Yesudas is in the communication business for over 26 years, working in India and overseas with companies like Grey Worldwide, IPG, BBDO & Dentsu. In 2017 he launched Y&A Transformation, based on a clear understanding that fluidity and dynamism in the customer mobility is challenging businesses and transformation meant paving the way for for more agile, collaborative, innovative and adaptive methods of doing business. He is also strategic advisor to the Mathrubhumi Group. He has recently also launched the global tech and data company Channel Factory in India, in partnership with Y&A.

In his past assignment, he was MD – Indian Subcontinent at Vizeum, Dentsu. The company featured in client satisfaction as well new business gains chart in a leading position. Many industry recognitions also came its way including Spikes. Campaign in its independent assessment of media agencies placed Vizeum ahead of many other long running media agencies. R3 book of 40 best integrated global cases had a case of Vizeum India covered in it.

He spoke and practiced digital way back in 2000 and was responsible for the launch of Digital Initiatives, IPG media group’s digital agency. He was also responsible for the introduction of first ever shopper marketing avenue in East Africa (during his tenure as Regional Director for IPG media). He believes in the people power and developed various front running managers and led them for exceptional performance. His team members represented India at the Cannes young lions.

He is passionate about writing and teaching. Many of his articles have appeared in leading publications like Economic Times. He is a regular speaker at various forums and often quoted in media. He is also a mentor to start-ups with the premier business school NMIMS. Business India, India’s premier Business Magazine, had predicted him to be a front runner way back in 1995. He was one of the 3 managers chosen from across Asia Pacific for Business Development Person of the year award by Media, HK, in 2003. He has been on the jury for Festival of Media Asia, Spikes Asia, and various other Indian awards. He sat on the media committee of Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Media forum of AAA of I, joint IBF-AAAI Body. He was also a managing committee member of the Ad Club Mumbai and a member of International Advertising Association.

He is an avid cyclist and marathon runner. He and his friends have also set up a thanksgiving foundation with a view to put a smile on faces of people who often do thankless jobs for the benefit of others. He has also recently conceptualised Food4Sweat, motivating people to burn calories and the burnt calories becoming food for the needy.

Bala Manian has over 20 years of experience in advertising and branding. After graduating from MICA, she joined J Walter Thompson where she worked on Ford, she then moved to the client side as brand manager at Sundaram Mutual. But she missed the mad world of advertising so much, she returned, to co-found OPN Advertising where she's been working as Director - Brand Planning. At OPN, when she's not busy helping the team build campaigns for the Karnataka Congress in 2023, Chennai Super Kings, Gulf Oil Lubricants, Zoho, Xseed, TNPL, Hello FM, Zee Thamizh, Bigg Boss or Tamil Nadu Elections, she's busy trying to figure out how to convince millenials to return to office to work. In her free time, she’s working on plot lines for a novel that is highly unlikely to be ever completed.

Saurabh is a seasoned professional with more than 16 years of experience in media planning, buying, and management. Currently serving as the President - South at Havas Media India, he leads the business for the entire South region, overseeing business strategy and expansion, client relations, and people management and is based out of Bengaluru.

Saurabh has worked across various industries, including mobile handsets, FMCG, automobile, e-commerce, edutech, cryptocurrency, and electricals. He has collaborated with renowned brands such as Nokia, Britannia, Hyundai, USHA, Quikr, Swiggy, OLA, Puma, Coinswitch, and V-Guard, among others, gaining valuable expertise in these domains.

Saurabh has also actively participated in industry events, contributing as a speaker, moderator, and jury member. Notable engagements include his role as a speaker at the Agency Reporter Connected TV Symposium 2023 in Bangalore and as a moderator at the BW – Festival of Fintech 2022, also held in Bangalore. He has served as a jury member at esteemed events like Emvies 2021, 2022 and Goafest Media Abby 2022, 2023.

An Engineer by academic qualification. He started career with BPL limited, Chennai as a front line sales and handled several product categories that included testing and measuring instruments, office automation and telecom products. He then moved to the head office after four years of sales into marketing of all instrumentation products including the cardiac care equipment marketing. He then joined TTK as Product Manager and moved up quickly to General Manager marketing in two and a half years. He was the youngest General Manager in the history of the group.

Currently Chandru Kalro is the Managing Director of the company and has played a key role in moving the company from a south based, south focused company in just pressure cookers to becoming India’s largest and most profitable kitchen appliance company. The journey of the company has been from a turnover of 113 crores in 2003 to 2500 crores today.

Chandru Kalro has won several awards like being the Pride of Karnataka in marketing, India’s top 50 most talented CMOs, Thought leadership in Marketing, Corporate leadership award, Great leader award by WCRC international, India’s best trusted CEO in kitchen appliances, CEO of the Year by World Leadership Awards to name a few. Personally, his primary hobby is cooking and trying out new recipes and new appliances in the kitchen. This has actually made his kitchen into a virtual lab. His dream is to leave behind a legacy of sustainable success in a peaceful and progressive society.

He is a postgraduate in Management from IMDR, Pune.

