GroupM shakes up Malaysia leadership

GroupM has made a host of changes to its leadership in Malaysia, beginning with Chanchal Chakrabarty taking over as Malaysia CEO effective 1 August.

Chakrabarty was most recently COO for GroupM Malaysia, and replaces Jon Thurlow, who was interim CEO. Thurlow, in turn, becomes GroupM Malaysia chairman, as well as continuing in his position as COO for GroupM Asia-Pacific.

Chakrabarty said he is excited to lead the business in its next chapter, and is confident in the new leaders the agency has assembled.

These include Cindy Chia, who moves from managing director of Mindshare in Malaysia to GroupM head of client services. Succeeding Chia at Mindshare on 1 August is Dheeraj Raina, currently managing director at ADA Malaysia. Raina returns to Mindshare having previously worked as general manager and head of strategy and product.

Moving on to Xaxis, Asha Nair has been promoted to managing director, having previously worked as director. In addition, Wing Tak Yee also returns GroupM on 15 August to lead its [m]Platform unit. Yee was previously head of digital at Maxus, and arrives from Star Media Group.

Finally at MediaCom, Saurabh Chandrashekhar has been promoted to general manager, product and new business, and Wan Lih Chan to general manager, client and talent.

Mark Patterson, GroupM APAC CEO, said: “The new leadership structure will be more nimble and adaptive to the rapidly evolving Malaysian market – more digital, more mobile, more data-focused.”