Rajul Kulshreshtha to head Optimedia, Indonesia

Rajul Kulshreshtha, who put in his papers at Universal McCann last week, is preparing for an overseas assignment. He has been appointed head of Optimedia (Publicis Group SA company), Indonesia, and is likely to join office in the first week of February (2003). Confirming this development to agencyfaqs!, Kulshreshtha said, "I am quite excited about my new assignment. At this stage all I know is that I am moving over to take charge of the outfit there. Things will be clearer when I actually arrive there." Kulshreshtha quits Universal McCann as vice-president.

Here, a quick backgrounder on Optimedia may be helpful. Publicis group SA has two media subsidiaries - the Starcom Media Vest group and Zenith Optimedia group. In its turn, Zenith Optimedia is the holding company for Zenith Media and Optimedia Networks. Optimedia was launched 10 years ago and today it operates 67 offices in 43 countries. In India, Optimedia has offices in Mumbai and Delhi.

Kulshreshtha's task is clearly cut out. According to some recent reports on the net, the media market in Indonesia is poised for a tremendous growth in the coming years. In a country where significant progress has been made in the political and economic structure, overall advertising spending has been growing at more than 20 per cent every year since 1999. In a nutshell, the Indonesian media market represents great professional exposure for Kulshreshtha.

While he is looking forward to his new assignment, Kulshreshtha seems a little nostalgic. "It takes very little to hang on but it takes a lot to let go," he says. Obviously, it must be tough. Kulshreshtha had been with Universal McCann for about 11 years and has worked on scores of brands including Gillette, Reckitt Benckiser, Madura Garments, LG Electronics, Master Card and General Motors. © 2003 agencyfaqs!