MAM
GroupM announces its new YCO
MUMBAI: Over the last year, GroupM has made a paradigm shift in the way it operates in South Asia, keeping in mind the ever changing media landscape. With the digital medium at the heart of its processes and planning, it has resulted in the conglomerate winning several new businesses across its agencies and specialist units.
GroupM has announced the new members of the YCO (youth committee) for 2014-15 to help it transform into a digitally centric marketing network. The names include Ashima Chetan, Chinmay Kelkar, Dany Coutinho, Divya Nair, Farah Siddiqui, Farzeen Udwadia, Manoj Kumar, Manvi Singh, Mohit Sharma, Nakul Agarwal, Parul Pandhoh, Ruth Alice Noranho, Sangeetha Mahadevan, Subhamoy Das and Vaibhav Choudhari.
The group of the brightest stars under 30 across GroupM agencies and specialist units will work together with the GroupM senior leadership on key initiatives.
The YCO initiative, started a year ago, has become a benchmark for GroupM’s worldwide offices and the industry alike. GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas said, “We launched several new initiatives in 2013 as part of our ‘New Me’ roadmap – which is helping us transform to a digitally centric marketing communications network from just a media agency. YCO was one such initiative in the talent space. We wanted to harness the knowledge, energy and enthusiasm that exist at the junior levels of the organisation and give them a platform where they could add value to our network. The YCO worked closely with the senior leadership team (EXCO) through the year in three areas – digital transformation, talent retention and internal & external communication programs. We got a lot of rich and valuable insights from YCO in all these areas and have made several changes to the way we used to operate”
GroupM South Asia chief talent officer Gaurav Hirey added, “The YCO initiative has been tremendously successful at GroupM. This year we have integrated a reverse mentoring element into the program where YCO members will mentor an EXCO member helping them sharpen or develop new skills. We believe that this initiative just like many others in GroupM will help us to be future ready and deliver client delight.”
GroupM India, the country’s largest media investment conglomerate, was honored with the ‘The Dream Company to Work’ award for in the media and entertainment sector. GroupM is also in the overall list of ‘Dream Employer of the Year’ in India. The awards have been conferred by the World HRD Congress 2014 in Mumbai.
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
