Selection Board

Udit Malhotra
Head of Marketing, MG Motor India

Udit is a result oriented Marketing and Communications Professional with over 11 years of rich experience in Integrated Marketing, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing, Digital Transformation, Social Media Marketing, Content Strategy, Online Reputation and Crisis Management, Technology Products and Services.

He has worked closely with Small Businesses as well as large Multinational Organizations and delivered effective and award winning Digital Marketing Solutions for Fortune 500 brands like Ford Motor Company, American Express, Avon, PepsiCo and Nestle in a short span of time.

As a part of his current stint he is the Head of Marketing at MG Motor India.

Kartikeya Bhandari
Chief Marketing Officer, Livspace

Kartikeya is the Chief Marketing Officer at Livspace. Having handled brand marketing for Flipkart and Nokia in the past, Kartikeya spearheads key functions of Marketing, Public Relations, and Retail, which includes brand, advertising, digital, content, research, and strategic alliances at Livspace.His teams are collectively responsible for demand generation and strengthening brand equity. Kartik’s able guidance to craft impactful marketing strategies played a critical role to pivot Livspace’s positioning to greater heights.An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Kartik drives business results for Livspace including customer insights thereby creating improved consumer awareness and advocacy for the brand

Gaurav Mehta
Chief Marketing Officer, Zupee

Gaurav Mehta is the Chief Marketing Officer of Zupee. In his previous employment, Gaurav was Chief Marketing & Content Officer of the largest Auto tech company in India – CarDekho Group. Prior to CarDekho, he was the Chief Marketing Officer for OLX South Asia & General Manager - OLX Pakistan. He drove OLX to become among the most trusted and admired consumer internet brands in the region.

A post graduate in Brand Management and Media Planning from MICA, Gaurav has diverse experience spanning 19 years, which includes 13 years as a leading digital business executive in companies such as Yahoo, OLX & CarDekho. An analytics and research driven marketer, Gaurav has been in the mobile marketing space since 2008, and has also showcased his entrepreneurial streak with his company, BrandDNA, a branding and marketing consultancy. He has been felicitated with the ‘Marketer of the Year’ award by Exchange4Media Indian Marketing Awards in 2015 and Power Profile by LinkedIn in 2016. He was also recognized as ‘Forty under Forty’ by Exchange4Media Group in 2018 & 2019. He is an avid reader with interest in the field of politics, economics, and history.

Shiv Tiwary
Chief Marketing Officer, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company Limited

Mr. Shiv Tiwary is the Chief Marketing Officer at Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company Limited. In this role, he leads the Branding, Social Media Engagement, Corporate Communication, Digital Distribution and other marketing initiatives for RNLIC.

He has over 17 years of rich experience across Marketing, Strategy, Business Planning, Change Management, Distribution Development and Business Transformation. Prior to joining Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company, he has held leadership positions at YES Bank where he was responsible for strategy development and deployment across Insurance Distribution, Equity Broking, Investment Banking and for leading PMO for strategic initiatives. Shiv has a rich experience in the Insurance Industry having worked at Aviva India in the areas of strategy as well as developing new distribution channels. In the past, Shiv has worked as a Management Consultant at the Tata Strategic Management Group (TSMG).

Shiv holds a Degree in Engineering from Marine Engineering and Research Institute (MERI), Kolkata and a degree in Management from NITIE, Mumbai.

Nimish Agrawal
Senior Vice President & Head of Marketing, Niva Bupa

A marketing specialist with over 14 years of rich experience, Nimish leads the Brand Planning, Communications, Performance Marketing , Digital and Social Media platforms, Consumer Insights, Loyalty and Customer Relationship Management for Niva Bupa.

An industry veteran, Nimish brings with him extensive experience across Brand Strategy, Category P&L, Growth Hacking, Digital Marketing, Innovation & People Management.

Nimish is a post-graduate in Business Management from IMT, Ghaziabad and has led various marketing functions across major companies. Prior to joining Niva Bupa, he was the Head of Marketing at Infoedge for recruitment portfolio which includes Naukri.com, NaukriGulf, FirstNaukri and other businesses. He has led the marketing function at diverse set of power brands like Dulux, Britannia & Henkel across India, Middle East, and South Asia.

