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Joji George
Co-Founder, GoNut
Joji George is a seasoned business leader with over 20 years of experience in media, broadcasting, sports, brand management, entertainment, digital and live events, globally.
He has worked in leadership roles with leading companies like MTV Asia, Astro plc, Yahoo!, Percept Sports & Entertainment, Sony Music and UBM plc. His last role was as Vice President and General Manager (Country Head) at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) for the Indian subcontinent.
Currently, he is cofounder at Gonuts- Asia’s largest and most influential platform for human connection, communication and commerce using celebrities to make lives richer.
In his role at WWE, he created new lines of business and transformed an essentially American brand to become the second most watched sports entertainment property, next only to the Cricket Indian Premier League in India.
As Managing Director of UBM India ( now Informa Markets), Joji was responsible for building a powerful business intelligent B2B events and digital company, comprising of exhibitions, conferences, business intelligence, digital media and publications.
Prior to this, he was CEO of Percept Sports and Entertainment, India’s leading sports and entertainment company. He led the creation of new intellectual sports properties like “Fight Nights”, managed the Indian International Film Festival, expanded the Sunburn Music festival and led the first ever Vodafone Speedfest with Lewis Hamilton.
Joji has also worked as Executive Vice President at the Global Brand Forum, a global strategic advisory, Brand Director and Programme Marketing Director at Astro (Astro All Asia Networks Plc), the region’s leading integrated cross media company based in Malaysia, Yahoo! South East Asia and with MTV Asia LDC Singapore as Director, Licensing & Merchandising.
He started his corporate career with Sony Music in India and was part of the core team that set up the company and also making it the leading music company in India with a market share of 34% in only two years. He was executive producer of two of the highest selling albums for Sony Music. Joji has been a promoter of some of the biggest live media events in the country.
This includes the Bon Jovi concert in India and Independence Rock. He has also been involved with radio, both as a producer and as a host. He is an avid film and theatre enthusiast and enjoys travelling to offbeat locations. He and his wife set up a support service organisation to help families of children with special needs, a cause he is very passionate and relentless.
Joji is a Fellow of Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania and has an advanced management programme from the University of Chicago- Booth School of Business.
James Curleigh
President & CEO, Gibson Brands, Inc
James “JC” Curleigh is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Gibson Brands, the iconic guitar company based in Music City USA, Nashville, Tennessee. JC joined Gibson on November 1st, 2018 and, along with his team, has made significant progress in re-storing Gibson as a global leader in the music industry. JC is a guitar enthusiast and has been a proud owner of both Gibson and Epiphone guitars over the years, including his latest addition – a Gibson 1960’s J-45 acoustic guitar.
Prior to joining Gibson, JC served as the president of the Levi’s brand at Levi Strauss & Co., where he guided strategic shifts, leadership team evolution, and market execution for all brands within the Levi Strauss & Co. portfolio, including Levi’s, Dockers, Signature by Levi’s Strauss and DENIZEN by Levi’s. At Levi’s he returned the brand to its iconic status and grew the business profitably every year under his leadership. He has a proven track record from Levi’s of finding ways to leverage heritage and create modern solutions. JC (along with his team) is credited with being the driving force behind the Levi’s resurgence.
Over the years, JC has built a reputation as a brand building expert and has crafted uniquely tailored solutions for a variety of other well-known consumer goods companies, including as President and CEO of KEEN Footwear and of Salomon Sports NA. At KEEN, he steered a young company to years of strong growth and developed a unique brand identity for its future. Additionally, under his leadership at Salomon, he expanded the ski company into a leading innovative action sports brand.
JC holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce from St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has furthered his executive education at both Stanford and Harvard. He also has delivered several keynote speeches around the world on progressive brand building, business solutions, and team dynamics. He is a triple citizen of the U.S.A., Canada and the U.K. and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Waterkeeper Alliance. He loves to play music, cook, surf, ski, and travel extensively with his wife and three kids.
