CXO Moves: Exec movements across WPP, Kia India, Meta, Nike and more

Keep up with all the key people movements in the brand marketing ecosystem in Storyboard18’s CXO Moves. Here’s a round-up of the executives who've moved jobs, got bigger roles, switched industries and more.

Mark Read

Previous: Chief executive officer, WPP

Mark Read, the longtime executive who has led WPP through a sweeping transformation of its advertising and marketing empire, will step down as chief executive at the end of the year, the company announced on Monday.

Read, who has spent more than three decades at the British communications giant and served as C.E.O. since 2018, will retire from the role and leave the company’s board on Dec. 31.

Hardeep Singh Brar

Previous: Senior vice president and head of marketing and sales, Kia India

Hardeep Singh Brar, the senior vice president and head of marketing and sales at Kia India, has stepped down from his position, according to media reports. Brar has worked across Pertech Computers, Maruti Suzuki India, Volkswagen Group Sales, General Motors and Great Wall Motor Co.

Shivnath Thukral

Previous: VP - public policy, Meta

Shivnath Thukral, vice president of Public Policy at Meta India, has departed from the company. Thukral has worked across NDTV Profit, Essar Group and Carnegie India.

Rohit Talwar

Previous: VP and head of marketing, Castrol India

Rohit Talwar has stepped down from his position. He has also worked at Navneet Education.

Tony Bignell

Previous: VP - Men's sport performance footwear, Nike

Present: Chief innovation officer, Nike

Tony Bignell, who was heading footwear company Nike as the vice president - Men's sport performance footwear, has been elevated to the position of chief innovation officer. Bignell will be succeeding John Hoke, a 33-year veteran at Nike.

He has also worked at Mitre Sports.

Sumit Madan

Previous: Chief distribution officer, Axis Max Life Insurance

Present: MD & CEO, Axis Max Life Insurance

Max Financial Services has elevated Sumit Madan to the position of managing director and chief executive officer of Axis Max Life Insurance. Madan will replace Prashant Tripathy.

He has worked across JL Morison, GESBI Cards, HDFC Bank, Citibank India, AU Small Finance Bank and IDFC First Bank.

Vikas Singh

Present: MD, Greaves Electric Mobility

Greaves Electric Mobility Limited (GEML), the e-mobility division of Greaves Cotton Limited, announced the appointment of Vikas Singh as its new managing director.

Singh has worked across Lakme Lever, Gillette, Avon Beauty Products India, Bharat Airtel, Kimberly-Clark, and Pearson.

Kirti Ganorkar

Present: MD, Sun Pharma

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries has appointed Kirti Ganorkar as the MD with effect from 1 September 2025. Ganorkar will succeed Dilip Shanghvi, who will continue to remain the Executive Chairman of the Sun Pharma board.

Previously, he held various leadership roles across business development, marketing, Merger and Acquisition (M&A), new product introduction, project management, IP and litigation at Sun Pharma.

Praveen Rao Akkinepally

Previous: Head - Oncology Business Unit, AstraZeneca India

Present: MD, AstraZeneca India

AstraZeneca Pharma India has named Praveen Rao Akkinepally as the MD, with effect from July 1 for a period of three years. Akkinepally will succeed Sanjeev Kumar Panchal who has stepped down from his post.

Varun Malik

Previous: Head of marketing, Shalimar Paints

Present: General manager - marketing, Timex Group

Timex Group has appointed Varun Malik as general manager - marketing and senior management personnel. He has worked across Red FM, Samsung Electronics, DLF Limited, Bennett, Coleman & Co and Reebok.

Caroline Foster Kenny and Stephanie Prager

WPP Media has appointed Caroline Foster Kenny as global client president, where she is tasked with overseeing EssenceMediacom's client portfolio. Kenny joins from VML, where she was global chief client officer.

Stephanie Prager also joins as a global client president, leading a portfolio of WPP Media's top global accounts. She joins from Publicis where she served as a client president. Prior to that, she consulted for Mondelēz on their digital customer experience strategy.

Prager spent 10 years at X (Twitter) where she built their global advertising business and diversifying revenue streams.

Malini Agarwal

Previous: Creative director, MissMalini Entertainment

Malini Agarwal, the founder and longtime face of MissMalini Entertainment, announced she is stepping down from her role as creative director.

Agarwal began her career in broadcast and print journalism with roles at MTV Networks India, Channel V, Mid-Day, BBC, and Radio One, before launching MissMalini as a personal blog that evolved into a full-fledged content and influencer marketing business.

Shantanu Mitra

Previous: CEO & MD, SMFG India Credit

Shantanu Mitra, CEO and Managing Director of SMFG India Credit, has announced his intention to step down at the end of this month.

Mohd. Arif Khan

Previous: General Manager, SBI General Insurance

Present: Deputy CEO, SBI General Insurance

SBI General Insurance announced the appointment of Mohd. Arif Khan as the Deputy chief executive officer.

Khan began his career with SBI in 2000 as a probationary officer and has since held several key leadership positions across retail banking, strategic training unit (STU), and core banking solution (CBS) implementation and training projects.

Souvik Datta

Previous: Creative head - West; Lead - Special Projects North, McCann Worldgroup

Present: National creative director, Cheil X

Cheil X, part of the Cheil SWA group, has announced the appointment of Souvik Datta as national creative director. He has worked across McCann, Lowe, TBWA, and Contract.

Kalyani Srivastava

Previous: Associate president, Ogilvy

Present: Chief business officer, Creativeland Asia

Kalyani Srivastava joined Creativeland Asia as the chief business officer.

Srivastava began her journey at The Leela Palaces & Resorts, and then joined Marriott Global Sales Organisation as assistant manager - sales.

Ferzad Palia

Previous: SVP and business head, JioStar

Present: CEO - D2C, upGrad

upGrad has appointed Ferzad Palia to set up and head its new Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) initiative. Palia will lead the charge at upGrad to build a digital-first ecosystem powered by micro-learning formats, AI-driven personalisation and scalable access, making learning more continuous, contextual and consumer centric than ever before.

He has worked across JWT, CNBC-TV18 and Viacom18 Media.

Compiled by Kashmeera Sambamurthy