Pragya Bijalwan
Vice President- Marketing, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Limited

Pragya is leading the Marketing function for Crompton where she is responsible to developing winning brand proposition and adapt the brand to the ever evolving consumer needs. Her goal is to strengthen leading brand position in key categories and accelerate growth in new categories through meaning innovation supported by integrated consumer communications. Prior to joining Crompton in April 2021 Pragya has worked with Castrol India limited where she led product innovations, brand campaigns and technology based innovative solutions. She has also worked with AkzoNobel India Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation previously. Pragya brings with her strong knowledge on marketing across the value chain with consumers, influences and channel partners with expertise in consumer insights, brand management, influencer advocacy, innovation and digital platforms development. She has an experience of both India and international markets like Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Middle East. To her credit she has successfully led purpose led marketing campaigns winning several awards in India and APAC.

Pragya is an alumnus from IMT, Ghaziabad batch of 2004.

Sampurna Rakshit
Marketing Head, Mia by Tanishq

Sampurna currently heads marketing for one of the most exciting jewelry brands in India today - Mia by Tanishq. She is a seasoned sales & marketing professional having worked on multiple brands across various consumer categories handling end to end communication, media, PR, research and category management. A quizzing enthusiast and an avid reader, she is currently busy raising her one year old when she's not working.

Madhu S. Dutta
Head Marketing & GM- Brand, Media & Digital Social, Raymond Limited

Ms. Madhu S Dutta has over 21 years of professional experience in the field of Brand, Marketing and Communication specializing in Fashion and Lifestyle category. Currently, she is Marketing Head for Raymond lifestyle business.

Prior to this assignment, she has been Chief-Marketing for Pantaloons Fashion & Retail Ltd, at Aditya Birla Group and has been instrumental is a complete make-over of Pantaloons bringing in lifestyle & fashion relevance to the brand in the given consumer segment.

As Head of Marketing Development in World Gold Council and managed overall marketing initiatives in India. During her tenure, she has launched the most coveted brands in the jewellery category like Collection g – making gold a contemporary daily wear fashion. Further tapping in to the Indian Wedding Market through Azwa – a first of a concept wedding jewellery in the country. Introduced Italian made jewellery in India Gold Expressions another first in the segment. She worked closely with reputed designers at Vicenza - a known hub for Italian craftsmanship as well as renowned names like Raghvendra Rathore and Sabyasachi Mukherjee in India.

Her marketing career started in Tanishq – a TATA Enterprise with many innovative marketing initiatives. One of her marketing initiatives took Tanishq for the first time to the ramp of Milan Fashion Week. She steered the launch of ‘Sabyasachi Collection’ through Aarka entering the orbit of Lifestyle fashion.

In Ogilvy & Mathur, she was part of the core strategist team for Vodafone India and involved in many interesting national regional campaigns for the brand.

She started her career in Lowe Lintas and was handling the ITC business for tobacco for India Kings and Classic. Later she moved in as part of the core team to launch Wills Lifestyle – the largest non-tobacco initiative from the ITC Limited portfolio.

Notable achievements of the nominee in the last one year :
Madhu continues to spearhead the brand progression for Raymond to reflect the refreshing insight building relevance for ‘The Complete Man’ in today's context. An iconic move from being a suiting & shirting brand to a Men’s Lifestyle brand - owning the full wardrobe of the new age man. Today the brand has over 1000 stores across 600 cities! Madhu with her rich experience of lifestyle & fashion passionately leads the brand and retail transformation for Raymond across brands. She conceptualized the new campaigns by working closely with Business, Product and Category teams and mining the relevant consumer insight into a multi-media campaign, thus bringing in relevance to Raymond ‘The Complete Man’ for consumer and in turn create array of business opportunity She launched the truly defining brand campaigns like Raymond #TailorYourStyle & Raymond Ceremonial Campaign - the impactful creative along with high impact communication plan & continue to generate ripples in the fashion industry thereby building a fashion palette for the modern gentleman!

