Dr. Pragnya Ram
Group Executive President - Corporate Communications & CSR
Aditya Birla Group

Dr. Pragnya Ram has been associated with the Aditya Birla Group for a long time. As the Group executive president, Corporate Communications, Dr. Ram has been actively involved with the group's community initiatives. She has a strong academic background, with a Ph.D. from Bombay University and Masters degrees in History and Sociology. She was awarded the Sir Phirozeshah M. Mehta Scholarship during her Masters programme. She also holds a postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the Bombay College of Journalism and is a recipient of the Patanjali Sethi best writer award. Dr. Ram began her career teaching at the Elphinstone College, Mumbai, and Stella Maris, Chennai. She has also taught at management institutes like S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research and Chetna College of Management, Mumbai.

Dr. Ram is a member of the Board of Studies in Human Development at the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey (SNDT) Women’s University, Mumbai. She is a member of the Committee on Corporate citizenship, All India Management Association, Delhi, and a member of the Community Development Committee, Confederation of Indian Industry, New Delhi.

Rakhee Lalvani
Vice President Public Relations and Corporate Communications
Indian Hotels Company Limited

Have built and integrated the Corporate Communications Department from ground up to meet needs of senior management and business heads with executing the Company’s corporate and business strategies, in addition to handling PR on a global scale for about 145 hotels across all its brands ; Taj, Vivanta, Ginger. Responsible for providing advice and guidance to the Managing Director and Executive Committee on companywide communications related issues, interfacing with media and acting as company spokesperson, developing strategic relationships with media. Have significant experience in brand management / public relations, crisis management, event management, corporate sponsorships and reputation management Responsible for integrated branding initiatives in global markets such as Europe, America, South East Asia, Japan, Middle East, Australia and North America and providing strategic direction to global agencies to position IHCL’s brands in these markets. Responsible for positioning the company and its brands in the coveted World Best Lists Identified, potential reputational issues and developed appropriate communications responses to defuse and/or avert crises. Part of the crisis communication team that handled 26/11 and responsible for the successful launch of the Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai post restoration, which is a Harvard Business School case study

Sujit Patil
Vice President & Head- Corporate Brand and Communications
Godrej Industries Limited and Associate Companies

Sujit is responsible for building and sustaining Godrej group’s reputation across diverse stakeholders. He is among the few IABC accredited business communicators in India and a three time winner of the IABC International Gold Quill award. He has been listed as India’s top ten men in corporate communications by Reputation Today and featured on the PR Week Global Power Book. Most recently Sujit has been listed on the Holmes Report’s Influence 100 research and listing of the world’s most influential in-house marketing and communications professionals. Under his leadership, Godrej has won almost all prestigious industry awards for communications including the Diamond Sabre Award – Company of the year – Asia Pacific and South Asia. His team has been consecutively ranked number one among Reputation Today’s top 30 corporate communications team in India. Apart from being a speaker and jury at various national and international bodies such as the World Communication Forum, Davos, AMEC, PR Newsweek Asia, etc., Sujit is a part of the prestigious Arthur W Page Society. He volunteers as a guest faculty at various B-Schools, is a weekend farmer, loves travelling, understanding cultures and experimenting with new cuisines.

Shravani Dang
Vice President Global Group Head- Corporate Communications & Marketing

Shravani Dang is an Independent Board Director and an experienced business, public affairs and CSR leader with over two decades of quantifiable achievements. Her experience base spans Indian and multinational companies across Technology, Financial, Not-for-profit and Industrial sectors, in both complex and large organizations.

Currently, she serves as the Vice President at the Avantha Group; she is a Trustee of CAF India and an independent member of the board in a listed company. She has worked in Leadership capacities with internationally reputed brands like Fidelity, IT giants CSC ($17b billion) and HCL, as well as international relief and development organization CARE India.

Nitin Thakur
Director, Brand & Communications
Max Group

Nitin is a senior brand and communication professional with over two decades of experience. He is currently working as Director, Brand & Communications at the USD 3 billion diversified Indian conglomerate - Max Group. His role involves strengthening the Group’s reputation through traditional and digital media strategies and providing leadership and guidance in strategic campaigns of the Group’s operating companies such as mergers & acquisitions, as well as in crisis management. He is a part of Group Executive Leadership team and works closely with the Group President and the Managing Director. In 2017, he was nominated as one of the Top 100 communication professionals in India by Reputation Today and under his leadership, his team at Max Group was deemed among the Top 30 Corporate Communications Teams in India by Reputation Today for two consecutive years.

Prior to Max, he was with Microsoft India, managing product advocacy and communications. In the past, he has been in a consulting role, as a part of various communication agencies – advising leading brands across verticals such as Technology, Consumer Products, Financial Services, Healthcare.

Nitin is married and has a 12 year old daughter. He is currently based in Delhi-NCR.

Aman Dhall
Head of Corporate Communications
Policybazaar.com

Aman heads the Corporate Communications function at Policybazaar.com. He carries over a 13 years of experience in journalism, sports, development sector and marketing communications. While relationships are important in external and internal communications, Aman believes that content is the driver for rich communication that makes one stand-out in the crowd. With this belief, Aman has set up and scaled the corporate communications department at PolicyBazaar.com Group in the past four years. He has played a pivotal role in building the brand from the ground up for the group entity, PaisaBazaar.com when it started in 2014.

He happens to be the youngest recipient of the industry-acclaimed Fulcrum Award in 2016 for his PR efforts in growing the brand's reach and driving the strategic intent in-house for group companies. He is now leading the reputation-building efforts for the group's latest healthtech venture, Docprime.com which is focused on making health care services affordable, accessible and available for masses.