Priti Murthy
CEO, OMD
With over 20 years of experience in the realm of media planning, insights and strategy, Priti Murthy, CEO OMD India, is proficient at translating consumer-speak into successful business stories. A certified trainer on the Harvard Mentor Program and instrumental in the development of various marketing tools, Priti consistently bridges the gap between academics and the applications of media as a discipline.
Channan Sahwney
Head Digital Marketing & Media, Johnson & Johnson
She started her career in sales and marketing and made a pivot to digital marketing and media management. She has over 13 years of experience in the FMCG sector with experience across India, China, US, UK, Australia and Canada markets.
She has worked across the following brands: Asian Paints; Tata Tea, Tetley, Starbucks, Tata Coffee, Himalayan Water; Johnson & Johnson, Neutrogena, Johnsons Baby, Listerine, Stayfree, Clean & Clear and Aveeno.
In her current role she heads Media, Digital Marketing, Content Excellence and Brand Experience across JnJ Consumer Health brands in India.
Anuj Kumar
Co-Founder, Chief Revenue & Operating Officer, Affle
Anuj has played a pivotal role in building & growing Affle. He has helped forge important partnerships, integral to Affle’s business, thus helping to make Affle a leading Mobile platform company. Under his leadership, the team has worked with several top marketers globally to help deliver end-to-end mobile advertising and data analytics-driven solutions through Affle’s products and platforms.
Prior to Affle, Anuj worked with large global media companies like ESPN STAR Sports, GroupM Mindshare and JWT.
Anuj has over 19 years of relevant media and advertising industry experience and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen's College and a Masters in Advertising & Communication from MICA in India.
Kavita Nair
Chief Digital Transformation & Brand Officer, Inc
Kavita Nair is the Chief Digital Transformation and Brand Officer of Vodafone Idea Limited, India’s largest telecom service provider.
A member of the National Leadership Team, Kavita leads Digital Transformation across all functions for the organization and drives the strategy, course and communication of Vi – the newest brand in Indian telecom industry. She has been the driving force behind Vi – a brand that emerged with the integration of two of the iconic brands – Vodafone and Idea.
Prior to her present role, Kavita Nair was Associate Director for Commercial Operations at Vodafone India across Customer Operations, Retail, Digital, Customer Experience and Business Transformation. Her primary focus was to deliver a superior experience to customers across all touch points and helping Vodafone to become the Most Loved Telecom Brand in the country.
A career telecom professional, Kavita’s career mirrors the evolution of mobile telephony in India. As the industry matured from basic voice and text to the multifaceted world of data, Kavita played a key role in driving this transformation with a multitude of roles focused on driving innovation and bringing delightful experiences to customers, while creating value for the business. She has held leadership roles in diverse functions across both consumer and enterprise domains. Kavita’s areas of expertise include marketing, digital, retail, pricing, product management, channel and customer operations. She has a strong track record of building some of the most admired telecom brands of the country and Vodafone’s iconic Zoozoos were born during her tenure as the Brand Head at Vodafone India.
Her talent and success has been acknowledged at several prestigious forums - Economic Times included her in its 25 Rising Women Leaders of India Inc. in 2015; Business Today voted her as one of the Hottest Young Executives to watch out for in 2011 and Brand Equity named her amongst the 8 Marketing Premier League Icons in 2009.
Kavita is an alumnus of the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), M S University, Baroda where she did her MBA in Marketing and has also completed Senior Leadership Programs from London Business School and IIM Ahmedabad.
Sudhakar Rao
Director-Branding, ICFAI Group
Sudhakar Rao studied Mechanical Engg at graduate level and went to IIM, Bangalore for Post Graduate Program in Management. Sudhakar Rao has recently completed a specialized program on “Design Thinking” from MIT Sloan School of Management.