Puneet Sood
National Business Head - North and West India & Global Head - Apparel Business - Royal Enfield

Mr. Puneet Sood is the National Business Head - North and West India, Nepal, Bhutan and the Global Head - Apparel Business. He has been associated with Royal Enfield since October 2017 and is responsible for managing P&L for the business. His role included charting out the business, product strategy, developing growth plan for both motorcycle and apparel business. During his tenure, he has successfully managed all the aspects of business and brand through numerous strategic top funnel and Sales initiatives. Under his leadership, the apparel business witnessed exponential growth and the portfolio has gained credibility.

Having successfully managed the Apparel business for Royal Enfield, Puneet has been recently appointed as the National Business Head - North and West India, Nepal, Bhutan. Under his new role, Puneet is responsible for developing and implementing strategies for growth of various markets, while helping the brand to achieve its full potential. He has played a pivotal role in leading recent brand associations with some of the globally renowned brands such as Belstaff, Levi’s, TCX and KNOX.

Having worked with brands like Microsoft, Nokia and Nerolac, Puneet has experience in managing online and retail sales, distribution, operations, marketing & brand management and retail management. Prior to working with Royal Enfield, he was responsible for the development and execution of Online Marketplace strategy for Microsoft India Store for India. Puneet earned his PGDM from Symbiosis Institute of International Business and holds Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electronics.

Girish J Kalra
Chief Marketing Officer, Tata AIA

Girish J Kalra is associated with Tata AIA as its Chief Marketing Officer., He has an experience of over 20 years in a career spread across Consumer Goods, Asset Management and Insurance, He is an Engineer, MBA by profession. Girish has been a speaker at various forums across the domestic and international platforms. He likes to converse on brands, digital trends in marketing and socio economic developments.

Ipshita Chowdhury
Chief Marketing Officer, Valvoline Cummins

Ms. Ipshita Chowdhury, Chief Marketing Officer-Valvoline Cummins India is a seasoned consumer and B2B marketing professional with above 19 years of experience in building brands, driving businesses and leading marketing teams across category and product management, consumer insights, analytics, marketing intelligence, brand & marketing communications, digital marketing, retail marketing, CRM & influencer engagement, and media management.

Her experience lies in leading purpose driven campaigns across companies such as Philips, Nokia, Microsoft, Maruti Suzuki, ITC, and currently at Valvoline Cummins Private Limited.

She has many accolades to her name which are

• Indiantelevision.com Top 100 women, 2021
• CMO Woman Super Achiever @ WWLeadership Congress, 2020
• IMPACT 50 Most Influential Women Shortlist, 2020
• SocialSamosa Superwoman 2019
• Exceptional Woman of Excellence by the Women Economic Forum 2019
• Gold @ Indian Marketing Awards for new product launch

Abhishek Gupta
Chief Marketing Officer, Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance

Abhishek Gupta is currently the Chief Marketing Officer of Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance. As the chief brand champion, Abhishek manages the reputation of the company by promoting its diverse and innovative range of product offerings and services. Leveraging the power of storytelling and creativity, Abhishek aspires to deliver inclusive and strategic communications that can make the brand stand out as a new-age life insurer. Helming a team of ambitious and creative minds, Abhishek has been harnessing company’s product innovations and superior customer experience to set advertising benchmarks in the industry. He also leads the Customer Experience strategies for the company and strives to build a differentiated brand experience that can foster customer trust and advocacy.

Abhishek has been with Edelweiss Group for seven years. With an experience spanning 22 years, he has worked with brands across several sectors over the year – The Mobile Store (Essar Group), Bharti Retail, Spencer Retail, ICICI Bank and Shopper’s Stop.

An engineer with a post-graduation degree in marketing, Abhishek has been recognized as one of the ‘25 Most Outstanding Marketing Professional of India at World Brand Congress 2014’, ‘Most Influential Marketing Leaders 2017’, and ‘Global Marketing Leaders 2019’ at World Marketing Congress. He regularly speaks at industry forums, and serves as Guest Faculty at reputed management institutes in India.

Saurabh Bajaj
Marketing Head for the Dairy Business, Britannia Industries Limited

Saurabh Bajaj is the Marketing Head for the Dairy Business at Britannia Industries Limited since September 2019. He is an alumnus of Delhi College of Engineering and completed his PGDM (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Indore in 2004. He has since, spent over 16 years in the field of Sales & Marketing having worked for a decade with Mondelez from 2005 to 2015, then as the Innovation Head for Premium & Luxury Spirits with Diageo for 2 years, before joining Britannia.

