MAM
Publicis Groupe South Asia elevates Lalatendu Das to CEO, Publicis Media South Asia
Publicis Groupe South Asia announced today that it has elevated Lalatendu Das (LD), the current CEO of Performics India, to the newly created role of CEO of Publicis Media South Asia. Continuing to report to Publicis Groupe South Asia CEO Anupriya Acharya, LD will work closely with Zenith India CEO Jai Lala; Starcom India CEO Rathi Gangappa; PMX India MD Sejal Shah and other media leaders.
LD joined Publicis Groupe India in early 2022 as CEO of Performics India and in these three years he has further added marquee accounts, incubated innovative products and pivoted Performics India to top place in performance marketing and end-to-end digital solutions. Before joining Publicis Groupe South Asia, LD spent nearly a decade at McKinsey as a Partner and founding member of McKinsey Digital Labs in Asia Pacific. He co-led the McKinsey Digital/Technology practice, focusing on new digital business builds, customer journey transformations, and advanced analytics-led transformations. LD has also held major operational roles at Tata Consultancy Services for over a decade. An engineer and Postgraduate in Business Management from IIM Ahmedabad, LD has 25 years of experience.
Anupriya Acharya said, “LD is a remarkable leader with established credentials. He has led Performics India to great heights in the past three years. His extensive background in consulting, digital-led transformation, and large-scale operations across India and global markets made him uniquely qualified to drive significant value for our media clients. We are really excited to have him take on this new mandate.”
Lalatendu Das said, “I am delighted to be leading Publicis Media South Asia at an exciting, pivotal, and transformative time. It has scaled capabilities across strategy, insights and analytics, data and technology, and a strong and established portfolio of brands in its client roster. I look forward to keeping the growth momentum going, delivering industry-first offerings and tangible, exponential growth for clients. The canvas is vast, and the opportunities are huge.”
In a separate development, Publicis Media Services South Asia CEO Tanmay Mohanty is moving on to pursue new opportunities. He was overseeing the media operations of Zenith India and Starcom India in addition to the Media Product & Solutions Portfolio.
Anupriya Acharya said, “I would like to thank Tanmay for his contributions which have been invaluable. During his tenure with us, our media services and capabilities have not only scaled up tremendously with some of our biggest clients, but they have become the best offerings in the market. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours.”
MAM
Three senior OpenAI infrastructure executives join Meta
Key members of Stargate project move to rival amid aggressive AI spending race.
MUMBAI: Three key architects of OpenAI’s ambitious data centre plans have switched sides and joined Meta Platforms, according to people familiar with the matter. Peter Hoeschele, who played a central role in OpenAI’s high-profile Stargate initiative, is among the new hires. He is joined by Shamez Hemani, who focused on computing strategy and business development, and Anuj Saharan, another leader in the computing organisation. The Information first reported their departure from OpenAI on Thursday.
The moves come as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure. The company is projecting capital expenditure of up to $135 billion this year alone, with hundreds of billions more expected before the end of the decade to support its Meta Superintelligence Labs and new models such as Muse Spark.
OpenAI, which is pushing ahead with massive data centre expansion, had described its early lead in securing computing power as a competitive advantage. Stargate, originally announced last year as a $500 billion venture involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, has since become an umbrella term for the company’s broader data centre ambitions. However, the project has seen recent adjustments, including a pause on its UK plans and the decision not to expand the Abilene, Texas site.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, while Hoeschele, Hemani, and Saharan also declined to comment. OpenAI said it was grateful for the contributions of the three employees and remains focused on hiring talent for its infrastructure plans. The company recently brought in former Intel executive Sachin Katti to lead its industrial compute efforts.
In the high-stakes race to build the future of artificial intelligence, talent is proving to be as valuable as computing power itself. Meta’s latest hires suggest the competition for top infrastructure minds is intensifying, even as OpenAI continues to scale its own ambitious projects. The move highlights how quickly the AI talent war is heating up across Silicon Valley.
