Essence elevates Sonali Malaviya as MD, Anand Chakravarthy moves on

Essence has announced the elevation of Sonali Malaviya as managing director in India. 

 

Based in Delhi, Malaviya is now part of the executive committee at the agency and will report to T Gangadhar, CEO, Essence Apac, and Prasanth Kumar, CEO, GroupM South Asia. 

 

She replaces Anand Chakravarthy who has moved on from the agency to pursue new opportunities.

Malaviya joined Essence in 2018. Prior to her elevation, she was leading the agency’s Google business in India and Southeast Asia as senior vice president, client services. 

 

Gangadhar said, "Sonali comes with rich experience in management, marketing and media across industries and markets, as well as a deep understanding of Essence’s business, work, people and culture. In addition to building strong, collaborative partnerships with clients and employees alike, she is an advocate of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. India continues to be a priority for Essence in Apac and globally, and with Sonali at the helm, I am very excited about our next phase of growth and development in the market. We would also like to thank Anand for his efforts in helping to establish our business in India over the last three years. We greatly appreciate his contributions and wish him the best in his future endeavours.”

 

Kumar added, “We are glad to see Sonali take over the role of Essence India managing director. With her background and significant achievements, she will add to the capabilities of Essence and work with our teams to improve the client experience. As we continue to develop leaders internally, Sonali is also part of our growing pool of talent taking on various leadership roles across GroupM India. I look forward to working with Sonali and leveraging her expertise."

 

Malaviya said, “I am truly honoured to have the opportunity to lead Essence in India. Over the past three years, I have witnessed and been part of our incredible growth story in this market, and am very proud of what our agency, clients and employees have achieved together. I am looking forward to partnering with our highly talented teams and leveraging our industry-leading capabilities to help even more brands in India achieve data-driven growth and transformation, as well as valuable connections with consumers."

 

In a career spanning more than 20 years she has also worked with Colorbar Cosmetics, Twitter, Mindshare, PHD, Roy Morgan Research and MediaCom.