Mindshare names Ashutosh Srivastava global head of emerging markets, people and products

Ashutosh Srivastava, chief executive officer, Mindshare APAC, has been named chairman and chief executive officer for global emerging markets, and global leader for products/services and talent development.

On the appointment, Nick Emery, chief executive officer, Mindshare Worldwide, said, “I’m delighted that Ashutosh is taking on the global role to drive Mindshare’s development. Ashu is the epitome of a new world leader and our product, people and growth markets are in safe hands.”

Srivastava will continue to be based in Singapore, while his focus would now extend to emerging markets. To begin with, he noted that Russia, India, China, Indonesia, and other emerging high growth markets from Asia would be on his radar.

In addition to this, Srivastava will work with global and regional leaders in London and Asia to drive new products and services. He would also engage with the agency's talent development community to strengthen the talent pool and leadership globally.

Srivastava explained, “The focus on talent is to help us develop a bigger pool of leaders who are able to operate effectively. I recently ran a company conference featuring some of our top leadership talent - and at the end, someone in that team who has recently joined us after having worked with Newscorp and Viacom, mentioned that she thought Mindshare was the first place she'd ever worked at, where ideas and people are at the core of the business, not status or office location, which is really refreshing to hear. That's the kind of culture in which companies in the knowledge sector will thrive, and we want to create this everywhere.”

Srivastava helped in setting up Mindshare India in 2001. He played the role of Mindshare India's managing director till 2004.  Thereafter, he was elevated to the post of chief executive officer, GroupM South Asia. In 2006 he moved to Singapore to assume the position of chief executive officer, Mindshare APAC.

Change in APAC structure, Gowthaman elevated

Srivastava’s promotion is accompanied by a change in the structure of Mindshare in the APAC region. It will now be re-organised around clusters, on the lines of its operations in Europe.

R Gowthaman, currently chief client officer, APAC, will head one of the clusters - South and South East Asia - as chief executive officer. South Asia includes the India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh markets; while South East Asia is comprised of the Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam markets. He will continue to be based in Singapore.

Gowthaman has been with Mindshare since it started in India in 2002. He was elevated to the post of chief client officer, Mindshare APAC in October 2011.

“I have been focussing on building the client leadership practice across Asia Pacific, customising our products and services to individual client needs, especially in the area of value added services like analytics, consulting, business intelligence, social, search, mobile, content and activation. First hand feel of the markets across the region is a good exposure to customise these services,” he explained.

On the division of the APAC market into three clusters, Gowthaman said it helps provide the much required attention in emerging markets, flattening the structure and the ability to go to markets with speed and precision. “It also helps in unearthing talent from the region. We would like to go ahead of the market in an emerging market like Burma, for instance” he added.

James Greet, currently chief executive officer, Australia, will handle Japan, Korea and New Zealand additionally, and also be the APAC regional leader for talent. 

Srivastava will continue to oversee the Greater China offices, which form the third cluster, directly. 

Srivastava added, "James has in a very short time turned our Australia office into a powerhouse of great work and talent. G’Man (Gowthaman) has crafted our success in India, which is a world class office – and in the past few months built up our product for regional clients. Along with China, they have been the driving force behind the momentum we have across Asia Pacific. They are both outstanding leaders, and I look forward to working with them in their new roles.”