Sonali Vaidya to head HR at GroupM India

She takes over from Gaurav Hirey who moves to Singapore for a new role

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | January 4, 2012

GroupM, the leading media planning and investment agency of the country has just announced the appointment of Sonali Vaidya as Human Resources Head, India. Sonali Vaidya takes over from Gaurav Hirey who will move to Singapore to be a part of the GroupM Regional Talent Team and has also been appointed as HR Business Partner for Maxus (Asia Pacific). Sonali will be based in Mumbai and will report to Vikram Sakhuja, CEO South Asia, GroupM.

Commenting on her new appointment, Sonali said, "I am indeed excited to be a part of India's biggest and best Media Agency. Talent Management is new to this industry and is in its formative stages. There are huge opportunities for our businesses to realize the benefits of managing talent and hence I am looking forward to being a part of this journey and delivering delight to our employees and customers!"

Sonali has over 14 years of experience in the human resources field across companies such as ABN AMRO Bank, GE Consumer Finance and ESPN Star Sports. She joins GroupM from Alchemy Group, a financial services group, where she was Group HR Head. Sonali's emphases are on building an extremely intensive talent management program to engage and grow GroupM's talent internally.

In his new role, Gaurav will lead the HR activities for the Region including recruitment, talent management and development, corporate social responsibility and employee relations. He will also support GroupM Talent projects in addition to this. He will report to Angela Ryan the GroupM Global Talent Head and Neil Stewart CEO- Maxus Asia Pac.

Gaurav Hirey commented on his new role, "The last three and a half years have been an intoxicating journey and it is a delight to see GroupM become not just the best place to work but become the place where the best work. The focus on talent by the Management Team especially from Vikram Sakhuja, CEO South Asia, has been phenomenal. Our success in Talent Management is clearly reflected in the level of satisfaction we are delivering to our clients and our employees who have made us the employer brand of choice! Extremely excited at my new assignment, it gives me an opportunity to learn and share best practices from across the region and it is my belief that the talent function in this industry can make a significant impact on our business and hence our clients!".

Vikram Sakhuja, CEO - South Asia, GroupM said, “We are delighted to welcome Sonali on board. She brings a wealth of commercial people management experience to the role. Gaurav has done a fabulous job in the past 3 years to bring scale, structure and credibility to the GroupM talent agenda that has gone from setting HR systems, to stepping up employee engagement and communication, to scaling up recruitment and performance management. His efforts to make GroupM one of the best places to work in has been validated by the Employer Branding Awards. We're confident that Sonali will prove to be a great asset for our organization through her solid leadership and experience in building a passionate workforce.”

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