MUMBAI: Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) has announced that its India CEO Mallikarjunadas CR will assume full responsibility for running the agency in India.

Mallikarjunadas replaces CVL Srinivas who has resigned to join GroupM as their South Asia CEO. Srinivas was the Chairman of SMG India but Mallikarjunadas will continue to be designated the CEO while assuming the role of Srinivas.

He will continue to remain as the CEO. In his new role, he will report to Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) president, emerging markets Matt Blackborn, He will now join the Global Management Group, the SMG leadership team of market and client leaders.

As CEO, Malli has been responsible for the day-to-day management of SMG‘s clients in India, as well as leading its business momentum, with recent client wins Dabur, Axis Bank and Aircel, and leading the development of innovative products and an analytical center of excellence for SMG, the company statement read.

Blackborn said, "Since being named as CEO, Malli has worked very closely with CVL Srinivas (Srini), to grow its position in India, serve its clients and motivate its employees. During this time, Srini helped us build a new management structure and transitioned leadership responsibilities to Malli. With the structure set and a strong management team in place, the transition has been completed, and Srini is leaving the company."

Malli started his career at Leo Burnett Media (now Starcom) working on P&G and has also worked on the client side at Asian Paints and Tata Group, before joining Madison where he was COO of one of the Group companies. He had re-joined SMG as CEO in May 2011.

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