ITV

Tag: Maxus South Asia

  • Ajit Varghese heads back to Madison as partner and CEO

    Ajit Varghese heads back to Madison as partner and CEO

    MUMBAI: Ajit Varghese is set to return to the world of advertising, taking the reins at Sam Balsara’s Madison as partner and chief executive officer. The move marks a homecoming for Varghese, who cut his teeth at the agency before a globe-spanning career across media and tech.

    Varghese had only recently been chief revenue officer at Jiostar, the Reliance–Disney joint venture, a role he held for seven months. Before that he led ad sales for the Walt Disney Company in India (2023–24) and served as chief commercial officer at ShareChat and Moj (2020–22), where he drove a 7x revenue surge and helped turbocharge growth in Bharat-focused social media and short video.

    His longest stint was at WPP, where he rose from managing director of Maxus South Asia to global president of Wavemaker, overseeing 3,000 staff across 50 markets. Along the way, he delivered double-digit bottom-line growth, launched new digital and data-driven practices, and notched a string of industry awards.

    Varghese began his career at Madison in 1999, climbing to chief operating officer before leaving in 2006. Back then, he helped Coca-Cola triple its media budget in India and added marquee clients such as McDonald’s, Asian Paints, and Axis Bank.

    His return signals Madison’s intent to sharpen its edge in a market that is once again in flux.

  • Maxus strengthens top management in south; appoints Anil Sathiraju as GM

    Maxus strengthens top management in south; appoints Anil Sathiraju as GM

    MUMBAI: In a move to further strengthen their top management, global media and communication planning firm Maxus has appointed Anil Sathiraju as general manager Maxus South 2.

     

    Maxus South has been growing rapidly and handles some of the biggest clients of the region. Sathiraju will report to Maxus South India & South Asia managing p Sanchayeeta Verma.

     

    With Sathiraju coming on board, Maxus consolidates the senior management strength in the South, along with Kishankumar Shyamalan as GM South 1.

     

    Maxus South Asia managing director Kartik Sharma said, “Our South operations have been the trail blazers in many areas for Maxus and we are looking forward to scale new heights. Anil is an important and strategic addition keeping this in mind.”

     

    Commenting on the new appointment Verma added, “The media landscape is possibly at its most dynamic state today. It’s a time of rapid and big changes. Not only do we have to stay on top of this and ensure that we incorporate the new state of things in the way we do the communication planning for our brands, we also have to ensure executional excellence so that strategy translates to reality. On top of it, in today’s uncertain economic conditions, our media monies have to result into tangible business results for our brands. All of this means, more engagement and more speed at the senior management level. This prompted us to create two distinct SBUs within Maxus South and bring in the best people to man them, i.e, Anil and Kishan. Anil typifies Maxus PACE and we are delighted to have him on board.”

     

    Elaborating on his new role, Sathiraju said, “Moving from an agency after 15 yrs was not at all easy for me. Maxus gave me that confidence and motivation to take the leap. With the vision that Maxus has, and the kind of work that they do, my decision making became that much easier.”

     

    Armed with an experience of 19 years, Sathiraju worked with Mudra Max prior to this.