Speakers

With over 15 years of experience, Mr. Bishwajeet Samal is a seasoned marketing professional with over a decade of experience within the Volkswagen brand. He joined Volkswagen India in 2008 and prior to his current appointment at Volkswagen Passenger Cars in India, he spent over three years in charge of Regional Marketing, International Communications at Volkswagen AG, Germany.

In his expansive career, Mr. Samal has worked in Media, Advertising and Telecom industries before joining Volkswagen. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, with a specialization in Marketing from the Institute of Management Development and Research (IMDR), Pune.

Mr. Samal’s appointment has been effective since June 2018 and in his new role as Head of Marketing, Volkswagen Passenger Cars in India, he will be reporting to Mr. Steffen Knapp, Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India.

He loves traveling, enjoys interacting with people and exploring different cultures. His other interests include Skiing, playing Tennis & Swimming.

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Oliver Mirza is the Managing Director & CEO of Dr. Oetker India and has been successfully managing the business for 10 years now. He emanates with over 25 years of experience in the food business. Oliver in his current role is responsible for managing and growing the business of Dr. Oetker in the country with full P&L responsibility. He was appointed for this role to design the India entry strategy through the acquisition of FunFoods and to further define the vision, create culture and build the senior management team. With Oliver at the helm, Dr. Oetker India has strengthened FunFoods sub-brand as the market leader in the western sauces and spreads category in India.

Born and brought up in Germany, he completed his graduation from Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, Germany in 1993 and was bestowed upon a master’s degree in International Food Marketing from St.Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, USA. He started his professional journey with Kambly USA, a premium Swiss biscuit maker. In mid-1995, in Europe, Oliver joined the Tengelmann-Group, a European retail giant, as a management trainee. The following year, he became the Product Manager at H.J.Heinz Germany and was responsible for marketing Ketchup, Mayonnaise and Sauces. Subsequently he made a shift to Europe’s No.1 Honey brand, Langnese and later associated with Barilla, world’s no.1 Pasta and Pasta Sauce maker where he served for nearly 8 years and achieved numerous senior level positions in Central Europe.

Oliver’s intuitive all-rounder skills have made him an addressee for numerous honours like “The 1995 international Marketing Award” presented by Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, USA. He was also awarded with the “ECR Best Practice Award 2004” for best Category Management in Food, given by GS 1 D-A-CH.

Oliver has a dynamic personality and is an extremely passionate professional with great interpersonal and people development skills. A self- professed foodie, he loves to experiment with food recipes. Some of his popular food tasks include artisanal goat cheese and handmade chocolates. Apart from cooking, he is a travel freak and an avid Osho reader.

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A seasoned marketing professional, Anika 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.

Anika 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, Anika has a wealth of marketing experience across India, Middle- East and African markets. Prior to joining Max Bupa, Anika spent more than six years in Nokia India and Nokia Corporation. Anika 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

Ayushman Chiranewala, Head of Marketing – Fastrack, is amongst the top 25 Hot Young Marketers, 2018 in the country by Economic Times Brand Equity.

Ayushman has completed his MBA in Marketing and Finance from SCMHRD, Pune. He started his career as an Area Sales Manager at Titan Company Limited in the year 2008 and has been with Titan ever since. He was responsible for brands such as Fastrack Watches and Eyewear, Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo.

Later, he moved on to become the Brand Manager for Sonata, India’s largest selling watch brand, where his role primarily focused on launching and taking the Superfibre range of watches to its 1 millionth sale in year one. In the year 2011, he joined Titan’s international business division as a brand manager, where he was responsible for brand promotion, development of marketing campaigns and consumer research for international business. After a successful run in the Indian Market, he took over the role of Country Manager for Titan’s global markets.

Since 2016, Ayushman holds the role of Head of Product & Marketing at Fastrack, leading the brand to new heights of top line & bottom-line achievement and making it the fastest growing brand in the company.

A postgraduate in Management from North Maharashtra University, Jalgoan, B. Krishna Rao has more than 20 years of work experience in various leading companies like Parle Products, Uncle Chipps, Maxwell Apparels and Excelcia Foods.

He joined Parle Products Pvt Ltd, the leading manufacturers of biscuits, confectionery, snacks, cakes & rusk in 2001 and is currently working in the capacity of Senior Category Head.

He is based in Mumbai and is presently responsible for the entire Snacks, Confectionery, Cakes and Rusk portfolio of Parle and has over 17 years of experience at the company.

Srini has over 20 years of experience in Sales and Marketing across FMCG, Consumer Durables and Retail industries, including more than 10 years at Lifestyle – India’s most preferred fashion destination.

