Mumbai : It may be recalled that in October this year, GroupM had announced the appointment of Lindsay Pattison as global chief executive officer, Maxus, a position previously occupied by Vikram Sakhuja. Since then, the industry has wondered about the nature of his new next role within the network.
GroupM, at that time, had refrained from commenting on Sakhuja’s new role, but clarified that he will remain within the group. Since then, the industry has wondered about the nature of his new role. In fact, there was also some talk about him moving to a rival network IPG.
But as it turns out, Sakhuja is currently designated as group strategy officer of GroupM Worldwide.
The market is still rife with talks of Sakhuja having shifted base to New York. Sources, however, say he is still “very much in India, as of now.”
Recall that Sakhuja was promoted to the position of global CEO, Maxus in August 2012. Prior to that, he was CEO of GroupM India and South Asia. He has been with GroupM since 2002 and has since held various positions within the network, at Mindshare, Maxus and the parent company level.
An IIT alumnus, Sakhuja’s first job was with DCM, a textile company, where he worked as a management trainee. He was with the company for two years. After that, he went on to study at IIM Kolkata, after which he joined P&G, in 1988, where he excelled in research. Richardson Hindustan (RHL) had just been bought over by P&G then.
He then moved to Coca-Cola India where he spent around four and a half years. It was after his days at Star India,where he headed marketing, when he joined Mindshare.
