Storyboard18 | Amin Lakhani promoted to CEO of Mindshare, Parthasarathy Mandayam appointed as strategy chief of GroupM South Asia

GroupM, media investment group of WPP, on Tuesday announced the appointment of Parthasarathy Mandayam (Maps) as chief strategy officer of GroupM South Asia, and said Amin Lakhani has been elevated to the role of chief executive officer of Mindshare South Asia which was earlier led by Maps. 

Prasanth Kumar, chief executive officer of GroupM South Asia, said, “We have witnessed a significant consolidation of existing businesses, with deeper penetration of our new core offerings under their (Lakhani and Maps) tutelage. Both have been instrumental in strengthening and reinvigorating the agency as it stands today. I have the utmost confidence in their expertise and know that both Maps and Lakhani will continue to drive innovation and further transformations in their future roles.”

Under the leadership of Maps and Amin, GroupM said that Mindshare had won multiple new businesses including Oppo, Zomato, Ferrero, Meesho, Uniqlo, IAC, RedBus, Upstox, Polycab and Great Learning. Mindshare also retained key clients like Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL), The Walt Disney Company, Kellogg’s, Home Center, and Max Fashion.

With more than 25 years of experience in the advertising and communication industry, Maps has successfully managed multiple leadership roles in Mindshare – across data, analytics, strategy, client leadership and business unit leadership. Starting his career with Mindshare in 2009 as head of the newly created business planning function, he went on to lead the north, east, and south offices. Later as chief product officer, he led specialist teams in driving strategic initiatives and creating bespoke tools.

In his new role as chief strategy officer, he will help channel data, technology, consumer understanding to chart the growth and transformation agenda. He will report to Prasanth Kumar, chief executive officer of GroupM South Asia.

Maps said, “As our offerings become more specialised, we need to ensure synergy and seamless flow of expertise between the various players both internal, WPP and external to get the full benefits of both scale and specialisation. As I steer through this journey I will continue to push forward with the growth and transformation agenda to bring in significant synergies between new age data, technology, consulting, products and offerings for our clients and internal stakeholders.”

Lakhani who is taking over from Maps has more than 20 years of experience in various roles in Mindshare and GroupM. In his previous role as chief operating officer of Mindshare South Asia, he has been instrumental in driving best practices and strengthening key client relationships. 

Earlier in his career as leader for Mindshare Fulcrum South Asia, he successfully led the integration of the digital business of Unilever in India, leading the team to the most coveted win of a Grand Prix at Cannes. He has extensive cross-functional experience in media, marketing- product management, leading large teams and has worked with various clients like Pepsi, GSK, ICICI, Castrol, HSBC, BYJU’s, Muthoot, and Kellogg’s.  

He plays an active role in industry bodies like BARC and AAAI. Lakhani will report to Prasanth Kumar, chief executive officer of GroupM South Asia and Helen McRae, chief executive officer of Mindshare Asia Pacific.

On his new role, Lakhani said, “New age data, technology, creativity, research, consulting, and products will play a major role in this journey. Our industry has always witnessed change. We’ve been at the centre of it and currently the world is also witnessing this. Hence, as marketers, we need to take charge and lead this journey for our clients and brands.”