Speakers
Tanuj Choudhry
Chief Business Officer & Board Member - HomeLane
Tanuj Choudhry is the Chief Business Officer & Board Member at HomeLane, India’s preferred home interiors company backed by Sequoia & Accel Partners. Choudhry is an entrepreneur at heart and has over 13 years of experience in consulting, product management and business development. In his association of over four years with HomeLane, Choudhry has been primarily responsible for Sales, Marketing, Category, Design and Business Development. HomeLane has designed & delivered 4500+ homes to homeowners across seven cities. It offers an industry-first '45 Days Delivery or Rent guarantee' proposition to customers.
In his past experience, Choudhry has been a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, having worked in India, South Africa and South East Asia. He was the founder of SkillKindle, an online marketplace which allows users to list, discover and book classes and experiences in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Choudhry has also been a product leader with Amazon where he was responsible for conceptualizing, building and adoption of several monetization products. He has been the winner of The Economic Times Power of Ideas award .
Choudhry is a Math Graduate from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and has an MBA from INSEAD. In his spare time, he enjoys mentoring start-ups, travelling to offbeat locations with family and friends, and succumbing to the delights of Asian cuisine.
Ashwin Khasgiwala
Chief Operations Controller, Reliance Retail Limited
Ashwin Khasgiwala is Chief Operations Controller of Reliance Retail Limited which is India’s largest Retail Company and is also a Director of Reliance Brands Limited. He has over 22 years of experience in Business Management, Finance & Information Technology in Retail, Telecom and Hydrocarbon sectors. He has held several senior positions in Reliance Group including CFO of Reliance Retail. He takes keen interest in business process innovation especially in the areas of customer experience, big data analytics, mobility solutions and automation.
Pratik Shah
CEO & Founder, Specsmakers
Pratik Shah, the CEO & Founder of Specsmakers is a MBA in Finance & Marketing from Spears School of Business, Oklahoma State University. He returned to India to handle his father’s wholesale business of optical lenses. In just couple of years, he envisioned to start India’s first single brand optical retail chain. He launched the first outlet under the brand ‘Specsmakers’ at Anna Nagar, Chennai in 2007.
Specsmakers as brand has shown phenomenal growth under his expertise and leadership by expanding its footprint from a single store to 250 stores spread across Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Telungana and Andhra Pradesh in a span of twelve years.
Pratik’s interest and love are towards stocks, marketing and banking. He steps up to the next level as a tech evangelist, who believes that software’s can assist product demo’s to attain new experience and better understanding to consumers.
He is an avid believer of woman driven organisations and has enabled the company to achieve 45% woman staffing with an overall head count of 1000+ employees. His sheer passion towards his work had made the brand to receive “South India’s Best Affordable Optician” by Times Retail Icon for 2 consecutive years (2015 & 2016).
Satish N.S
Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Haier Appliances India
SATISH N.S is currently the Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Haier Appliances India Pvt. Ltd. A seasoned business leader with more than two decades of experience, Satish leads all functions for sales and marketing operations at Haier India. As part of the Haier leadership team, he has successfully streamlined and consolidated the sales function and strengthened the channel network for the brand across cities. His relentless pursuit for success with teamwork at the core has made him one of the strongest pillars at Haier.
Satish has been a driving force in developing unique strategies for the brand that have helped the company to penetrate deeper into the Tier I, II and III markets in India. His innovative approach to marketing across India has played an integral role in establishing Haier as a preferred brand in the industry. Under his guidance, the brand has been able to significantly evolve its approach and adopt newer means of connecting with the Indian consumers.
In the past, he has held several leadership positions with some of the leading companies like Onida, Samsung, Panasonic and Videocon. Satish holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Rajasekar KS
GM – Marketing, Matrimony.com
Speaker, writer, social media and content strategist, Raj helps organisations leverage content and social media to create conversations and turn fans into collaborators. He was recognised by Adobe & Paul Writer among Top 100 Content Leaders (2018 & 2017). Recognised among World's Top 100 Content Marketers 2018 Listing by Express Writers (USA). In 2017, he was recognised among the Most Influential Content Marketing Professionals in India, by the World Marketing Congress. He was also recognised among Top 100 Influential Marketing Leaders in India by the World Marketing Congress (2016). Speaker at events including IAMAI digital summit, mCube Awards, NASSCOM, XIME, Rotary and Lions besides colleges). Occasionally writes for ET Tech, BusinessWorld and The Hindu Business Line.