Saurabh joined Britannia in Sep’17 as the Marketing Head for the International Business which has offices in Bangalore, Dubai & Kathmandu where he worked on several exciting Innovations & Activations across the Middle East and South Asia. Now, he is working on an exciting mandate to scale-up Britannia’s Dairy play across India & Bhutan. Recognized as 50 Best Marketing & Communication Professionals by White Page International in 2020 & as a DMA Trailblazer Rising Star CMO in 2001.

Udit Jain
Chief Marketing Officer, Airtel Payments Bank

Udit Jain is the Chief Marketing Officer at Airtel Payments Bank, the first Payments Bank in India. In this capacity, he leads brand building, marketing and communication for the Bank.

Udit has over 16 years of progressive experience in long term business strategy development, brand management, communication, digital marketing, new product development, customer and shopper marketing and sales which straddles across leading business conglomerates. A passionate business manager and marketer, Udit is credited with a strong sense of long-term vision and an eye for detail. He also plays a key role in shaping long term growth strategies for the Bank.

Prior to joining Airtel Payments Bank, Udit worked with brands like Airtel, Reckitt Benckiser, and Tecumseh Products Company. During his tenure with Airtel, Udit is credited with achieving ever highest scores on saliency and consideration in highly competitive and disruptive category. He also played a key role in the conceptualization and execution of some path breaking campaigns like “Sab Kuch Try Karo, Fir Sahi Chuno” and Airtel Thanks, one of the first telecom rewards program in the industry.

An alumnus of Management Development Institute, Udit holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. Beyond work, Udit is an avid reader especially on startups and their business strategies.

Geetanjali Kothari
Head – Marketing and Corporate Communications, Bharti AXA Life Insurance

Geetanjali Kothari is the Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Bharti AXA Life Insurance. She leads Brand, Marketing, Corporate Communications and Customer Experience initiatives for the organization.

Geetanjali has 16 years of experience across BFSI, media and retail industries in organizations such as Bharti AXA General Insurance, Future Group, HT Media and Mudra Max. She has completed her Post Graduate in Marketing.

At Bharti AXA Life, Geetanjali and her team strategize and implement multiple marketing and advertising campaigns across conventional and new forms of media. As the Head of Marketing, Geetanjali is committed to being the prime innovation catalyst and empowering her team to experiment with new ideas, utilize state of the art platforms and explore alternative media. Her vision is to augment marketing efforts by embellishing it with robust capabilities such as measurable frameworks, digital fluency and analytics.

She is also responsible for spearheading engagements with our channel partners and customers by driving multiple initiatives. She is focused on transforming marketing into a significant growth enabler while remaining a vocal customer champion within the organization. She shares a keen interest in marketing research and believes that placing the consumer at the core of communications is the art of marketing.

Pallavi Chopra
Sr Vice President, Brand, and Head of Marketing, redBus

Pallavi Chopra is the Sr Vice President, Brand, and Head of Marketing at redBus. Pallavi has over 18 years of experience in marketing, communication & eBusiness in India and across Asia. Having worked across diverse industries, functions and geographies, she has been leading the Marketing function for redBus since Sep 2014. redBus today is the world's largest bus ticketing platform and has a presence in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Peru & Columbia apart from India.

She has a passion for “data driven creativity” - the marriage of the art and science of marketing.

Before joining redBus in 2014, she co-founded chiefofstaff.com LLC, a CEO productivity platform. She has spent a significant part of her career at the ING Group in Hong Kong and India, where she spearheaded ING’s E-Business activities for Asia Pacific. At ING she is credited with launching an award winning lead generation platform for Insurance Advisors that was rolled out across several markets across the world. She spent her early years learning the ropes of marketing at Nike.

She is a Math major from St Stephens Delhi (1998), an alumnus of MICA Ahmedabad (class of 2000). In 2014, she completed the 1-year Executive Program in General Management from MIT Sloan.

Abhinav Iyer
General Manager Marketing & Strategy, The Muthoot Group

Mr. Abhinav Iyer, is an instinctively creative & innovative marketing strategist with over 16 years of rich experience in the field of Strategy, Marketing & Business Transformation in the Banking & Financial Services domain in India & the UK.

