Basabdatta Chowdhuri, Ajit Varghese step into Srinivas' shoes at Madison Media

It has been a great start to the New Year for Madison Media. Hyundai's Rs 60-crore AOR has certainly brought the smile back on the faces of Madison Media executives. Now the challenge is to grow existing businesses and, of course, attract new business. To that end, the agency has promoted two senior professionals from within the ranks, who will collectively shoulder ex-Madison Media COO, north and south, CVL Srinivas's responsibility. While the Delhi office is now under the charge of Basabdatta Chowdhuri, who is general manager, at Mumbai Ajit Varghese has been elevated to the post of general manager, Madison Media, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Explaining the reason why Madison Media decided against appointing an outsider, Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison Communications, says, "Though we got around 20 resumes from around the globe for the position that was held by Srini (CVL Srinivas), in keeping with Madison's philosophy to elevate young people to higher responsibilities and encourage professional growth, we decided not to replace him with an outsider but elevate our own people. People with potential and reward them for their performance and commitment."

Quite naturally, both Chowdhuri and Varghese are kicked about their new roles. Chowdhuri, the custodian of the Delhi branch, knows her objectives only too well. She summarised her mandate in just three words ‘grow the branch'. Though the branch had suffered a few setbacks - for example, it lost the Airtel AOR last year - Chowudhri is happy that things are looking better with Hyundai. "With Hyundai, the Delhi branch would now clock billings of about Rs 60 crore," she says.

With Hyundai on board, the agency now counts Asian Paints, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Godrej Consumer Products, Godrej Sara Lee, Kinetic, Maruti, BPL, Playwin, Top Ramen, IFB, Perfetti, Domino's, ABN AMRO, Somany and computer manufacturer Acer in its kitty.

On her part, Chowdhuri, who has spent close to five years at Madison, started her career with The Times of India in response. Her first brush with media planning happened at Anthem in 1993. Thereafter she moved to Grey Worldwide, and then to McCann-Erickson before joining Madison. At Madison she has worked on Coca-Cola, and for over a year, headed the Bangalore branch (2000-2001).

Varghese, on the other hand, began his career in market research with IMRB. After a year-and-a-half at IMRB, Varghese joined Lowe (then Lintas), where he was involved in the planning of the Lever business. After Lowe, Varghese moved to Madison, and has been at the agency for four-and-a-half years. © 2004 agencyfaqs!