Saurabh Saksena launches new agency, ‘Next Wave Worldwide’

After leaving VML India in 2024, Saurabh Saksena launched his new agency, Next Wave Worldwide.

Sharing the development on LinkedIn, he wrote, “Next Wave Worldwide stands for "Human Expertise amplified by Artificial Intelligence”. We're not an AI company. While our proprietary AI engines do power our backend, it is human expertise that truly unlocks value for marketers and advertisers.”

He quit VML India in May 2024. 

At VML India, he was elevated to the role of President after WPP merged VMLY&R with Wunderman Thompson to form VML and appointed its long-time associate Babita Baruah as India CEO.

Before the merger, he was the CEO of VMLY&R.

In the past, Saksena was the President of Red Fuse Communications, India, the WPP agency that manages Colgate Palmolive.

He was also the Managing Director of JWT Malaysia in the past. Before moving to Kuala Lumpur, he was Chief Growth Officer at J Walter Thompson New Delhi. He spent close to a decade at JWT, having joined as Executive Business Director. 

Saksena started his career at Clarion Communications and went on to work at Ogilvy and DDB Mudra. He was also the publisher of the Mid-Day afternoon newspaper for two years.