Ambika Srivastava is new IMX chairman

India Media Exchange (IMX), media negotiation unit formed in 2007 to leverage the combined assets of Starcom MediaVest Group and ZenithOptimedia, has named Ambika Srivastava as its new chairman. Srivastava (pictured), CEO of ZenithOptimedia, fills the void left by Shyam Shankar who quit as IMX's president in May 2008.

In another development, VivaKi, the strategic unit created by Publicis Groupe to leverage the combined scale of its media and digital operations, named Srikant Sastri, managing director of Solutions Digitas as its India country chair.

"There are two strategic opportunities for VivaKi to leverage its powerful scale in India. One is to leverage our significant media buying clout, and the other is to aggregate additional resources and investment dollars to deliver new tools, digital capabilities and technology platforms to clients," said David Kenny, managing partner of VivaKi. "Srikant's digital expertise and capacity for activating solutions will benefit our brands in market. Ambika will bring her investment acumen and a reputation for innovation to IMX."

Srivastava brings to her role more than 25 years of experience, working with agencies such as McCann Erickson, Lintas and HTA where she has worked on brands such as Coca-Cola, Gillette, General Motors, Fidelity, HP, Nestle and Unilever. "My mandate is to ensure that we add value to our clients and take a step forward in new areas of expertise," said Srivastava.

Sastri co-founded Solutions Integrated in 1995 after spending ten years at Unilever on the Pond's business, and also McCann-Erickson. 

"The challenge of creating synergies for the business whilst enabling SMG, Digitas and ZenithOptimedia to flourish in their own right is one that I relish.

Additionally, we're gearing up to tap synergies in the non-digital space by offering clients an array of consumer touch-points as part of a media-neutral strategy."