Mindshare Malaysia shuffles leadership team as Varun Channa steps down

MALAYSIA - Mindshare Malaysia has promoted Cindy Chia to the role of managing director, effective immediately.

The appointment follows Varun Channa announcing his decision to leave the agency. Channa joined the media agency in April 2015 after six years with Danone Indonesia. He is currently serving out his notice period. 

At the same time, Dheeraj Raina, who joined Mindshare as head of strategy in 2014, has taken on the role of general manager. He will take on responsibilities related to product and new business development, in addition to his strategic planning role.

In a statement, GroupM Malaysia CEO Girish Menon said Channa has put together “a world-class management team” at Mindshare.

“Varun [Channa] set up the Loop Room in early 2015 to enable real-time data-driven marketing for clients," Menon said. "He has also had a 100 percent success rate with new business, leading to an all-time high market share of 26.1 percent for Mindshare. This is the perfect springboard for Cindy [Chia] to take the agency to even greater heights.”

Chia has been with the agency since 1999 and has worked on many key global accounts such as Nestle, HSBC, GSK and Chanel. While Raina has been instrumental in several of its subsequent new business wins, including Pizza Hut, Digi, Nippon Paints and Malaysia Airlines, according to the agency.