GroupM elevates top HR executives

GroupM elevates top HR executives

GroupM

MUMBAI: GroupM has appointed Sonali Vaidya as HR head for India, while Gaurav Hirey, who held the post earlier, is being moved to Singapore to be a part of the GroupM Regional Talent Team.

Hirey has also been named HR business partner for Maxus (Asia Pacific).

Vaidya will be based in Mumbai and will report to GroupM CEO South Asia Vikram Sakhuja.

Vaidya said, "Talent Management is new to this industry and is in its formative stages. There are huge opportunities for our businesses to realise the benefits of managing talent and hence I am looking forward
to being a part of this journey and delivering delight to our employees and customers."

Hirey said, “Our success in Talent Management is clearly reflected in the level of satisfaction we are delivering to our clients and our employees who have made us the employer brand of choice. My new assignment gives me an opportunity to learn and share best practices from across the region and it is my belief that the talent function in this industry can make a significant impact on our business and hence our clients!”

Sakhuja added, “Sonali brings a wealth of commercial people management experience to the role. Gaurav has done a fabulous job in the past three years to bring scale, structure and credibility to the GroupM talent agenda that has gone from setting HR systems, to stepping up employee engagement and communication, to scaling up recruitment and performance management. His efforts to make GroupM one of the best places to work in has been validated by the Employer Branding Awards.”

Vaidya has over 14 years of experience in the human resources field across companies such as ABN AMRO Bank, GE consumer finance and ESPN Star Sports. Prior to this, she was with Alchemy Group, a financial services group, where she was group HR head. Her focus is on building an extremely intensive talent management programme to engage and grow GroupM’s talent internally.

In his new role, Hirey will lead the HR activities for the APAC region including recruitment, talent management and development, corporate social responsibility and employee relations. He will also support GroupM talent projects in addition to this. He will report to GroupM Global talent head Angela Ryan and Maxus APAC CEO Neil Stewart.