"Abhinav has big shoes to fill," said Tony Savarimuthu, the managing director of McCann WorldGroup Malaysia. "But he has excellent credentials and should fit comfortably into our culture of creating intelligent communications properties."
Sharma spent two years at Bates where he worked on accounts including 100 Plus and Nokia. Prior to Bates, he had a spell at Leo Burnett in India before joining FCB in Bangalore, as general manager.
He has also had stints on the client side, at whisky brand Royal Challenge, and at MTV India as head of trade marketing. He joined Grey in 1998 as director of client servicing, where he spent the bulk of his career.
Former chief strategy officer and deputy MD Thakar moved to Shanghai to run McCann China's planning department at the end of last year.