Currently he heads Muthoot Finance’s Marketing function as General Manager – Marketing & Strategy and has been one of the key marketers to lead the brand’s marketing transformation journey over the last few years. Under his leadership Muthoot Finance engaged Amitabh Bachchan as their brand ambassador, partnered with Chennai Super Kings as their Principal Team Sponsor, flagged off Semi-Naming Rights led branding at Greater Kailash & Nandanam Metro Stations in Delhi & Chennai and launched many award-winning marketing campaigns including Sunheri Soch, Vishwaas Ki Tijori & Gold Loan is Good to name a few.

Prior to this, Abhinav was based in London for many years as Head of Bank of Baroda UK’s Marketing Operations. He has also held a senior position at Here&Now365, London – a UK based multi-cultural ethnic creative & media buying agency.

He presently heads a team of nearly 45+ dedicated marketing professionals across various marketing sub-domains. Due to his customer-centric & digital-first approach, he has scaled marketing RoI by more than 3X at Muthoot Finance in just a few years.

Abhinav is a dynamic business leader who thrives on building & nurturing high-performing teams, inculcating in them the ability to think out of the box and empowering them. He is detail-oriented, meticulous planner and thorough in his implementation.

Sambit Dash
Vice President, Marketing, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd.

Marketing professional with over 10 years of experience across consumer brands like Nestle & Yum Foods. Led business P&L, strategy and communications for NESCAFÉ, NESTEA & Taco Bell. Across these stints, delivered double digit growths in revenue & profits, while focusing on trials & household penetration. Graduated from IIM-A in 2011 and have a keen interest in interacting with students in B-schools, and conducting sessions in digital marketing, consumer insights, influencer marketing, and more.

Nandagopal Nair
Vice President & Head – Brand & Communications, V-GUard Industries Ltd

A Postgraduate 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 19 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 44 years existence. As part of this exercise, a massive 360-degree campaign cutting acrossvarious 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 2700 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

Pallavi Anand
Marketing Head-Baby Food

10years+ marketing experience in FMCG across categories. Currently heading Marketing for the Baby Food Category at Nestle

Priyanka Khaneja Gandhi
Associate Director - Integrated Marketing Communication & Ecommerce Marketing, Colgate Palmolive - India

Priyanka has more than 20-years of experience in media, communication & digital leadership roles across India’s marquee CPG company-Colgate Palmolive and media & communications agencies including Madison Communications, Carat (Dentsu Aegis Network) and Starcom (Publicis Group)

Umesh Krishna K
Director Marketing, Smart Nora

Umesh is a 360-degree Marketer with experience spanning digital strategy, performance marketing, brand management, and media buying. In his current role at Swiggy, he manages the parent brand and its marketing charter. Umesh joined Swiggy in 2017 and over the years have established and owned various core marketing functions and led multiple integrated campaigns. Prior to Swiggy, he worked across Ola Store (Ola's hyperlocal delivery business) and the Urban Mobility business. Umesh also played a pivotal role in re-structuring Bajaj's brand portfolio during his stint at Bajaj Auto Ltd.

Shefali Khalsa
Head – Brand, Corporate Communication & CSR, SBI General Insurance

Shefali Khalsa is currently the Head of Department for Brand & Marketing, Corporate Communication and CSR at SBI General Insurance. She is an acclaimed thought leader in the Indian Insurance Marketing industry. She is a Management Graduate and has worked across companies, geographies and functions in the complex Indian Marketing industry for close to two decades. Her 17 plus years of experience is largely in Banking & Financial Services. She has also done a stint in the consultancy and telecom space and has worked with brands such as HDFC ERGO, HDFC Bank and TATA Teleservices.

When she is not at work music keeps her charged; she enjoys playing the guitar & keyboard in addition to singing.

Avinash Janjire
Vice President- Marketing, Thomas Cook

A Marketing & Brand professional with over 20 years of experience across various categories like Financial services, Fabrics, Media, Services, Retail & recently Travel. He has worked with leading ad agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi working on brands like ICICI bank, SONY TV & Siyaram’s suitings. He has been part of campaigns that went onto create a Guinness World Record, win an EFFIES award and a Cannes Lions.

