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Mindshare APAC chief digital officer Sanchit Sanga leaves GroupM after 15 years

Longtime Mindshare executive Sanchit Sanga has left the GroupM media agency, having been with the holding company for more than 15 years – Mumbrella has learnt.

The Mindshare chief digital officer for Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and North Africa initially told this website he was currently working out his notice period and would be “taking on new challenges in this ever changing digital world”. However, he later admitted he had actually left with immediate effect last week. 

He had first said: “Yes I am serving my notice period. I have put in my papers after a long stint with this truly amazing team. I’ve had a sensational run at Mindshare.

“Mindshare gave me freedom and support to build a world-leading digital outfit. We are a dominant force with a truly differentiated offering and some of the best digital talent running it. I am truly grateful to the Mindshare leadership and the team for the faith bestowed in me over years.”

But an internal email seen by Mumbrella – from the Asia-Pacific chief executive officer Amrita Randhawa – suggested otherwise:

Presented with the evidence, Sanga pivoted towards a different message. “I resigned and they accepted my resignation, and happily released me with immediate effect as my current role was conflicting with my new opportunities.

“I am still under my cooling off period and that’s what I meant. I don’t know why this is being misread into something else,” he said.

Sanga previously sat on industry bodies the Interactive Advertising Bureau Singapore and the Mobile Marketing Association.

A former investment banker who got bored with the “predictability and monotony”, he changed career and started with GroupM back in 2003 – as national director of digital media, in India, before later moving to Singapore.

He then became Mindshare digital performance marketing partner in Singapore in 2012, later rising up the ranks.

On his LinkedIn profile, Sanga labelled himself as “a self-professed stalker of Google’s business” who “loves fast moving data sources”.

He speaks English, Hindi and Lao, and has a post-graduate diploma in management, marketing and international business from the Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies in Pune, Maharashtra, in India.

Neither Mindshare nor WPP was available for comment on Sanga’s departure, despite Mumbrella repeatedly asking for a response. 

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