Sudhakar Rao started his career as Brand Manager and moved up as SBU Head and Director. In a career spanning over 20+ yrs, Sudhakar Rao played multiple roles of Branding, Marketing, Corporate Relations, International Operations etc Over the last 2 decades of fast track work life, Sudhakar Rao dealt with sectors like Textiles, Food and Education where he not only launched many brands but also nurtured them towards their rightful position in the market place.
Sudhakar Rao is a key-note speaker at various national and international fora. He is also the Co-chair for education subcommittee on FICCI Telangana State Council. His areas of interest include Innovation, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Diversity & Inclusiveness, Design Thinking apart from Branding.
Sudhakar Rao has been an accomplished Brand Strategist, a StartUp Mentor and a Social Media Advisor. At ICFAI, Sudhakar Rao heads Branding for the entire Group that includes 11 ICFAI Universities, 9 ICFAI Business Schools, 7 Tech Schools, 7 Law Schools and a huge Distance Learning Program.
Anubhav Sonthalia
CEO, Merkle Sokrati
Anubhav Sonthalia is the co-founder of Sokrati (India, 2009) which became a part of Merkle Inc (Dentsu network) in 2017. Currently, he sits in the CEO seat of Merkle Sokrati - which is regarded as one of the best marketing agencies in India, managing about 10% of the country's digital media spends. With the inclusion in the DAN ecosystem, the agency is also carving a niche for itself by consulting brands in implementing the latest marketing technologies and automation solutions in India. Before Sokrati, Anubhav was the Product and Program Manager at Amazon (Seattle), driving efficiency at scale for Amazon's Comparison Shopping Program. He completed his masters from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in Computer Science."
Dr. Ipsita Chatterjee
Head - Innovation Development & Brand Strategy, Lotus Herbals Pvt Ltd
“An undeterred spirit, exceptional perseverance and immense passion, these precisely are the driving forces in my life.”
Being associated with the Branded Ayurveda/Natural Beauty Industry in both luxury and FMCG sectors for over a decade now, Dr Ipsita Chatterjee has worked across disciplines as an Innovations Development Expert, Ayurvedic Scientist, Trainer, Researcher, Communications Expert and Brand strategist with a proven track record.
She has received multiple awards and felicitations in her career span. Her latest achievement has been “Exceptional Women of Excellence” Award 2019 by Women’s Economic Forum.
Sandesh Gupta
SEO Head, Wakefit
Sandesh is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and holds the dual degree of BTech and MTech. After graduation, he joined Infosys as a technical lead, where he handled software requirements/requests of telecom client from UK and Belgium.
Post Infosys, he has ventured into entrepreneurship and opened his own startup in the food business. During these years, he found himself inspiringly attracted to the field of marketing and hence decided to build his career in the same, owing to his sound analytical and managerial skills.
After a short stint as an entrepreneur, Sandesh had joined GenY Medium as a Head of Performance Marketing and Analytics. He managed a portfolio of over 30+ clients from diverse domains like education, healthcare, insurance, e-commerce and gaming. His versatile knowledge of the domain helped various clients expand their wings through digital marketing.
On successfully completing 5 years with GenY, he has joined Bounce to scale the business further and led some important projects such as initiating email marketing, revamped the website to grow organically and improved the CLM process to increase the retention rate.
Sandesh is currently working with Wakefit and leading the SEO efforts for the entire website and performance marketing of the recently launched furniture segment.
Bharat Khatri
Country Lead, Xaxis India
Bharat is a strategic digital marketer with over a decade of experience across digital and sales domains. His primary focus is to leverage technology to drive efficiency and creativity in digital marketing at scale. He loves helping brand’s making the marketing message a welcome occurrence rather than an unwanted intrusion with data-driven approach. The combination of strong background in new business setup’s and experience working for EMENA and APAC regions has given him a future facing and holistic approach to digital marketing in context of all other media. He has a keen eye for identifying and converting digital marketing opportunities into actionable, measurable and revenue generating business outcomes. In his current role, as Country Head, he leads the client development and oversees operations and publisher partnership to deliver best in class programmatic solutions for brands.
