Suresh Narayanan has over 35 years of rich and exhaustive experience in the FMCG Industry and has held Senior Management and Top Leadership roles in leading global companies. He is on the Board of Directors of Nestlé India Limited from 1st August, 2015. Mr. Narayanan was Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines prior to joining Nestlé India in 2015 and was appointed Chairman of the Board from October 2015.
Mr. Narayanan was Managing Director of Nestlé Singapore Pte. Ltd., from 2008 to 2010. During his time, the overall business in Singapore witnessed sustained growth amidst the economic downturn. He was awarded the Medal of Commendation by the Government of Singapore in 2010, for excellence in employee relations during this challenging period. He moved to Nestlé Egypt as Chairman and CEO and Head of NEAR, where his initiatives resulted in significant business growth and investments despite the turbulence and volatility faced by the region at this time.
Mr. Narayanan joined Nestlé in 1999 as Executive Vice President for Sales in India, where he spearheaded major structural and strategic changes in Sales and Customer Management and set up the chilled dairy business. He moved to Nestlé Indochina in 2003, as Executive Director for Sales, Marketing and Food-Services, covering the countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Two years later in 2005, he returned to Nestlé India as Head of Sales for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Mr. Narayanan began his career as a Management Trainee with Hindustan Unilever, where he held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in Sales, Marketing and General Management. He has also worked with Colgate Palmolive in India.
Mr. Narayanan holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics and has a Diploma from the IMD (Lausanne) Program for Executive Development. He has participated in the Nestlé Leadership Program of the London Business School. He has been on various Industry Forums including being the Vice Chairman of ECR – Thailand, Member of the Council of Singapore Manufacturers Association (SMa), Co-Chair of the Trade & Industry Committee of American Chamber, Cairo and Member of the Advisory Board of the American University of Cairo (AUC) Business School. He is currently the Chairman of Food Processing Committee of CII.
He has delivered talks at NASSCOM forums, various Corporates, NUS School of Business-Singapore, American University–Cairo, Columbia University, Business Schools in India, Naval War College, Army War College, CII-Young India Forum and Indian Army’s Training Command in Shimla.
Suresh has been honoured at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2017 as the Best CEO in the Multinational category.
Annaswamy Vaidheesh is Vice President, South Asia & Managing Director, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Vaidheesh is a successful senior business leader with over 3 decades of diverse experience in healthcare and FMCG domain. He has a strong track record of leadership development and building leading brands/franchises across various categories and multi-cultural locations in Asia-pacific region. In December 2016, Vaidheesh was recognised as one of the “Most Influential Leaders of Asia” by Economic Times at the Asian Business Leaders Conclave held in Malaysia.
Vaidheesh is a Bachelor of Physics, from Madras University and has done his Master’s Degree in Marketing Management from Bombay University. He is an Honorary Fellow of The Association of Minimal Access Surgeons of India and is a certified Process Excellence Black Belt.
Prior to his current role he was Vice President, Corporate Government Affairs, Asia-Pacific for Johnson & Johnson based out of Singapore and a member of Global Leadership team for healthcare advocacy and policy. Before that he was Managing Director of Johnson & Johnson Medical India (JJMI) and Vice president, Asia-Pacific- Diabetes franchise for five years.
Vaidheesh is widely recognised for chairing various initiatives with industry bodies in India and in Asia Pacific Region. Strategic MOU with China Communist Party School, India Health Insurance development and leading Healthcare agenda in APEC summits are noteworthy. He is currently the President of the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), the Chairman of Healthcare Committee of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and on the Board of UK India Business Council (UKIBC).
Vaidheesh is married and has a daughter.
Mr. Ashok Ramachandran is the Chief Executive Officer, Schindler India & South Asia wherein he is responsible for the Operations including that of Factory and the R&D facility.
Ashok got his Engineering Degree from University of Madras in Instrumentation & Control and completed his master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. His journey with Schindler started in Australia in 2006 as a Quality Engineer working on Process Improvement and ISO audits. Later he moved on to become the MD of Schindler Vietnam in 2012 and then MD of Schindler Malaysia and Brunei in 2016.
