MAM
Vikram Sakhuja joins Madison Media as group CEO & equity partner
MUMBAI: Sam Balsara’s Madison World has roped in Vikram Sakhuja as Madison Media and Madison OOH CEO and board member. Sakhuja will also have an equity stake in the company.
An old hand at GroupM, Sakhuja was most recently global strategic development officer at the WPP agency. At Madison, he will be responsible for the media and OOH business of Madison World and will report to Balsara.
The current Madison Media Group CEO Gautam Kiyawat has, for personal reasons, decided to relocate to Singapore.
Balsara said, “I would like to place on record Gautam’s substantial contribution to Madison Media in the three years that he has been with us, especially in the area of growing our people and working as a team. I thank Gautam for his contribution and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”
On Sakhuja’s appointment, Balsara said, “I am delighted to have Vikram come on board and partner us in Madison. I know Vikram as a true blue professional, over the last 20 years, first as a client, then a media partner and finally as a formidable competitor. I am confident that he will be able to contribute significantly to our clients’ business growth and success, by providing the right strategic direction, given his vast and rich experience.”
Added Sakhuja, “I am truly excited at the prospect of returning home to India and in an entrepreneurial capacity. It is also a privilege to now partner a person who initiated me into media in my client days. Media has never been more exciting, and I look forward to further strengthening an already iconic agency brand.”
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.
