Saurabh Varma, CEO, Leo Burnett Group India, has been named CEO for South Asia.
Jarek Ziebinski, chairman and CEO, Leo Burnett Asia Pacific announced the elevation effective 17 November 2015.
With this change, Varma gets additional responsibility of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, besides with the agency's operations in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai.
Ziebinski said, "South Asia is an important region for Leo Burnett from our global strategy perspective. With Saurabh’s appointment, we want to further enhance connectivity of our operations across these dynamic markets to drive business growth for our clients and the agency.”
He added, "Having been at Leo Burnett for close to a decade, Saurabh has consistently proven himself in his roles as the regional chief strategy officer and recently as CEO of Leo Burnett India. He is without a doubt, the best candidate to lead our South Asia operations to the next level.”
Varma said, "We have incredible operations across Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. I look forward to working with some incredibly talented leaders to build new age specialist functions across all markets and create larger futures for our clients.”
Varma had moved to take over the India operations two years ago. He was CSO for Asia Pacific prior.
Also read: Saurabh Varma to take over at Leo Burnett Group India; Arvind Sharma exits after 30 year-stint