GroupM Nexus unveils new leadership team in APAC

GroupM has made a slew of appointments for its GroupM Nexus leadership.

The formation of GroupM Nexus, announced in April 2022, comprises GroupM’s core practices of search, social, programmatic, commerce, campaign analytics, ad tech and operations, addressable content, as well as other branded solutions across addressable TV (Finecast), AI technologies (Copilot), and omnichannel solutions from Xaxis and its business units (INCA, Plista).

Arshan Saha will take on the role of chief executive officer of Asia Pacific for GroupM Nexus, Jon Thurlow as chief operating officer, Deepika Nikhilender, CEO for APAC at Xaxis and Brett Poole, CEO for APAC & Australia and New Zealand at Finecast.

Saha’s previously held the role of CEO for APAC at Xaxis, where he oversaw GroupM’s INCA, Finecast, Sightline and Acceleration. Thurlow will add on the role of COO of GroupM Nexus to his existing role of COO of APAC for GroupM.

Meanwhile, Nikhilender has been promoted to replace Saha. She was previously the APAC vice president for Xaxis, a role which she has held for close to five years. Nikhilender  was also recently awarded Campaign Asia’s Business Leader of the Year and Technology Chief of the Year.

Finally, Poole has been promoted to CEO, moving up from his role as managing director, a role he held for close to five years. He has been with GroupM since 2015 and previously held various roles at Plista, MPlatform and Xaxis.

“GroupM Nexus is a cross-channel performance-led organisation that unites our expertise in service excellence, AI-technology and the most advanced solutions. This is the future of marketing, and we are poised to offer our clients and agencies the most powerful performance engine that will accelerate their growth,” said Saha.

“I’m honoured to be working alongside some of the world’s best specialists at GroupM Nexus to collectively cultivate a better media ecosystem.”