Publicis Media names APAC practice leads

Following the restructure of the Publicis Groupe, APAC practice leads have been put in place for Publicis Media.The new appointment sees former Zenith Optimedia CIO Harpreet Kaintel taking up a leadership role for analytics and insights for the group. Meanwhile Rajesh Mahtani, head of growth and strategy at Starcom MediaVest Group will now take up the role of business development & communications lead.Regional communications director for Starcom Mediavest Group, Deepa Balji is now heading up communications and ZenithOptimedia's new business and marketing director Christina Kenyon leading business development.Former chief strategy officer of Zenith, Christopher Harrison will be leading strategy and Starcom's digital practice lead Ian Loon will leading digital for the business transformation unit on the APAC level. Andy Carter, former APAC trading head for ViVaki will head up trading on a group level.  Jonathan Mackenzie has come on board from Omnicom Media Group to lead Data, Tech & Innovation. He replaces Grace Liao, who earlier exited the agency.Previously, SMG's finance lead, Chingyi Chan is now finance lead for the group and SMG's Benjamin Yeow leading the TAAG practice.According to the company this is "to create scale, speed and a unified approach across all markets". These appointments will leverage the scale and capabilities of its global agency brands Starcom, Zenith, Mediavest, Spark and Optimedia and Blue 449.    They will all be reporting to Boyle, CEO for Publicis Media - Asia Pacific. Boyle (pictured) said:“We are a brand-led organisation, powered by global practices. Our Practice Leads will work with our talents from around the world to deliver for our clients and people in APAC. These leaders, in partnership with our market and brand CEOs, represent a powerful group that holds a unique combination of expertise and passion to help us drive transformation for our clients. As well as driving Practice excellence, they will continue to work directly on our client business, where they can create and add the best possible value."The reorganisation of Publicis Groupe’s media capabilities into a Publicis Media hub is part of Publicis Groupe’s transformation efforts previously announced. Most recently, following the restructure Jeffrey Seah, Southeast Asia CEO of Starcom Mediavest left the company.Publicis Groupe is organised into four Solutions Hubs - Publicis Communications led by Arthur Sadoun, Publicis Media led by Steve King, Publicis.Sapient led by Alan Herrick and Publicis Health led by Nick Colucci - and connected through a Chief Revenue Officer organization, led by Laura Desmond, which will deliver client impact leveraging  Publicis Groupe’s entire range of services.