Tanveer S.Uberoi
Head - Agency Partnerships & Sales (India), Google Customer Solutions(GCS), Google
Coming soon...
Anmol Gill
Head Customer Marketing India & Neighbouring Countries, Bacardi India Pvt Ltd
Anmol Gill heads the Customer Marketing vertical for India & NC for Bacardi Brands. She leads the Integrated Commercial and Brand Activations Planning and Roll out for all brands of Bacardi.
In her former role, she was the Whisky lead for Bacardi India and South East Asia, and led brand engagement and consumer marketing for the Whisky portfolios, consisting of key brands such as Dewar’s, William Lawson’s, and Single Malts (Aberfeldy, Craigellachie, Royal Brackla, Autmore and Deveron).
With over 10 years of experience with Bacardi, Anmol has been instrumental in launching brands like Grey Goose Vodka, Dewar’s and William Lawsons Scotch and establishing their businesses.
She has been an integral part in driving some of the prestigious brand narratives, building revenue generating experiential properties and driving digital content befitting brand personas across India and SEA. Anmol has led award winning campaigns and platforms like the Bronze Cannes Lion winning Dewarist’s property, The Doers’ Club experiential, ‘You Got Chef’d!’ content series and William Lawson’s partnership with Mumbai Indians for IPL 2019. With key focus on driving two of Bacardi’s biggest brown spirit’s investments in India, Dewar’s and William Lawson’s, Anmol has been instrumental in shaping new-age narrative for next-gen drinkers in a rather old-fashioned category.
She commenced her career with LO’real India Pvt Ltd where she grew the B2B upcountry sales in the South of Gujarat. Soon, she also led the launch of a range of Garnier products as part of their skin care marketing team, and the Lancôme skin, make-up and home services. At Bacardi, she began her journey as an Assistant Brand Manager for Grey Goose, where she led the brand from its initiation in the country to building it as India’s leading super premium Vodka with more than 70% market share. Anmol is an engineer with a degree in MBA from Ohio University. She also has an executive degree in luxury marketing from IIM Bangalore.
Vani Gupta Dandia
Founder, CherryPeachPlum Growth Partners
Vani has had a long rewarding career of over 20 years, starting with advertising (BBDO and Leo Burnett – launch of Coke 200ml and 500ml), and then various roles in marketing and category management in with various blue chip companies like PepsiCo, Unilever (Regional Innovation Office Bangkok and HUL India), and Reckitt Benckiser.
Vani was at PepsiCo India from Jan 2011 to end May 2018. In her last role with PepsiCo she was leading the Indian Snacks Category, with the objective of strengthening the master brand Kurkure. Her experience in driving innovation, creative-technical acumen, building high-performance teams & scaling operations is the cornerstone of the brand’s success story. Some specific achievements under her leadership include:
Prior to Pepsico, Vani had a rewarding stint of 5 years with Unilever as a Senior Global Project Leader and successfully launched a range of hair care products across South East Asia/ South Asia.
Before Unilever, Vani worked with Reckitt Benckiser, where she launched Veet in India and crafted a success model for emerging markets, which was felicitated at the Annual Global Marketing Conference. Veet gained the No.1 market position in units sold, just one year from launch, toppling the erstwhile market leader, despite a 1.5X price premium. She has also worked with Henkel on Fa where she was one of the six Brand Managers chosen globally, to participate in the Annual 2002 Marketing Conference of Country Heads held at Lanzarote, Canary Islands.
Some significant recognitions received during her career include: The ‘India Region Above and Beyond 2014 Chairman’s Award’ from PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi for successfully building a new platform of growth for Pepsi Foods, the ‘Innovation Excellence Award’ and the ‘AMEA PwP Sustained Performance Award’ for Kurkure. Vani has also been listed by ‘Business Today’ as the Hottest Young Executive under 40 in 2015, in a nationwide survey.