Ankit Mehrotra
Co-founder and CEO, Dineout
Ankit Mehrotra is a start-up and tech enthusiast with special interests in understanding customer behaviour across the web and mobile. He is the co-founder of Dineout, which is India’s Largest Dining Out Platform seating more than a million diners a month across 8000 restaurants in India. He is the winner of the Education UK Alumni Awards 2016 in which he received the Entrepreneur of the Year award. Additionally, Dineout won the TechRocketship Award and the India Emerging 20 Award, both by the Govt of UK & India in 2018.
Before starting Dineout, he lived in London for 10 years and worked for seven years with BNP Paribas, London, a top tier Investment Bank, in various divisions including Investment Banking & Wealth Management managing a portfolio of UHNWI. He is also a CFA charter holder since 2011.
Anurag Kumar
Chief Communications Officer, Tata Sky
Anurag Kumar is the Chief Communications Officer at Tata Sky. He is responsible for developing marketing and communication strategies across Tata Sky platforms using both the traditional and the new age approach. Prior to Tata Sky, Anurag was the Global Brand Vice President at Unilever, London. At Unilever he was responsible for leading brand strategy, innovation and communications globally for Unilever's Laundry business of global brands such as Surf, Radiant & Skip.
S. Subramanian
Managing Director, Preethi Kitchen Appliances Pvt, Ltd.
S. Subramanian joined Preethi Kitchen Appliances in September 2017. He has over 23+ years of experience in the consumer space spanning across Consumer Durables, FMCG and Service Retail industries. Having held varied leadership roles at companies such as Asian Paints, Reckitt Benckiser, Whirlpool and Kaya, he has diverse exposure to overall business, sales and distribution management, key accounts and, category management. Prior to joining Preethi Kitchen Appliances, Subramanian was CEO of Kaya India Limited and also the position of Co-Chairman of FICCI Beauty and Wellness. During his stint at Whirlpool, India he headed the Washing Machine category.
Throughout his career, he has been involved in several initiatives that included brand repositioning, brand identity, and expansions through new markets, categories and formats.
Anika Agarwal
Director and Head-Marketing, Digital and Direct Sales, Max Bupa Health Insurance
A seasoned marketing professional, Anika Agarwal joined Max Bupa in 2011. As the head of the marketing function, she is responsible for the overall Brand Strategy and Marketing Communications for the brand. She leads Brand Planning, Communications, Digital and Social Media platforms, Consumer Insights, Loyalty and Customer Relationship Management for Max Bupa.
Agarwal has been instrumental in positioning Max Bupa as a preferred family health insurer and making Max Bupa one of the most talked about brands in the segment. She conceptualized Max Bupa Walk for Health, the brand’s most ambitious campaign and one of the most successful health initiatives in the country.
With over 13 years of experience, Agarwal has a wealth of marketing experience across India, Middle-East and African markets. Prior to joining Max Bupa, Agarwal spent more than six years in Nokia India and Nokia Corporation. Agarwal also had a brief stint at the Indian Cellular Association as the Deputy Director Projects.
She holds a MBA degree in Finance and Marketing from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management.
CVL Srinivas
Country Manager, India, WPP
CVL Srinivas, popularly known as Srini, is Country Manager for WPP India. Srini ensures that WPP companies deliver the right talent and resources to clients in India and identifies opportunities and partnerships that can add value to both WPP clients’ and WPP’s businesses.
In his previous role, Srini was CEO of GroupM South Asia, managing India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Under his leadership, GroupM grew to become the top media investment conglomerate in the region. In India, GroupM agencies Mindshare, Wavemaker, Mediacom, Essence and Motivator are leading media agency players.
A media industry veteran of over 20 years, Srini spent most of his career with GroupM/WPP where he helped incubate India’s first media agency ’HTA Fulcrum’ in 1995 when Hindustan Unilever awarded the media AOR to HTA (now WT). Srini later led the set-up of ‘Maxus’ in India and helped it to grow quickly into one of the leading agency brands in the country. He was made the Asia-Pacific CEO of Maxus in 2006. Srini has also worked in Madison Media and Starcom.
He is a frequent speaker on media, digital and business transformation in various forums and is also a visiting guest faculty at leading business schools.
Srini is a Mechanical Engineer graduate from BITS Pilani and has a Post Graduate in Business Management from XLRI Jamshedpur. Srini is based in Gurgaon.
P. Madhavan
Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, TVS EUROGRIP
Madhavan P has been in the corporate sector for 32 years working for Indian, as well as Multinational Corporations. Currently, he is the Executive Vice President at TVS Srichakra Limited, Madurai. Prior to this, he was the Senior Vice President & Chief Delivery Officer-Business Head at HCL Technologies. His leadership skills include strategic planning and implementation.
Madhavan P holds a Post-Graduate degree from XLRI, Jamshedpur with a Certificate in Business Management. With a bachelor’s degree in Science from Vivekananda College, Chennai, he also holds a Diploma in Business Management from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.