He has over 26 years of experience with the last 13 years in the banking industry. He has been counted among the Top 90 Marketing professionals by StartupLanes in June’22. His contribution at Ujjivan earned the brand a Gold Lion at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity in the Creative Commerce category in June’22.

He has earlier held various marketing roles across Banking, Retail, Telecom and Logistics. He was with ICICI Bank for over a decade where he led the marketing strategy and communication for Liabilities, Insurance, NRI, Wealth, Rural, and Salary Corporate. His earlier stints were at Tata Communications, Shoppers Stop, DHL, Arvind Brands and BPL Mobile where he has been instrumental in driving customer acquisition and retention based loyalty programmes.

Anupam Katheriya is CEO of CPL (Cholayil private Limited) which is one of the leading and fastest growing FMCG companies of India with flagship brands like Medimix, Cuticura, Krishna Thulasi & many others. It has presence in more than 35 countries with prominent presence in Middle East, Far East, Europe and Asia Pacific among other markets. Anupam has over two decades of experience in the consumer goods industry having served leadership positions at multinationals like Heinz, Nestle, Emami and now in Cholayil. Anupam is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and Delhi College of Engineering and has won several awards like Pitch Best CMO Awards 2022, ET Brand Equity Brand Disruption Awards, recognized as one of the Top 60 CMOs ‘22 in India, amongst many others.

Venkatesh, fondly known as Venky, currently serves CavinKare as CEO & Director. In addition to driving growth, building a strong leadership team across various FMCG businesses in the group , Venky also serves as a director on the board of the CavinKare group .The CavinKare group operates across FMCG & Retail verticals .

With a cumulative experience of over 26 years, Venky joined Cavinkare in April 2018 after an exciting, extensive leadership stint of almost 20 years in telecom industry. Prior to joining CavinKare, Venky was with Airtel. A long timer in Airtel, Venky has served in varied roles across strategy, operations. Earlier on in his career, Venky has worked with Reliance Industries, Escotel Mobile communications.

Akash Deep Batra is the Executive Director and Head of Marketing, Customer Experience and Analytics (Consumer Banking) at DBS Bank. Akash leads a team of over 70 functional experts to drive marketing, consumer acquisition through digital channels, portfolio growth through digital campaigns, consumer research & insights, consumer experience (including UI/UX), business analytics, and cognitive banking across the DBS India consumer banking business and brands.

Before DBS, Akash was Head of Brand Communication, Corporate Brand and Digital at Nestlé India. In his 7-year-long stint at Nestle, he was also the head of digital and eCommerce for the Asia Pacific Region. Akash has also worked at Infosys for over 9 years in various roles in business consulting, product management, and technology management functions.

Recognized as one of the Top 50 Marketers in 2021 by the BusinessWorld Magazine, Akash is a frequent speaker at various industry conferences and universities across the world and a commentator on trends & innovations in marketing & technology.

He is an engineer from Kurukshetra University and a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB).

A Post graduate in Sales & Marketing with over 25 years of cumulative experience across advertising and marketing, Nandagopal Nair is currently employed with V-Guard Industries Ltd as VP & Head – Brand & Communications. His responsibilities include driving the entire brand & marketing communications function spanning the entire portfolio of 20+ products at V-Guard across diverse categories including electrical, electronics, kitchen appliances and so forth.

In 2018, Nair led the brand transformation exercise in the organization resulting in the unveiling of V-Guard Industries’ brand philosophy and new identity, the first in the company’s 46 years of existence. As part of this exercise, a massive 360-degree campaign cutting across various touchpoints including retail, communication, packaging, office transformation etc. was undertaken.

Nair has played an instrumental role in driving the fortunes of the brand from Rs 400 crores, when he joined the company over a decade ago, to close to 3500 crores, where the company is currently. His additional responsibilities include leading external engagement with design agencies and partners and supporting new product development initiatives.

Prior to his current marketing role, Nair worked across advertising agencies across markets, such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Cochin, for over 17 years. He has worked on multiple brands such as Wipro, Birla 3M, TTK, Digital India, Mother Care India Pvt Ltd (for brands that include Healthtex Kids wear and Vanity Fair Lingerie), Escotel Mobile (now Idea Cellular), Hero Honda, Royal Classic Mills (brand –Classic Polo), India Tourism, Andhra Pradesh Tourism, Coconut Development Board, Coir Board etc.

He as an avid cricket buff, loves listening to all kinds of music and enjoys dishing up some goodies for family & friends.

Ranjeet Kumar is the co-founder and CEO of Team Pumpkin, an award-winning leading integrated communications agency. In his successful decade-long entrepreneurial journey with Team Pumpkin, Ranjeet has led the firm to greater heights by leveraging his expertise in account management, business development, and service strategy formulation. Along with growing the company professionally and financially, he also decided to make Team Pumpkin an inclusive workplace. Before bringing Team Pumpkin to life, he held positions at ITC Infotech, Future Group, and Wal-Mart India. Hailing from Bihar, Ranjeet holds a degree from the National Institute of Fashion Technology and XLRI Jamshedpur.