MUMBAI: Averill Sequeira has landed the plum job of chief strategy officer at Essencemediacom, the WPP Media brand, marking another step up the corporate hierarchy for the seasoned media strategist. The appointment, which began in July, caps a career spanning over 20 years in India’s bustling advertising and media planning sector.
Sequeira’s ascent through the ranks reads like a textbook case of steady professional progression. Her journey began modestly in 2004 as a media planner at Madison Communications, before moving to Lodestar Universal where she cut her teeth on communication planning and media tools development.
The real acceleration came during her lengthy stint at Mindshare, GroupM’s media agency, where she spent nearly six years climbing from senior director of business planning to principal partner for strategy. Her remit there included managing strategic units, delivering marketing solutions, and shepherding blue-chip clients like PepsiCo through the digital transformation.
A brief entrepreneurial detour saw her founding TranSkills India, a skills development venture, in 2013—though the appeal of agency life proved too strong to resist for long. She returned to the media fold at Cheil India as general manager of planning, before joining EssenceMediacom India in 2021.
At EssenceMediacom, Sequeira has worn multiple hats, serving first as chief product officer and later as head of creative futures, before her latest promotion to the top strategy role. Her expertise spans customer insight, creative problem-solving, and marketing communications—skills that will prove essential as media agencies grapple with an increasingly fragmented advertising landscape.
The appointment signals WPP Media’s confidence in homegrown talent, particularly as multinational agencies face pressure to localise their leadership teams across key markets like India.