He currently heads marketing for India’s leading travel brand Thomas Cook India ltd since last 6 years.

Dilip RS
Country Manager, Alexa Skills, Voice Services & Mobile, India, Amazon

Dilip is currently the Country manager for Alexa Skills, Voice services and Mobile in India. He has been with Amazon for 8+ years and was part of the initial team that worked on Amazon.in. He has managed product, marketing, business development and other technical roles in Amazon. He was also one of the first few members of the Alexa business in India and seen its growth from the very beginning. Before Amazon, Dilip has worked in Inmobi, a mobile ad start-up leading their India brand sales team and prior to that in the Consumer foods space with Johnson & Johnson as a brand marketer.

Dilip is very passionate about the intersection of consumer and technology and believes countries like India are perfectly poised to disrupt the way customers interact with technology. Outside of work, he is an ardent Manchester United fan, regular cook and avid traveller.

Ronak Sheth
SENIOR PARTNER, HEAD – MARKETING & EXPERIENCES, IIFL Wealth & Asset Management

Ronak Sheth is responsible for strategizing and implementing the marketing plan for the organisation, globally. This includes marketing, brand building and positioning, internal and external communications, media and PR management and events for all verticals and subsidiaries of IIFL Wealth & Asset Management.

He brings over two decades of diversified experience in sales, marketing, branding, franchising across education, pulp & paper, office stationery & supplies and financial services industries.

He started his career by joining his family’s business. Later, he started, and subsequently, sold his company in the children’s computer education space. Since then, he has been part of various corporate entities, in a variety of leadership roles.

Ronak holds an MBA in marketing & strategy from XLRI, Jamshedpur and acquired his bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Calcutta University.

Ketan Kulkarni
Chief Commercial Officer, Blue Dart

Ketan Kulkarni is the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) 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 (sectors / emerging markets / channels), product innovations, process improvement, customer activation and loyalty, market research, strategic intelligence,sales & marketing, public relations, corporate communications and sustainability.

Prior to this, Ketan was the Chief Marketing Officer and Head – Business Development. He was 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 and 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.

Apart from leading various strategic initiatives at Blue Dart, 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 was instrumental in launching the Blue Dart Med-Express Consortium that operated Drone

Flights to deliver vaccines and medical supplies to the interior parts of Telangana. Ketan helped the team tap into Emerging Markets within the country and propelled Blue Dart’s growth in small towns through two key initiatives – DAWN and RISE. DAWN (Deliver Any Where Now), successfully enabled the company to aggressively expand its reach into Tier II/III/IV towns, enabling delivery to most Indian homes.

RISE (Revenue Increase from Small Towns & SMEs) helped support businesses, from Bharat, cater to a larger market. These initiatives aided Blue Dart in its effort to solidify its network presence and provide easier business opportunities to MSMEs, as the Trade Facilitator to the nation. It also helped the company with aggressive expansion and strengthening its leadership position. Ketan is on 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.

Ketan is also a part of the Committee on Logistics & Warehousing for the CII Northern Region, as a key member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). CII identifies change by working closely with Government on policy issues, interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for industry through a range of specialized services and strategic global linkages. It also provides a platform for consensus-building and networking on key issues.

Ketan is also a recipient of many industry accolades and awards listed as below:

• Marketing Professional of the Year 2021 by National Awards.
• National Awards for Excellence in Branding & Marketing 2021 by National Awards.
• Responsible Business Leader of the Year 2017 by Responsible Business Awards.
• Greatest Marketing Influencer Award 2017 by BBC.
• Most Influential Marketing Leaders’ Award at the World Marketing Congress.
• Award for Retail Excellence - Retail Leadership Award’ at Asia Retail Congress.
• Marketing Professional of the Year’ at the 10th Indy’s awards.
• Recognised as one of ‘100 Most Impactful CSR Leaders - Global Listing’ at World CSR Congress.
• 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.
• 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, CSR.
• Best CMO of the Year by indiasgreatest.com - The Greatest Corporate Leaders of India.
• Sustainability Leadership Award by Global Sustainability Leadership Awards 2014.
• Indira Super Achiever and Pride of Profession Award for Excellence in Marketing.

