Dentsu International has appointed Rashmi Vikram as chief equity officer for APAC region. She was formerly group diversity and inclusivity practice leader at Microsoft.

At Microsoft, she was responsible for creating clarity and scale the organisations diversity and inclusion strategy for One Microsoft internationally. Generating energy by supporting leaders to activate a culture where all employees, no matter their different perspectives, are empowered to achieve more.

Vikram will report to Ashish Bhasin, chief executive officer, Dentsu International Asia Pacific, and Kinch Ong, regional human resource director for the region.

“Dentsu’s strength lies in making a difference. To do that, we seek out diverse perspectives, celebrate difference and empower everyone to bring their most authentic self to work. We encourage our leaders to build diverse teams, teams with a healthy, vibrant culture. A culture that enables every employee to do great work, build a phenomenal career and know they belong. We are very excited to have Rashmi on board to champion Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and we look forward to working with her to chart meaningful progress for our businesses in APAC,” Bhasin said.

“Rashmi has a solid track-record in the DEI space, and I have no doubt she will inspire and make a difference. She will ensure that DEI is interwoven into the fabric of our organisation, fostering an even richer culture and experience for our people, clients and partners. Along with our colleagues in the region, I look forward to working with her to create and communicate the future state vision of DEI and roll out detailed plans of long and short-term initiatives,” Ong said.

Prior to Microsoft, Vikram was India head from 2015 to 2019 at Community Business. She was also associated with Thomson Reuters in the past.