MUMBAI: GroupM has announced the appointment of Gaurav Hirey as chief talent officer, south Asia.

Hirey has been a part of GroupM since 2008 and is currently the regional HR director, APAC. In his new expanded role as CTO, South Asia, he will be responsible for driving the agenda on people, culture and values at GroupM which will include employee acquisition, training, development, retention and growth for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

On his new role, Hirey said "India and South Asian markets are exciting markets. We have been able to innovate and raise the bar year after year. Mumbai is home ground and so always a pleasure to be back! I am very excited about the new leadership and the new vision at GroupM South Asia and look forward to leveraging the last 2 years of my international exposure and the network to help and impact business results.”

He will continue to work with GroupM APAC regional talent team and will be based out of Mumbai from 1 January, 2014. And will also be a part of the GroupM aouth Asia executive committee and will report to GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and GroupM global CTO Angela Ryan.

Speaking on the appointment, CVL Srinivas said, "GroupM has always placed a lot of emphasis on Talent and over the years we have built a strong talent team. As we move to the next stage of the People Transformation journey, I am pleased to welcome Gaurav Hirey back as our Chief Talent Officer (CTO) - South Asia. Gaurav has a successful track record of making things happen and is the best person to lead our people agenda. We look forward to having him back with us."

Hirey had joined GroupM in 2008 in Mumbai and built the human resources function at GroupM India, making it one the best employer brands in the country, before moving into a regional role in Singapore. Under his direction, GroupM is the only media agency to have won the Employer Branding Award for ‘Best Employer’ three years in a row from 2009 to 2011. For the last two years Hirey was based in Singapore where he worked on GroupM APAC projects and also had the mandate of being a business partner for Maxus APAC.