Sonali Malaviya replaces Anand Chakravarthy as Essence India MD

Essence, which is part of GroupM, has appointed of Sonali Malaviya as its managing director for India. Based out of Delhi, Malaviya will report to Essence APAC CEO T. Gangadhar and GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar.

She will join Essence’s APAC leadership team and GroupM India’s executive committee as part of her role. Anand Chakravarthy, previously Managing Director for Essence India, has moved on from the agency to pursue new opportunities.

Joining Essence in 2018, Malaviya most recently led the agency’s Google business in India and Southeast Asia as senior vice president, Client Services. Previously, she served as chief operating officer at Colorbar Cosmetics and Country marketing lead at Twitter in India.

Malaviya said she is looking forward to working with her teams to help more "even more brands in India achieve data-driven growth and transformation, as well as valuable connections with consumers."

“India continues to be a priority for Essence in APAC and globally, and with Sonali at the helm, I am very excited about our next phase of growth and development in the market,” said Gangadhar. 

Group M South Asia CEO Kumar added “As we continue to develop leaders internally, Sonali is also part of our growing pool of talent taking on various leadership roles across GroupM India. I look forward to working with Sonali and leveraging her expertise."

Since Essence’s entry into India in 2016, the agency has expanded to three offices across Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Essence’s portfolio of clients includes Airtel, Britannia, Flipkart, Games24x7, Google, Honda motorcycles and scooters, Livspace, Melorra, Purplle, Vedantu, Wakefit and Zee5.