Ketan likes to keep himself updated on the recent trends in the business and advanced leadership, based on which he 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 so that they and our future generations are provided with 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 and architecture.

Sonal Mishra
Associate Vice President, Marketing, Unacademy

Sonal Mishra is the Associate Vice President, Marketing at Unacademy. She joined Unacademy as Marketing Director in June 2020. In less than a year after joining, she was able to grow the marketing team at Unacademy from 14 to more than 30. Collectively, she has been able to thrive excellently by substantially impacting the brand’s exponential growth.

During her 15+ years in advertising and brand management, she excelled at executing product launches, campaigns, pitches, and brand development, to name a few.

Saahil Kumar
Head – Marketing, Sennheiser Electronics India

Saahil Kumar is the Head – Marketing at Sennheiser Electronics India. In his current role, Saahil is responsible for leading strategic marketing efforts for Sennheiser’s consumer portfolio in India.

An accomplished professional with an in-depth know-how and proven success in marketing, Saahil has been instrumental in shaping various business verticals at Sennheiser. He has held several leadership positions in spearheading turnarounds, brand resurgence combined with equal successes in driving growth and revenues.

As a passionate leader with more than 15 years of experience, Saahil has inspired teams to move beyond personal, technical and organizational boundaries to achieve success. He has a great understanding of consumer insight and strongly believes in engaging with consumers by creating memorable experiences for them. With his impeccable background, Saahil is known to be one of the greatest marketing mavericks who has a proven ability to create strategic clarity, drive innovation and growth, ensure disciplined execution, and deliver results.

Siddhartha Butalia
Chief Marketing Officer, Air Asia

Siddhartha Butalia is the Chief Marketing Officer of AirAsia India, a joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Investment. He has an MBA in Marketing & Strategy from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, is a post-graduate from the Xavier Institute of Communications and graduated with Honours in Economics from Sri Ram College, Delhi University. Siddhartha has been an editorial panel member and published author in various industry publications and international marketing journals and is a futurist and seasoned speaker on travel & tourism, marketing strategy and digital ecosystems at seminars across the world.

Siddhartha began his career in advertising at Ogilvy and JWT, working on campaigns that won awards at Cannes and the Asia Pacific AdFest; and managing multinational accounts like Unilever and Nestlé. As a TAS Officer, Siddhartha worked on the Tata Nano project, built the Ginger hotel business model for metros, worked on the integration of Tata Global Beverages with the acquisition of Tetley, Eight O’Clock Coffee and Himalayan water and developed the internationalisation strategy for the ‘Tata’ brand in the US, UK, China and South Africa. Siddhartha has over a decade of senior leadership experience in Europe and Asia-Pacific, launching and heading iconic brands, from being Brand Manager of Tetley Tea in the UK to overseeing strategy and business development for 15 Asia Pacific countries at Tata Global Beverages. As Marketing Director at the Taj Group of Hotels, Siddhartha launched the Vivanta brand (now a Harvard Business School case study), led Sales and Marketing teams across APAC, Europe and Africa and contributed to the Tata group’s European Union agenda.

Siddhartha is an ardent traveler, enjoys backpacking, swimming and scuba diving and has organized marine awareness workshops and SCUBA camps to help protect coral reefs & aquatic ecosystems.

Vivek Sharma
Chief Marketing Officer, Pidilite Industries Limited

Vivek joined Pidilite Industries Ltd. in Jan 2015 Chief Marketing Officer across all businesses. Here, he is responsible for marketing planning, implementation and brand development for all divisions, corporate brand, innovation, building marketing capabilities and capacities via new processes & systems and marketing talent development across the organization.

Prior to Pidilite, Vivek was Vice President Indian sub-continent at Philips India Ltd. as Chief Marketing Officer & Head – Govt. Affairs. He built ‘ONE PHILIPS’ marketing planning and implementation for the three Philip’s businesses viz. Consumer Lifestyle, Lighting and Healthcare. Vivek also led the engagement of company and businesses with various Govt., regulatory and industry bodies and enabled B2G sales. The combined role spread across B2C, B2B and B2G with a sharp focus on accelerating business growth.

