Regional Planning Director — APAC, WPP Media

Umesh Ahirwar

Regional marketing and growth leader. Eighteen years in APAC digital marketing, strategic media planning and activation, GTM, and performance — building and leading the teams that carry the work.

Singapore 18+ years across APAC

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Profile

Umesh Ahirwar is a regional marketing and growth leader based in Singapore. For more than eighteen years he has worked across APAC digital marketing — in strategic media planning and activation, go-to-market, and performance — and in building the teams that deliver it.

He is Regional Planning Director, APAC at WPP Media. Before that he was Media Activation Director at WPP Media in Singapore, leading the Google account. Earlier he was Head of Paid Media at AdLift in Gurugram and Search Director at AdGlobal360, with leadership roles at Reprise Digital / IPG, RampGreen, and iProspect.

The through-line is planning that can be activated, and activation that stays true to the plan: multi-channel campaigns across Google Ads, Meta, and DV360; budget and ROI discipline; measurement in Google Analytics and Firebase; and the people leadership required to run it at regional scale.

Experience

Jun 2025 — present

Singapore

Regional Planning Director — APAC

WPP Media

Leads regional media planning across APAC markets.
Shapes planning strategy alongside activation and go-to-market.
Builds and leads the planning organisation and its operating rhythm.
Holds the line between brief, budget, and in-market quality.

c. 2022 — Jun 2025

Singapore

Media Activation Director

WPP Media · Google account leadership

Led media activation for the Google account.
Directed multi-channel activation across Google Ads, Meta, and DV360.
Accountable for activation quality, budget stewardship, and performance.
Developed and led activation teams serving a major regional account.

Gurugram

Head of Paid Media

AdLift

Led the paid media practice and its people.
Owned paid strategy and activation across channels.
Set the operating standard for campaign quality and reporting.

Mar 2014 — Jun 2015

Gurugram

Search Director

AdGlobal360

Directed search programmes and the search team.
Connected search execution to wider digital media planning.
Accountable for campaign quality and client delivery.

Earlier

Leadership roles

Reprise Digital / IPG · RampGreen · iProspect

Progressive responsibility across paid media, search, and digital activation.

Expertise

Strategic media planning

Regional planning that holds brief, market, and channel in one view.

Media activation & GTM

Turning the plan into in-market work — timing, channel mix, and go-to-market.

Multi-channel campaigns

Google Ads, Meta, and DV360, planned and activated as one system.

Budget & ROI

Stewardship of spend against commercial outcomes, not activity for its own sake.

Team leadership

Building and leading high-performing planning and activation teams.

Analytics & measurement

Google Analytics and Firebase as the feedback loop for planning and performance.

Sectors. E-commerce, real estate, education, travel, and technology — B2B and B2C.

Contact

Umesh is based in Singapore. The most reliable way to reach him is LinkedIn.

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