He is an integral part of Lifestyle’s growth, contributing immensely in establishing Lifestyle as a youthful brand in the country besides building several brands such as Ginger, Forca and Melange among others. He has keen interest in consumer behavior, data analytics and the intricate nuances of content marketing. He is an avid traveler and a keen marathon runner.

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Lokesh Kataria is the Head of Marketing for Mattel Toys India Pvt Ltd for its South Asia business unit, based out of Mumbai. With iconic brands such as Barbie, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, Thomas & Friends, Mega Bloks and Scrabble; Mattel India is the leader across all categories within Toys and Games. Before joining Mattel, Lokesh has had successful stints with brands like Jio, Coca-Cola and LG Electronics, handling responsibilities ranging from Brand Marketing to Operational and Commercial Excellence, over past 15 years in his career.

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Prashant is an internationally awarded marketeer and brand strategist with experience across e-commerce, FMCG, financial services and corporate branding.

He currently leads marketing for Grofers including all sub-functions of brand marketing, engagement, digital and mobile marketing, consumer insights, partnerships and PR.

He is responsible for driving acquisition, managing retention and delivering topline for Grofers; his team has helped scale up annualised GMV from $50m to $250m within one year.

An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, Prashant Verma started his career in the year 2007 right after finishing his MBA. With an experience of more than a decade in the field of marketing, Prashant has been through different levels at various organizations such as Leo Burnett, Lowe Lintas and Partners and ICICI Bank before finally joining Grofers in the year 2015 as a Lead in Brand Marketing.

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Priyadarshi Banerjee is a cross functional media & marketing strategist with a decade’s experience having worked across multiple functions in the publishing industry - including Consumer Marketing, Retail Sales, Digital Brand Solutions, Content and Audience strategy, Circulation Sales & Distribution, CRM & Analytics, E-commerce, Creative Strategy and Campaign Management. He has spent over 10 years working for global publishing brands like Readers Digest and National Geographic in India and Singapore, where he looked after their Direct-to-Consumer, International Licensing and Merchandising Businesses.

Priyadarshi has also had a short stint in the business of Advertising, where he worked in the area of Aviation, Lubricants, BFSI and FMCG brands specializing in running consumer & trade loyalty programs. His educations background includes prestigious names like St. Xavier's College Kolkata and IMT Ghaziabad. In his current role with Worldwide Media Pvt Ltd, Priyadarshi handles a unique dual portfolio of being a product marketer and a digital brand solutions strategist, championing both traditional and new media causes for the company, by focusing on print readership growth, as well as digital ad revenues.

Priyadarshi is an empiricist to the core, a firm believer in the new media revolution and consumer evolution theories, apart from being a part time musician and an avid traveler.

About Worldwide Media: Worldwide Media is a part of the Times Group, one of India’s largest media and entertainment conglomerates, and publishes Filmfare – India’s No 1 entertainment magazine. Femina – India’s largest women’s magazine, BBC TopGear, HELLO!, BBC GoodHomes, GRAZIA, Lonely Planet Magazine India, Home Trends and BBC Knowledge are other exciting titles from Worldwide Media.

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Rachana Panda, a Harvard Business School Alumnus, is the Chief Communications Officer & Citizenship Leader at GE South Asia. She joined GE in 2012. At GE, Rachana is part of the leadership team where her role is to not only lead & champion the communications function; but also, protect and nurture the corporate reputation of GE. Her role comprises advising the Leadership team on all facets of communications, which includes employee engagement and external communications. She also leads the Brand, Advertising & Digital communications team for this region. As GE’s Chief Communications Officer, Rachana’s role has always been to align the communications priorities with the business priorities and drive thought leadership led, insight based measurable campaigns. Rachana is also responsible for the Citizenship program where her role is to strategize the CSR program for the company. Rachana is a member of the National Advisory Committee for CSR for Indian industry. She believes it is key to plan the future course of CSR, not just within the company, but also drive a movement that supports inclusive growth pertaining to women empowerment.

Rachana believes that Communications is a strategic function that adds great value internally and externally to the organization. She started her career as a Management Trainee in Apollo Tyres. She headed the communications team for the region of Alcatel and UTStarcom at a time when telecom revolution was at its peak. Rachana was the Director of Communications for the French multinational Alstom in India before GE. She has extensively worked on sustainable development projects for the British Council in India.

Rachana was also listed as one of the top ten women corporate communicators by Reputation Today in 2016. She has spoken at various National & International conferences and has contributed for leading publications. She has judged campaigns at platforms such as AMEC, SABRE, Marketing forums. Her team was nominated among top Corporate communications by Reputation today in 2017 & 2018.