Publicis Groupe appoints Anupriya Acharya as CEO, South Asia

New Delhi: Advertising and public relations company Publicis Groupe has announced the appointment of Anupriya Acharya as chief executive officer, South Asia.

Acharya started her career at Ogilvy in 1994 and had worked at a number of agencies before joining Publicis Groupe in 2013 as CEO of Zenith. In 2016, she was elevated to CEO of Publicis Media where her mandate encompassed all the Groupe media agencies including Zenith, Starcom, and Performics. She is also actively involved with Advertising Agencies Association of India and other industry bodies and also an independent director on the Board of DB Corp.

In the newly created role, Acharya will be leading Publicis Groupe's country agenda across India and Sri Lanka. Her primary responsibilities will include driving greater integration across the Groupe’s operations to deliver end-to-end marketing transformation to existing clients as well as cultivating and attracting the best talent across Agencies and Practices.

“I am thrilled with Anupriya’s appointment. India is an absolutely critical market for us, one of the very best talent pools in the world, with strong innovation and a great resonance well into the region and beyond. It is a strategic priority for us, and shifting to a Groupe leadership is a catalyst to accelerate our investments in India. Over the past three years, we have made significant progress in making the Power of One a reality in India, with great examples of collaboration for the benefit of our clients and talents and having Anupriya at the helm is very natural. I am truly looking forward to partnering with her in this new role.” Loris Nold, CEO, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Publicis Groupe, said in a statement.

Noris added that Saurabh Varma, currently CEO of Publicis Communications has decided to pursue other career opportunities, and will be leaving Publicis Groupe after 17 years.

“It’s a great honor to get this mandate and am both excited and humbled by getting this opportunity. We have such an incredibly talented leadership team in India, who has been the very reason for our success over the years. I look forward to building on this momentum and innovate further with new products and approaches,” Acharya said in a statement.