Vani holds a degree in B.Com (Honors) from Delhi University (LSR) and a MBA in Marketing Management from Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon.
After a long stint in the corporate world of more than 20 years, Vani set up her own strategic business consulting venture Called CherryPeachPlum Growth Partners to provide consulting and execution services to startups and large corporates alike. She is now working with a network of individuals from different fields as well as agencies (digital, creative, SEO, PR, Design, Video, Animation, Research, On Ground Activations, Outdoor advtg, Mobile advertising, Amazon advtg, production houses, media etc) who contribute to the project at different stages as required, and as briefed by Vani.
Prabhakar Tiwari
CMO, Angel Broking Ltd
Prabhakar Tiwari works as Chief Marketing Officer with Angel Broking, where he spearheads Brand, performance marketing and PR initiatives for the firm. The firm has seen rapid improvements in its digital maturity metrics and market share gains under his growth leadership with slew of new initiatives. With a future forward organizational thinking, he is focused in driving the leadership aspiration of the brand and in shaping the digital journey for delivering top notch customer experience.
In professional terms, he is an entrepreneurial business leader with a proven ability to add value in many business contexts in Indian & MNC organizations. The core of his professional expertise is built around leading digital & tech-oriented organizations, driving consumer innovation and ensuring disciplined execution by mentoring teams for sustainable profitable business growth.
In summary, PT has around 17 years of rich & illustrious work experience including 5 long years with Marico Limited handling classical FMCG positions of increasing responsibility in Marketing & Sales functions. His last stint was entrepreneurial in running a Boutique Consulting and Training startup, The MargDarshak Inc, which focuses on consumer facing businesses to support them in Strategy, Innovation and Technology areas.
His earlier corporate stint was with an E-commerce Company PayU Payments, as Chief Marketing Officer. PayU’s ‘Fayde Ki Aadat’ campaign in his leadership was hailed as one of the most innovative and growth hacking campaign of its time, which also found mention in Google APAC Case Study. Prior to that he was with CEAT Ltd as GM Marketing. His CEAT campaigns won many marketing awards including Effies, Abby’s et al. His pioneering work for CEAT digital marketing were awarded across categories by DMAi, Pitch Youth Marketing, Global Youth marketing awards, Indian Telly awards et al. Eventually he won CEAT’s MD Excellence Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution towards organizational growth.
Prabhakar holds an MBA in Marketing from IIM, Bangalore and is a marketing gold medallist. He was felicitated as the 'Marketing Person of the Year 2014-15' by TRiLA (Tyre & Rubber Industry Leadership Acknowledgement Awards) for his notable work for CEAT. PT dons multiple hats as business thought leader and new age story teller with growth hacking mindset. He is highly networked in CMO/ CXO peer group forums like AIMA, IAMAI, RMAI & DMAi. He regularly contributes to business fraternity in many roles as jury member, panelist & key note speaker.
PT has authored two books, which are currently under editorial process and review with the publishing house. He volunteers for organizations like Landmark Education and Isha Yoga for Community Well-being.
Ketan Kulkarni
CMO & Head - Business Development, Blue Dart
Ketan Kulkarni is CMO and Head – Business Development at Blue Dart, South Asia's premier express air and integrated transportation distribution and logistics company and part of Deutsche Post DHL group. Ketan has a rich and varied experience of over 26 years across industries as diverse as FMCG, Advertising, Alcoholic Beverages and Travel goods.
He joined Blue Dart in December 2006, and is responsible for new business development, product innovations, process improvement, customer activation and loyalty, market research, strategic intelligence, public relations, corporate communications and sustainability. He was also earlier entrusted with the role of Senior Advisor and Head - First Choice, the quality and excellence program at Blue Dart. A certified master black-belt, he is involved in leading & guiding change, organizational strategy, development and transformation.
