Ajit Varghese quits as global president of Wavemaker

Ajit Varghese has resigned as president at Wavemaker. He joined WPP’s media buying arm Maxus, now Wavemaker, as south Asia managing director in 2006 and was promoted to APAC head in January 2014. When Maxus merged with MEC to form Wavemaker in 2018, he was appointed president at the end of the year, after building the former into pole position in markets such as India. 

At the time of his departure, Varghese ran Wavemaker's business across 50 countries and led a team of over 3,000 people.  Initally, Wavemaker eschewed regional management, but eventually as strong leadership was spread around the globe, the role of international president had been made redundant.  Varghese was an accidential advertising industry leader, who was trained to be an agricultural engineer and wanted a career in the Indian Air Force early on.

Instead, his career in marketing and advertising saw him start off with market research firm IMRB, before climing up the ladder across agencies such as Initiative Universal Media and Madison World, and finding his way to Maxus. In a starring role at Maxus India, he grew the agency to second place and was rewarded first with the role of APAC head, for which he relocated to Singapore and then the global president's job, for which he moved to London. 

During his India stint, he signed up brands such as Nokia, Vodafone, L’Oreal and ITC. When Nokia and Vodafone came to India, they chose Maxus, despite being handled by other agency groups worldwide. Varghese confirmed his deaprture in a LinkedIn post.