Madison Media, a unit of Madison World, has strengthened its leadership bench in the North and East region with the appointment of senior industry professionals across digital and integrated media functions.
Vishal Kumar has joined Madison Media as Vice President – Digital Business, North & East. In his role, Vishal Kumar will lead the region’s digital growth agenda, working closely with Vivek Das, Chief Digital Officer, Madison Media, and Mimi Deb, COO, Madison Media Plus.
Vishal Kumar brings over 18 years of experience across marketing, media and digital transformation. He is an alumnus of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, and spent close to 8.5 years with GroupM/WPP, where he last led the Digital Practice for Wavemaker North. During this period, he drove business outcomes and received recognition at industry forums including Emvies and Goafest. Most recently, he founded LeapX.ai, a startup focused on building AI agents for paid digital advertising, which received recognition from NASSCOM.
Further strengthening the North and East leadership team, Madison Media has also onboarded Ambica Chaudhary as Deputy General Manager – Integrated Media. Ambica Chaudhary brings over 15 years of experience across global agency networks including Starcom, Wavemaker and most recently PHD, Omnicom Media Group. She has led integrated media planning for brands across categories such as CPG, smartphones, luxury fashion, mobility and life sciences, including managing Unilever’s media mandate in the North American market. In her new role, she will focus on strengthening integrated media solutions across the region.
Akanksha Panwar has joined as Deputy General Manager – Digital Business. She brings over 15 years of experience spanning software engineering, IT and digital advertising. An MBA from the University of Nottingham, Akanksha Panwar has spent the last six years with WPP Media working on leading accounts and has previously held digital leadership roles at Dentsu Media. Her experience spans categories including CPG, electronics, fashion and health insurance, and her work has been recognised at the EMVIES, Indian Digital Marketing Awards and Campaign India Digital Crest Awards.
Vishal Kumar, Vice President – Digital Business, North & East, Madison, said,
“It feels great to return to Madison at a time when the organisation is reimagining the future of advertising & media through Madison 3.0. Having spent the last few years building LeapX.ai at the intersection of AI, data and performance marketing, I’m excited to bring those learnings back to scale digital growth and build future-ready tech and data capabilities for the North and East markets”.
Mimi Deb, COO, Madison Media North & East, commented,
“As we strengthen our North & East leadership under Madison 3.0, Vishal will play a pivotal role with his deep expertise in data and technology. Akanksha & Ambica will work closely with Vishal. Akanksha brings with her diverse category experience and digital depth. For Ambica, it is homecoming after an exhaustive international exposure in managing global brands. Together, this leadership trio will act as the growth of architects for the North and East branches of Madison. This is just the beginning as we move towards strengthening our team aligned with Madison 3.0”.
Vivek Das, Chief Digital Officer, Madison Media, commented,
“Vishal, Ambica & Akanksha’s appointments are deliberate Madison 3.0 bets on digital first growth in our North and East markets. Vishal’s mix of platform scale, AI entrepreneurship at LeapX.ai and deep agency craft makes him the growth architect we need for this phase. As we roll out GPS, MbrAIn and Catalyst OS, he will help translate our AI-powered stack into sharper market choices, stronger systems of effects and tighter brand–commerce integration for clients in these regions. Ambica strengthens our integrated media leadership with deep cross-category and global agency experience, helping us deliver sharper, client-centric solutions. Akanksha brings strong, full-funnel digital depth and innovation-led execution to accelerate solution-led, integrated outcomes. Together, this leadership bench significantly elevates our North & East growth agenda.”