A thoroughbred marketing professional with expertise in Sales Management and Advertising, Ketan has tremendous insights into national, regional and global market trends and evolving scenarios. Brand architecture, market research, retail management, buyer behaviour, environment scanning & customer strategy development are also his areas of core competence.
An experienced sales professional, prior to Blue Dart, he has successfully led goal oriented national sales teams. He has been involved in running sales coaching & training, incentive programs, portfolio management, trade channels & distribution set-up and strategizing & operating Key Account Management structures. As part of the national sales leadership responsibility, he has had the opportunity to travel extensively across the nation and has virtually been to every state and its interiors, enabling him to gain tremendous insight and knowledge of the Indian market-place and its consumers.
In 2008, Blue Dart’s silver anniversary year, he gave further impetus and traction to the company’s aggressive growth plans. Apart from leading various strategic initiatives, he has led the One-Retail programme in Blue Dart thereby developing a strong foothold in the retail landscape in enhancing customer value proposition. Ketan is a leader who believes that value and innovations can lead to a profitable organization especially in the fast paced ‘express’ sphere.
Ketan is in the advisory council of the CMO Asia Council and has received numerous awards across forums in the areas of Marketing, Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility. He holds the jury position at the BSE – Corporate Responsibility Awards, the SIFE Enactus Panel and the Asia HR Congress.
He was recently awarded the Responsible Business Leader of the Year 2017 by Responsible Business Awards, “Greatest Marketing Influencer” Award 2017, ‘Most Influential Marketing Leaders’ Award at the World Marketing Congress, presented the ‘Award for Retail Excellence - Retail Leadership Award’ at Asia Retail Congress, conferred as the ‘Marketing Professional of the Year’ at the 10th Indy’s awards, was recognised as one of ‘100 Most Impactful CSR Leaders - Global Listing’ at World CSR Congress. He was also awarded the CISCO Sustainability Leadership Award at the India Sustainability Leadership Summit & Awards, Best CMO of the Year – by indiasgreatest.com – The Greatest Corporate Leaders of India. He has also won the ‘Best Sustainability Leader’ by Star of the Industry Awards at the 9th Indy's Awards for Excellence in Mass Communication, Marketing Communication, Public Relations, Advertising, Corporate Social Responsibility, ‘Best CMO of the Year’ by indiasgreatest.com - The Greatest Corporate Leaders Of India and is also the recipient of the ‘Sustainability Leadership Award’ by Global Sustainability Leadership Awards 2014, an ‘Indira Super Achiever’ and winner of ‘Pride of Profession Award for Excellence in Marketing’ to name a few.
Ketan likes to keep himself updated of the recent trends in business and advanced leadership, based on which he recently completed the Asia Pacific Business Leadership Program from the Australian School of Business. Corporate Sustainability & Living Responsibility are areas that appeal to Ketan's heart. He leads by example in greening the environment, conserving energy and working with children and youth from the marginalized sections of our society in order that they and our future generations are provided a better quality of life.
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Mumbai University and an MBA in Marketing from Sydenham Institute (Mumbai). He enjoys reading books on game theory, scenario planning, world history & architecture.
Varun Alagh
Co-Founder & CEO, Mamaearth
Driven by purpose and passion, Varun Alagh Co-Founded Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. in 2016. With over 10+ years of leadership experience in sales and marketing roles with world-renowned FMCG brands, Varun has mastered the art of building a brand and making it profitable. Varun started his career with Hindustan Unilever and has, twice been listed amongst the top managers in HUL. He then went on to become the Senior Brand Manager at Diageo followed by a 4 years stint at Coca Cola wherein he managed the ATL, BTL, Digital & Trade activations for Smirnoff and has been instrumental in launching Coke Zero in India. During his corporate stint, he has won multiple recognitions including Business Unit Presidents Award, Above and Beyond Award and I am Diageo Award. Varun leverages his understanding of the FMCG market to build MamaEarth's and its 100% toxin-free products portfolio.
