MAM
GroupM India rejigs top management
MUMBAI: GroupM India, the media investment group of WPP, has appointed Sidharth Parashar as President – Investments and Pricing, GroupM India and Ashwin Padmanabhan as President – Partnerships and Trading, GroupM India. As part of this elevation, both Sidharth and Ashwin will join the GroupM Executive Committee.
GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar said, “The elevation of both Sidharth and Ashwin is a testament of GroupM’s continued investment in its talent which has helped build a strong leadership pipeline, creating leaders to take our business into the future. In this ever-evolving integrated media ecosystem, we understand the importance of having leaders across key client focus areas like media investments and trading. Both Sidharth and Ashwin are astute leaders and I am confident that they will continue to drive client delight and expand GroupM’s reach across platforms.”
Sidharth and Ashwin have been leading GroupM’s pricing-investment and partnerships-trading practices over the years and they will take over their respective new roles effective November 2019.
Sidharth has been with GroupM for over 15 years. He commenced his journey as the Agency Buying Head for Maxus and has played a key role in evangelising the buying function in the organisation. In his new role, Sidharth will be responsible for leading GroupM India’s investment mandates across all media. He will further build on GroupM’s buying function and provide unique solutions to his clients. All the GroupM Agency Trading Heads and Cluster Heads will continue to report to Sidharth.
GroupM India President – Investments and Pricing Sidharth Parashar said, “It has been an amazing 15 years working at GroupM and I am delighted to join the executive leadership team. I am excited about the opportunity to lead the Group’s investments across platforms. GroupM has always raised the bar on innovation and providing exceptional value to our esteemed clients. I look forward to continuing delivering these company values each day.”
Ashwin joined GroupM from Reliance Broadcast Network where, as the COO he led the network’s Radio and Television business. At GroupM, Ashwin has been driving Trading and Partnerships. Along with his trading roles, Ashwin also leads Motion Content Group. Under his leadership, Motion’s unique value proposition of content Production, Financing and Monetization across platforms has become a big differentiator to the entire content ecosystem.
GroupM India President – Partnerships and Trading Ashwin Padmanabhan said, “I am delighted with this recognition and I would like to thank Prasanth Kumar and the GroupM leadership team for reposing faith and for considering me for this position. GroupM gives a unique opportunity to create, innovate and build in an entrepreneurial environment and I look forward to continue enhancing the GroupM value proposition for our clients, media and technology partners. ”
Both Sidharth and Ashwin will continue to be based out of the GroupM’s Gurgaon office and will report to Prasanth Kumar
MAM
WPP appoints Estée Lauder’s Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer
Former Estée Lauder executive to lead operations, technology and culture overhaul under WPP’s three-year growth plan
LONDON: WPP has appointed Anne-Isabelle Choueiri as chief transformation officer in a newly created role tasked with delivering the group’s Elevate28 strategy.
Choueiri joins from The Estée Lauder Companies, where she led enterprise-wide strategic initiatives, including the “One ELC” operating model and major upgrades to enterprise marketing, data and analytics capabilities. She also led the redesign of enterprise technology teams and served on the company’s AI taskforce, driving AI strategy, adoption and value realisation across the business.
At WPP, she will be responsible for designing, implementing and embedding the operating model behind Elevate28, the company’s three-year growth plan unveiled in February 2026. She will lead efforts to improve innovation, efficiency and integration across WPP’s client offerings, with a focus on delivering agile, outcome-driven solutions and measurable growth.
Choueiri will oversee organisational transformation across the group, working closely with product and enterprise technology teams to deploy AI, data and technology to build new capabilities and improve operational performance. She will also work with the people function to embed cultural change, strengthen an agile performance mindset and support talent development across the organisation.
Before joining Estée Lauder, she held senior roles across consulting and digital agencies, including at Accenture, Masaï (a Bain & Company spin-off), and Kearney, with experience spanning strategy, data and digital marketing transformation.
Cindy Rose, chief executive officer of WPP, said Choueiri brings a strong track record of leading large-scale transformation across operations, technology and culture, adding that her appointment will help accelerate the group’s next phase of growth under Elevate28.
Choueiri said WPP’s strategy represents an ambitious opportunity to reshape how the company operates and delivers for clients, adding that she looks forward to building integrated solutions and fostering a culture of innovation and change.
She will be based in New York and will join WPP’s executive committee.
