Publicis Groupe India appoints former McKinsey Partner Lalatendu Das as CEO Performics

Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani move on to focus on Publicis Groupe Central Initiatives.

After having spent 9 years with Publicis Groupe, Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani, Co-CEOs of Performics India have decided to step down from their current roles and move into a more developmental role on certain pivotal central initiatives for the Groupe. They will also focus on the fast-evolving start-up space in their personal capacity once they complete the transition from their current role in Performics. The transition will take place over the next few months.

Jain and Khimani been a strong pillar of growth for Performics, Publicis Media and now the Groupe. Under their outstanding leadership, Performics has gone on to become one of India’s largest performance marketing agency with a dominant presence of clients across various industry verticals including FMCG, Banking and Financial Services, Insurance, OTT, Gaming, Fintech, and Health Tech. Performics India has also won some major multi-geography assignments across Asia and Europe, had a 6X revenue growth over the last 6 years and has grown to be a 700+ people agency. Vishal Sampat, Sarfaraz and Pallav co-founded Convonix in 2003 and came into the Publicis fold as part of the Convonix acquisition by the Groupe. After having built a very successful Convonix, first as Co-founders and then later within Starcom and Publicis Media, Jain and Khimani went on to lead Performics India in 2019 when the group converged its performance marketing mandates under Convonix and Resultrix as part of a singular entity.

Lalatendu Das, joins Publicis as CEO of Performics India, after almost 10 years with McKinsey, where he was Partner, Core founding member of McKinsey Digital Labs in Asia Pacific and co-lead McKinsey Digital and Technology practice, Asia Pacific. Das specialises in digital business transformation for brands and brings a wide spectrum of experience; over 22 years in digital-led transformation, consulting and large-scale operations across India, SE Asia, Middle East and North America. Prior to McKinsey, Das has led numerous large scale operating responsibilities in Tata Consultancy Services across India, Western Europe and North America for more than a decade. He is an engineer and an Executive Postgraduate in Business Management from IIM Ahmedabad.

The appointment of Das as CEO of Performics India further expands and strengthens the Groupe’s market-leading capabilities in digital media, data and technology, helping clients lead and accelerate in a Platform world.

Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Groupe South Asia said, “Pallav & Sarfaraz have continually paved the way for Performics taking the agency to great heights of success. We are fortunate to have had their leadership and now look forward to leveraging them on key Groupe priorities. Lalatendu is an accomplished leader with an impeccable track-record of building client businesses and leading digital transformation at scale. He was the clear choice as the next leader of Performics, which is a front-runner in performance and digital solutions today. In his previous stints, Lalatendu built strong, well-insulated teams of technologists, software specialists, engineers and pivoted new products and experiences. His expertise and energy will help us further in providing maximum value to our clients.”

Jain and Khimani stated, “This has been an incredible journey for both of us, right from being founders of Convonix in 2003 to being leaders of Performics. It has been hugely gratifying to witness the growth of the organization from a bedroom to the 700+ people behemoth it is today. We are most proud of the ecosystem we were able to build that allowed young talent to thrive and make careers both within Performics and outside. Performics has had an extraordinary run and 2021 was our best ever year from a business perspective. With the momentum in the business and the stable leadership team in place, there is no better time for us to hand over the keys of Performics to a new leadership while we recalibrate our compass and see what to create next both within Publicis Groupe and outside. We will always be grateful to the support we have received from the Groupe both in India and globally, our clients who gave us an opportunity to grow their business and most of all our colleagues who trusted us with their careers. We are very excited with Lalatendu’s appointment and will always be the biggest cheerleaders for Performics.”

Lalatendu Das said, “I am honoured to be appointed as the CEO for Performics India and I thank Publicis Groupe for the opportunity. Publicis Groupe is an exceptional company, with the right structures, investments and focus on future-facing areas and this is clearly visible through tangible, exponential growth for its clients in the marketplace. I look forward to leading Performics at an incredibly exciting time, opening new growth opportunities and partnerships, pivoting strong products, strategic initiatives and services. This is a new chapter and I hope to drive further momentum and digital acceleration for Performics’ strong roster of brands, building further on market leadership