Lintas Media Group reshuffles senior management for new agency brand

As part of the development of a new agency brand, LMG has elevated existing hands to be future ready.

After having announced changes in the senior management earlier this month, when Premjeet Sodhi took up the position of chief operating officer and replaced N P Sathyamurthy, and Suresh Balakrishna joined to head a new agency under the LMG brand, more developments have unfolded in the camp.

To develop the new agency that will be headquartered in Mumbai, Balakrishna has elevated several existing hands at LMG.

Among the announced promotions are Mahesh Motwani, who will now take up the role of executive vice-president of the Kolkata office, Patrick Gomes, who will be the head of the agency's Mumbai business, and Dhirendra Singh who will head planning in Mumbai.

Besides the elevations, the agency brought back Vidya Nandakumar earlier this month as head of the Cochin office.

"Our aim in restructuring is to encourage the young professionals in the organisation to grow further. The usual thing to do would be to hire outside talent, but my clear thought was to give the organisation's own people the opportunity to grow. The whole effort is to re-organise and be future ready," says Balakrishna, chief executive officer.

Motwani, who has been with LMG for over 10 years, and was heading the Kolkata branch as senior vice-president prior to this. In his new role, his responsibility increases as he will develop new markets, as well.

Gomes, who was heading financial and the accounts of the Bajaj Group, has been working with LMG for the last one year. With an experience of 14 years, his previous stints include those at Starcom, Mediacom, TME, and Madison.

Singh is yet another LMG veteran who has been associated with the group for eight years. Before being promoted as head of planning, Mumbai office, for LMG's new agency brand, he has been overseeing planning accounts such as UBI, Jyothy Laboratories, and Bombay Dyeing.

With over 12 years of experience in the industry, Nandakumar joined LMG from Madison, Bengaluru. The businesses she has handled include Britannia Industries, ITC, Hewlett Packard, and Muthoot Finance.

Balakrishna says that the name of the new agency will be announced in early February.