MUMBAI: Vikram Sakhuja, CEO of GroupM for India and South Asia, has been appointed as global CEO of Maxus at a time when it has pocketed a string of new accounts including the prized NBC Universal and SC Johnson.

Interestingly, this will be the first time that the CEO of Maxus will be based out of India.

Sakhuja will succeed Kelly Clark who will now be in charge of the Group‘s operations in North America.

Continuing to be based in Mumbai, Sakhuja will take over the new responsibility after the agency finds his replacement at GroupM.

GroupM, WPP’s media agency, has carried out a number of changes including GroupM North America CEO Rob Norman who has been named as the chief digital officer of the agency in a newly created position.

Sakhuja, Clark and Norman will report to GroupM global president Dominic Proctor. Each will begin his new role later this year.

"Vikram is the perfect candidate to take on the Maxus role from Kelly. Maxus has a great management team and a lot of momentum. I have no doubt that Vikram will continue to build a great agency," Proctor said.

He added that Sakhuja will remain in his current role until his successor is announced.

Sakhuja told Indiantelevision.com, "It is a very exciting opportunity to be leading Maxus which is a young and energetic brand. Being named as global CEO is very humbling."

Sakhuja has over 28 years of experience in the industry. He had joined GroupM in 2002 as MD Fulcrum. He was later promoted as MD of Mindshare South Asia and then to CEO for GroupM South Asia. Prior to joining GroupM, he has also worked with Star TV as EVP-marketing, Coca-Cola India as marketing manager brands and Procter & Gamble.