Publicis Groupe taps McCann exec Amit Sutha as Malaysia CEO

Publicis Groupe has appointed Amit Sutha as CEO of its Malaysian operations. Sutha joins from McCann Worldgroup New York, where he served as president and global chief client officer, overseeing McCann Content Studios globally. He succeeds Neil Hudspeth, who left the position in September 2024.

In his new role, Sutha will oversee Publicis Groupe’s operations in Malaysia, including creative, media, influence, production, commerce, data, technology and client services. Sutha has a background spanning both creative and media, having previously held roles such as global chief client officer and global president of performance and campaign content at Mediabrands Content Studio. He will report to Amrita Randhawa, CEO of Publicis Groupe Singapore and Southeast Asia.

The appointment marks a return to Malaysia for Sutha, who spent four years in New York. During his 13 years in Malaysia, he held leadership roles including CEO of Universal McCann and Ensemble Worldwide, country manager of Proximity and chief strategy officer at BBDO.

Speaking about his appointment, Randhawa said, “We are excited that Amit has chosen Publicis Groupe as home for the next chapter of his career. Malaysia has a unique role in the design of our Southeast Asia organisation as a centre of excellence powering functions from data to performance media and production. As my leadership team and I met and got to know Amit, it became clear that not only were we meeting someone who had the entrepreneurial spirit and depth of technical capability across functions but someone who already felt like he was part of our team in the way he thought of the market, its talent and our collective future.”

Sutha added, “Publicis Groupe in Southeast Asia and globally have had incredible momentum and success in recent years making it absolutely an organisation I want to be a part of. The client-centric design of the Groupe, the people I have met through the process and the ambition have me excited.”

Sutha's appointment comes on the heels of other leadership changes in Malaysia where Kristine Ong was recently named CEO of Publicis Media Malaysia, and Sujith Rao took over the position of MD, Performics Malaysia.

Sutha's appointment is effective as of January 20.