CVL Srinivas joins Starcom MediaVest Group

Srinivas will head the organisation as MD, LiquidThread APAC, and chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group, India.

Starcom MediaVest Group has appointed media veteran CVL Srinivas as managing director,

LiquidThread, Asia Pacific, as well as chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group, India. Srinivas will report to Andrew Swinand, president, global operations, SMG and Brian Terkelsen, president and managing director, LiquidThread, SMG. He will work closely with Srikant Sastri, country chair, VivaKi India and will be a member of the SMG Global Management Group.

The post of chairman at Starcom has been newly created. Given the growing importance of India, SMG has created the position of chairman to oversee the Indian operations. A dedicated CEO for SMG India will be appointed soon, who will subsequently take over from Ravi Kiran. Kiran announced his decision to move on from the group in September, 2010.

Says CVL Srinivas about his new role in an official communiqu�, "SMG's promise to be the Human Experience Company is fascinating and future-focussed. I look forward to working closely with the teams at LiquidThread and SMG to translate this vision into tangible value for our clients". Srinivas will take charge with effect from January 5, 2011. He will be based in New Delhi.

Commenting on Srinivas' appointment, Swinand remarks, "We have found an extraordinary leader for SMG India, and for our growing LiquidThread operations in APAC. Srini brings with him nearly two decades of business experience and we look forward to him being part of the SMG family. We are confident that he will make a strategic difference to our India business, successfully projecting it as the Human Experience Company." Says Terkelsen, "We combine an all-screen approach with rich human understanding to create and curate content that will reach specific audiences. We welcome Srini."

Terkelsen added that Srinivas will have the responsibility of heading LiquidThread in the region, with LiquidThread moving beyond simply placing brands in ready-made entertainment properties.

LiquidThread represents the next stage of audience aggregation and content development for SMG. Keeping in line with the network's digital, open source approach, LiquidThread will increase the scale and innovation of SMG's content creation, moving beyond branded entertainment to create communities, conversations and advocates for brand properties. LiquidThread, which was launched in the US in April 2010 will now be rolled out across the Asia-Pacific region.

Srinivas has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani and a post graduate degree in Business Administration from XLRI Jamshedpur. His last assignment was with The Times Group as director, Private Treaties. Srinivas is a familiar face in industry hallways, having worked for around 20 years in the media and advertising arena. He has held senior management positions in leading media agencies such as Mindshare Fulcrum, Madison Media and Maxus (GroupM) in India/Asia-Pacific. He has worked closely with several leading advertisers including Unilever, Coca-Cola, Nokia and Vodafone.