He holds a Masters in Finance and Marketing from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and Bachelors in Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering (DCE)
Shalini Rao
CMO, Bangalore International Airport Ltd
An expert in Strategic Marketing & Brand Building, Customer Experience and Digital Transformation, Shalini is responsible for branding, communication and marketing at BIAL. Prior to joining BIAL, Shalini was a Brand Consultant for Tata Sons. She headed Global Marketing for the Taj Group and Marketing at TetraPak India and Mars India.
Shalini holds Master’s in Marketing from Griffith University, Australia and a Post Graduate Diploma from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar.
Joe Pulizzi
Author, Podcaster, Marketing Speaker & Entrepreneur
Joe Pulizzi is the Amazon bestselling author of Killing Marketing, Content Inc. and Epic Content Marketing, which was named a “Must-Read Business Book” by Fortune Magazine. His latest book is The Will to Die, his debut novel.
He has founded three companies, including the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), and has launched dozens of events, including Content Marketing World. In 2014, he received the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Content Council. His podcast series, This Old Marketing with CMI's Robert Rose, has generated millions of downloads from over 150 countries. He is also the author of The Random Newsletter, delivered to thousands every two weeks. His Foundation, The Orange Effect, delivers speech therapy and technology services to children in over 25 states.
Rohit Dosi
Director, Microsoft Advertising, InMobi | InMobi
Rohit Dosi is the Director of the Microsoft Advertising Business at InMobi. He is responsible for P&L management, revenue growth, strategic partnerships for Microsoft Advertising business in India. With over 8 years of experience, he has previously worked at the likes of Google and Rocket Internet. Rohit is also an entrepreneur having founded LataHun - a B2B hyperlocal logistics startup. Rohit is a graduate from IIT Roorkee.
Mayank Kumar
Co-Founder & MD, upGrad
An education maven and accomplished entrepreneur, Mayank Kumar is one of the sharpest minds leading the edtech revolution in India.
Mayank is the Co-founder & Managing Director of India’s largest online higher education company - upGrad, which within a span of 5 years has impacted almost 1 million learners globally.
Mayank has spent most of his professional career in the education sector, where he has been involved in deals with over a billion dollars flowing into the sector. He has served as VP - Education at Bertelsmann and as Senior Principal at The Parthenon Group. He further served as a Board Member of iNurture. He has also worked at the Tata Strategic Group, advising Tata’s strategic direction.
An IIT Delhi and ISB alumnus, Mayank was named the ‘40 Under 40 Achiever of the year’ by BusinessWorld Disrupt in 2017 and ‘BW Education 40 under 40 Achiever’ by Business World in 2020.
Kunal Kishore
Co-Founder & COO, ClanConnect.ai
A self-motivated leader with a zest of entrepreneurship that drives the organization to excel in serving the client. Kunal’s entrepreneurial career began with the formation of Value360 Communications in 2007. He has led PR campaigns for many international brands like Paytm, MG Motors, Droom, Lufthansa Airlines, UrbanCompany, Zoomcar, Cleartrip.com, Hoegaarden, Budweiser among others over a decade in the industry.
He has been proactive in making concepts like digitization, artificial intelligence, robotics, and more find their targeted calling in the easiest ways.
Kunal envisages transforming the communication industry and bringing in a revolution in terms of the way it operates. His work on some of the Indian Unicorns since the day of their inception speaks volumes about his determination to create stories that are most heard and remembered.
Yadvinder Singh Guleria
Director - Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt Ltd
After spearheading the sales & marketing operations at Honda 2Wheelers India since 2012; Mr. Yadvinder Singh Guleria has been elevated to the Board of Directors of Honda 2Wheelers India in 2020. In his new role now, Mr. Guleria has greater responsibilities with additional charge of Customer Service, Logistics Planning & Control, Premium Motorcycle Business, and Brand & Communication along with Sales & Marketing. A firm believer in The Power of Dreams, Mr. Guleria has stewarded brand Honda with his unique blend of leadership, strategic vision, and intuitive understanding of market dynamics. Mining new opportunities in every disruption, Mr. Guleria has led Honda to become the 2nd largest two-wheeler Company in the country.