Before Philips, Vivek was with MIRC Electronics Ltd. (ONIDA) as Vice President, Marketing, Sales and Service. At MIRC, he spearheaded the re-launch of the ONIDA brand across product categories.

An industry veteran with over 30 years of experience, he has held senior leadership positions across Ogilvy Advertising and Cadbury Kraft (now Mondelez). At Ogilvy, Vivek led the Hindustan Unilever (HUL) business nationally across functions and geographies. Vivek carries a unique blend of business and brand development experience across FMCG, Healthcare, Lighting and Consumer Durables encompassing B2C, B2B and B2G.

He is sought for his views on brand and marketing dynamics for ‘The Economic Times’, ‘The Times of India’, ‘BusinessWorld’, ‘Forbes’, ‘Pitch’ and ‘The Strategist - Business Standard’.

Vivek has been active in industry forums like FICCI, CII and Assocham. He also guest lectures at premier B schools.

Vivek holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore and Bachelor of Technology from Indian School of Mines (now IIT, Dhanbad).

Raunika Malhotra
President – Marketing and Corporate Communications, Lodha Group

Raunika Malhotra is President – Marketing and Corporate Communications for Lodha Group and is responsible for leading corporate strategic planning, consumer insights, brand management, and leadership of Lodha Group in this dynamic market of real estate. She has spent the last ten years in the Lodha group in strategy and two years as Deputy CEO for a region in Lodha.

With close to fifteen years of experience spanning from a strategic position, designing specialization, managing, and operating a Greenfield smart city, Raunika has extensive experience in the real estate space.

Prior to Lodha, she was in strategy consulting in US.

She is an engineer and holds a master's degree from the National Institute of Industrial Engineering.

Anupam Katheriya
Associate Vice President – Marketing and Business Development, Emami Limited

Anupam Katheriya has 21 years of experience of general management, marketing and sales in FMCG industry. He has lead number of award winning campaigns, activities and launches. He is alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad and Delhi College of Engineering. He is currently Associate Vice President – Marketing and Business Development at Emami Limited.

Sunil Narula
Senior Vice President- Sales & Marketing, Panasonic Life Solutions India

Mr. Sunil Narula is a marketing and communications leader with over 22 years of experience in the home solutions and allied sectors. At Panasonic Life Solutions, Sunil leads the sales, marketing and communications efforts in India as Senior Vice President – Sales & Marketing, overseeing the planning and execution of product development, category management and expansion, consumer & market research, communications strategies and more. Sunil’s expertise lies in establishing the strategy for product development, deploying leading edge marketing solutions and driving integrated marketing and communications strategies.

Sunil started his career as a product manager expert at Philips. He later moved to Bajaj Electricals where he spearheaded the marketing division for the Morphy Richards brand and managed product development, compliance and organization readiness/product roll-out strategies. He had a bref stint at IoN Exchange India Ltd before becoming the Head of Sales and Marketing at Tata Power Solar Systems.

Sunil completed his education from IIM Calcutta where he studied Competitive marketing strategy. Further, he completed his Mini MBA in Marketing from Rutgers University.

Karan Kumar
Chief Marketing Officer, DLF LTD

With close to two decades of proven experience in steering brands to leadership positions, Mr. Karan Kumar is a marketing-anchored business leader. He conceives solutions that deliver business impact, combining analytics-led stakeholder understanding with his innate ability for evocative, content-led storytelling. A celebrated marketeer across categories, sectors and media ecosystems, his campaigns have consistently earned signification, recognition, and applause for being bold, effective, and efficient at the same time. Karan has also been a founding member of The Marketing Society in India and has had the unique distinction of writing and presenting research papers at the ESOMAR APAC conference. On one occasion, his presentation was judged as the “best presentation of the conference”. He subsequently was invited to be a member of the prestigious program committee of the last conference held in Macau in 2019.

With rich experience across sectors like FMCG, packaged food, stationery, luxury and lifestyle retailing, Karan has worked across some of the most iconic Indian brands like ITC Limited and Fabindia. Currently, he spearheads the marketing initiatives for DLF Limited, India’s largest publicly listed real estate enterprise, as its Chief Marketing Officer.