Ashok is a highly passionate, motivated and result driven professional with varied experience from leading business in mature markets to fast growing developing markets. His achievements include developing and coaching talents, creating and driving strategy, sales management, end to end successful P & L Management and achieving results in varied markets and environments.
Mr. Herjit S. Bhalla is the Managing Director India at The Hershey Company. He brings extensive experience in building consumer, food and retail brands, and is an accomplished industry leader.
Mr Bhallahas spent more than 18 years in various sales and marketing and management roles at Unilever in India, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. In his last position, he served on the Board of Directors with Metro Cash & Carry handling operations for North and East India. Mr. Bhalla has repeatedly demonstrated his unique proficiency in effectively leading teams, turning around and building businesses, driving employee engagementand positively impacting revenue growth.
A veteran with more than 24 years of experience in General Management, Sales and Marketing, Rajesh Ramakrishnan is the Managing Director at Perfetti Van Melle India, the country’s leading confectionery player. Rajesh is responsible for the overall operations of the company for India and Nepal.
An accomplished business leader and a seasoned marketing professional, Rajesh has worked across categories like Personal Care, Household Care, Foods & Beverages, Confectionery and Media. Rajesh is well respected for his extensive skills and knowledge across management functions. Under his leadership, Perfetti Van Melle, Bangladesh delivered sustained growth and achieved market leadership in 2016.
Prior to joining Perfetti Van Melle in 2014, he was the Marketing Head at HT Media Limited. He has also held senior positions in diverse corporations includingPepsico, Marico Industries and Reckitt Benckiser.Post his graduation in Engineering from BITS Pilani, Rajesh pursued his masters from XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Rajesh is an award- winning photographer. His work has been featured at Cannes and has also been published in several publications in India and outside. He is also passionate about travelling and has been on expeditions to Everest Base Camp and Kilimanjaro. Rajesh along with his wife and teenage daughter started an initiative- My Daughter is Precious [MDIP] in March 2015 to raise awareness about gender equality and support the education of the girl child.
Sushobhan Dasgupta is the Managing Director, Johnson & Johnson Medical India (JJMI) & South Asia and Vice President, Orthopaedics, Johnson & Johnson Asia Pacific serving as a member of the Johnson & Johnson Orthopaedics Global Leadership team. A gold medalist in Business Administration from Jadavpur University and a Master of Science degree in Human Physiology from Presidency College, Kolkata, Sushobhan joined Johnson & Johnson in 1992.
Over his 26-year career with J&J, Sushobhan has lived and worked in several developed and emerging markets such as USA, UK, Germany, Singapore and Australia/New Zealand. In his various roles, Mr. Dasgupta has led and delivered accelerated business growth through innovation, continuous talent and organization development. He has always been a strong proponent and advocate of business ethics and compliant business practices.
In his current role, Sushobhan is actively engaged in helping shape the Indian healthcare environment through active participation in leading industry forums. He is the Past President of the Healthcare Federation of India (NATHEALTH), immediate Past Chairman of the FICCI Medical Devices Forum and currently Chair – Finance, Healthcare Sector Skills Council.
In addition, he is also an active member of FICCI’s National Committee on Healthcare, CII’s National Committee on Public Health and CII’s National Committee on MNCs, The American Chamber of Commerce’s (AMCHAM) and ADVAMED Medical Devices Forum. He is a founder member of the newly formed Medical Technology Association of India (MTai).
Sushobhan is the recipient of the honorary fellowship from the Association of Minimal Access Surgeons of India (AMASI), a rare recognition to an industry leader. He is also the only recipient of the Award of Appreciation from the Indian Arthroplasty association of IAACON 2017 Kolkata for his contribution over the years in the field of Arthroplasty in India.
He is passionate when it comes to contributing to the community. An advocate of “Operation Smile”, an international children's medical charity, that performs safe, effective cleft lip and cleft palate surgery, and delivers postoperative therapies, he extended his love by cooking for this noble cause and in turn raised money for Operation Smile.