Leading from the front, Mr. Guleria continues to inspire his young team to innovate and win the hearts of over 48 million Indian customers of Honda. Be it challenging the status quo with Honda’s debut two-wheeler in India – the iconic Activa in 2001 to scripting the brand’s rural foray a decade later; creating top of mind recall for Wing Mark as the Only Honda in Indian 2Wheeler industry in 2012 to setting up the premium motorcycle business vertical under the immersive & exclusive Silver Wing Mark in 2019, Mr. Guleria has redefined the art of capturing customers’ curiosity while strengthening Honda’s future readiness in the disruptive era of today.
His suave marketer instinct has led to brand Honda winning accolades like Most Exciting 2wheeler Brand (Brand Equity 100 Most Exciting Brands 2015), Most Trusted 2wheeler Brand (Brand Equity 100 Most Trusted Brands 2015) and himself being recognized as the ‘Marketer of the Year’ from IAA Leadership Awards, for 4 years in a row, An excellent communicator with a great sense of humor and a flautist by hobby, Mr. Guleria is a regular speaker and jury member at key industry and CMO panels such as SIAM Looking Ahead Conclave and jury member in various A&M platforms. Additionally, Mr. Guleria is also a certified Safety Riding Trainer and Chief Instructor- Sales Training by Honda Motor Company, Japan.
Post his graduation from Punjab Engineering College, Mr. Guleria started his career with Yamaha Motors India (Pvt.) Ltd. (YMIL, and worked his way up to be the company’s youngest sales manager. In 1998, he shifted gears to 4-wheeler industry and joined Hindustan Motors Ltd (HML) before moving to Honda where he was a core founding member in 2001. In April 2011, he briefly joined Polaris India Pvt. Ltd; before rejoining Honda in 2012.
Rohit Gothi
CEO, Hero Cycles Ltd
Rohit Gothi is leading one of the largest cycle companies in the world as its CEO. He has been at the helm of this global company since last 3 years and has ensured not only HERO continues grow and stays the undisputed market leader with almost 43% share in India market but also grows the premium bicycles market in India through Firefox Bikes Ltd and the European market through its UK subsidiary Avocet Sports Ltd, Manchester.
A leader par excellence, Rohit has mastered his skills as a business leader over an impressive career spanning more than 26 years across multiple industries in India.
Having started as management trainee at Shalimar Paints way back in the early 1990s, his grounding and most of his initial learnings have happened in Marico a leading personal and food conglomerate where he spent 14 years in various roles in sales, marketing and new businesses. Some of the critical roles he handled in Marico included Head, Sales and Head, New Business.
Post Marico, Rohit set up the Indian business of UK based multinational Lornamead which has brands like YARDLEY as its Managing Director.
Before joining Hero Cycles as Chief Executive Officer, Rohit spent four years with the bottling arm of Coca-Cola India, HCCB where he was on the board and was Executive Director - Operations for the country.
His stint in Coke was preceded with a very successful time in telecom major Bharti Airtel where he was leading the circles of Delhi and Rajasthan as HUB CEO.
His experience spanning multiple fields, from telecom and beverages to personal care, has helped him closely watch the growth and evolution of different market sectors in the post liberalization phase of the Indian economy and has also helped deeply enrich his understanding of B2C businesses.
As the CEO of Hero Cycles, Rohit passionately drives the vision of MOVING INDIA, FIT INDIA AND GREEN INDIA through widespread usage of cycles and e-cycles by all Indians through brands like Hero, Hero Sprint, Lectro and Firefox, among others.
