built and run highly effective commercial and operations team to manage the HLL business, and was being developed to move to this position over the last one year.