MUMBAI: MRUC has appointed Madison Media Group CEO and OOH Vikram Sakhuja as chairman of the IRS Technical Committee (TechCom).

Sakhuja will replace DDB Mudra Group executive director NP Sathyamurthy whose term comes to an end.

Commenting on the development, MRUC chairman Ashish Bhasin says, "We are very excited at the prospect of Vikram leading the IRS TechCom as we take stronger strides in the direction of further improving the study and making it more robust. IRS surely is in excellent hands. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank Sathya for his excellent tenure."

On his  new role Sakhuja says, "IRS has been the definitive baseline study for readership and other media measurement for the advertising and marketing industry for decades. It is an honour to chair the technical committee of this body. It will be my endeavour to ensure that the data is valid, reliable and beyond reproach."

Sakhuja was executive vice president marketing at Star TV, prior to that he was marketing manager brands at Coca-Cola. Vikram Sakhuja is an engineer from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Calcutta. He joined P&G in 1988 where over eight years, he held positions in marketing research and media.

He was the managing director of MindShare South Asia, then was the CEO of GroupM South Asia for six years.