Madhavan P is a result driven leader focused on achieving exceptional results in highly competitive environments that demand innovation & continuous improvement. He is well experienced in driving large teams, sales process & customer service improvements while building partnerships with key decision makers. He is also known for building & motivating cross-functional teams that exceed corporate expectations. He has consistently achieved business objectives, reduced operating costs and improved distribution network. His areas of expertise include leading large teams; Operational & Strategic planning, Budgeting & Forecasting, Cost Reduction, Project Management & Turnaround situations.
Navaneeth L V
CEO, The Hindu Group
Navaneeth L V, CEO, The Hindu Group has over two decades of experience in the Media Industry across Publishing, Radio, Broadcasting and Media Agency verticals.
From working with traditional brands with heritage and enviable lineage to setting up a new business with an entrepreneurial outlook and working with entertainment brands that established market leadership positions in a reasonably short span of time, he has hands on experience and acquired expertise across the media sector. His pervious stint was in Mindshare, Jakarta, Indonesia, where he led the Trading and Investment and worked with clients and partners to deliver value to all stake holders.
He has nurtured and consulted start-ups in the Food and Beverage space and also enjoys his time with the student community through Guest Lecture interactions. He has a Post Graduate Diploma from MICA in Marketing Communications and is a Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation Technology from SJCE, University of Mysore.
Ramesh Jude Thomas
President and Chief Knowledge Officer - EQUiTOR Value Advisory
Ramesh Jude Thomas is the President and Chief Knowledge Officer of EQUiTOR Value Advisory Pvt. Ltd, the erstwhile Indian Partner for Interbrand.
“RJT” to his friends and colleagues, he is credited with introducing Brand Valuation as a strategic business tool to Indian industry. He led India’s first known strategic Brand Valuation for Titan Industries Ltd., immediately followed by 17 companies in the TATA group. Under his stewardship, EQUITOR has actively collaborated with Indian managements to deliRamesh is often called upon to speak to business audiences, company managements and more recently sovereign governments, on the subject of valuing and managing their brands as strategic business assets. He has done so in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Middle East. An invited faculty to INSEAD in Paris, he has also lectured at leading institutions in India including 4 of the IIMs, the ISB, SP Jain, MICA, NMIMS, ASCI and a host of others. A convener of the CII international brand summit from 2008 to 2014, he has played an active role in setting direction for the event. RJT is also the creator of the annual AIMA-RK Swamy High Performance Brand award.
He is a prolific writer & TED speaker, having contributed a viewpoint to almost every major newspaper and business magazine on the theme of “Brands as Strategic Business Assets’. Amongst these, he had developed and run a column called ‘Cutting Edge’ for The Economic Times and contributed to the ‘View point’ column in Mint. He currently has two columns: “Blindside” in Businessworld which deals with the blindspots in business and society and “The Full Deck” in Business Standard which explores the premise that brands are strategic business assets.ver a little over US$ 4 bn of additional enterprise value over the last six years.
He sits on the board of several companies and not-for-profits. Working with Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital (AJEH), an organisation involved in removing incidence of curable blindness in Bihar being his most fervent endeavour.
He is an avid half marathon runner with four sub two hour finishes in last 6 months. On occasions, RJT accompanies himself on stage with an acoustic guitar, most recently for the Genesis Foundation’s fund raiser “CEOs Can Sing” to support critical care for young children.
Pooja Patti
Centre – Director, Phoenix Marketcity & Palladium Chennai
Pooja Patti is a dynamic leader with more than 18 years of experience in the hospitality and retail industry. She is a graduate of Hotel Management from Institute of Hotel Management, Hyderabad. Her past experiences include India’s most sought after luxury hotels like Taj Hotels, Renaissance Group, Radisson and Zuri Group of Hotels.
Prior to spearheading operation as Centre Director at PHOENIX MARKETCITY & PALLADIUM CHENNAI, Pooja was the Deputy Centre Director of Phoenix MarketCity, Pune for a year.
Patti’s skill sets cover strategy planning, projects and start-up operations within the hotel, ROI accountability, Finance and Capital Budgeting, Business set ups and ties ups, statutory compliances for large retail bodies.
Within the industry is she well-known for her key Profit Center Operations, Revenue Expansion and PR skills. She is an excellent business planner, handles Quality Management and Process Improvement, Budgeting Control with ease and efficiency.
Shantanu Deshmukh
Vice President- Marketing, Xoxoday
Shantanu comes with more than fourteen years of experience in marketing, sales and analytics in B2B and B2C markets. He has a varied experience across industries, and has worked with startups, mid-size organisations and captives. In the recent past, he has led large teams in social intelligence, led onsite client interactions in the US, and has led marketing at startups such as ZipDial