Prior to starting his leadership role with PolicyBazaar.com group, Aman was an entrepreneur and ran a sport development venture for three years. He started his career as a journalist with The Times of India Group where he worked through different editorial roles between 2005 & 2010. His last role was with The Economic Times managing the personal finance pages for the weekend edition and writing on the BFSI sector. He later moved on to work in different consulting roles in the sports industry.

Aman has studied B.Com(H) from Delhi University and holds a post-graduate diploma in journalism as well a masters degree in commerce. He also holds a specialised masters degree in sport management from Loughborough University, UK. Aman has a keen interest in sports and is a former national-level table tennis player. He played for England’s Leicestershire County in 2010-11 during his time in the UK.

Arpan Basu
Head of Corporate Communications-South West Asia
Coca Cola India

Arpan Basu is the Head of Corporate Communications at Coca-Cola India and South West Asia. He has been with the company since 2015 and is responsible for building communication strategies that support business objectives and drive growth. Having spent over fifteen years working as a Corporate Communications / Marketing Communications specialist, Arpan has vast experience across reputation management, executive branding, crisis communication and advocacy. Further, he has handled the entire gamut of external and internal communications for the companies he has worked for. In his previous stint with Max Life Insurance, he successfully implemented an integrated communications and rebranding campaign of ‘Max Life Insurance’ from the earlier ‘Max New York Life’. His work has received many accolades, some worth mentioning are the recent recognitions by Reputation Today as “40 under 40” as a leading communications professional and Excellence in Financial PR at the SABRE AWARDS SOUTH ASIA 2014.

Arpan has worked across industries such as Life Insurance, Pharmaceuticals, Public Relations and Chamber of Commerce. Since his work profile requires through understanding of the business and its functioning he has gained insightful knowledge not only about the company but also about the industries he has worked in. A testimony to this is the fact was being recognized amongst the top 5 “Outstanding young insurance Executive” in Asia in the “Aeon Benfield Scholarship” conducted by Asia Insurance Review. Arpan holds a degree in Master’s in Business Administration from Ohio University and a Bachelor’s in Commerce degree from Calcutta University.

Abhishek Mahapatra
Vice President & Head of Communications, Corporate Affairs, & CSR

Abhishek Mahapatra is Vice President, Communications, Corporate Affairs & CSR, and Nissan India. In this leadership role he is responsible for Nissan’s overall communications, community program and public affairs for Nissan’s efforts in India. Abhishek is an integrated communications professional with 16 years of experience and has held leadership positions of increasing responsibilities at in-house roles at Uber, Ford, and also at agencies including Edelman and MSL, across India, Middle-East, China & Asia Pacific markets.

A strong believer of paid, earned & owned channels, Abhishek is driven by passion and power of storytelling, and guided by a metrics oriented frame of mind.

Ruchika Mehta
Corporate Director- Communications & PR- The Park Hotels

An INSEAD alum, Ruchika Mehta is recognised as a global marketing and communications specialist with over 18 years of experience. She has actively worked in complex environments, with multiple teams and on numerous projects, having a rich base in Brand Management as well as in Digital sphere with exemplary communication skills. In the past she has launched the Asian hospitality giant Shangri- La Hotels into India in 2005 and has worked with Hyatt and ITC hotels. In her current role Ruchika spearheads Corporate Communications and Brand Marketing for the Apeejay Surrendra Park Hotels Limited ( 17 hotels, 10 under development) - The Park Hotels, The Park Collection, Zone by The Park, Apeejay Hospitality Institute and other category – Flurys ( 22 outlets ): delicatessen and Italia – the Italian restaurants. She leads the global communications strategy including CSR with national and global PR and advertising agencies that represent different geographies as well as overlooks annual budget for advertising and promotions for the group. A social media influencer herself, she is known as a social media star with over 30,000 followers in Instagram alone. She is one of the pioneers to use Influencer Marketing in her industry and is also sought after at various industry summits for her able know how on influencer marketing. In her journey, Ruchika has shown entrepreneurial, disruptive and profit oriented approach with demonstrated success in launching brands using innovation, leading cross functional teams and fostering productivity. Her work has been awarded and recognised by the industry.

Achievements:
•   Awarded Corporate Communication Professional of The Year's by the CMO Asia's Award for Excellence in Branding & Marketing 2018.
•   Awarded ‘Women Super Achiever in Marketing and Communications’ by the prestigious Femina’s World Women Leadership Awards 2017.
•   ‘Most Admired PR professional’ of the year by the prestigious Lonely Planet Travel & Lifestyle Leadership Awards 2017`
•   ‘Corporate Communications Professional of the Year' at the '22nd Global Brand Excellence Awards' by World Brand Congress 2013.
•   'Corporate Communications Professional of the Year' at the 4th CMO Asia awards for 'Excellence in Branding and Marketing'.
•   Star Youth Achiever Award 2011- 12 by Star News and Global Youth Marketing Forum

Sonia Dhawan
VP – Corporate Communications & Public Relations- Paytm

Sonia is the Vice President - Communications for Paytm and its group companies. She is responsible for media relations and communication strategy. She handles public relations, crisis communication and advocacy among other important roles at Paytm. She has been key in shaping the Paytm brand over the eight years with impactful decisions, and strategic handling of the PR initiatives. Sonia is a post-graduate from Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad and an MBA from Sunstone Business School.

Partho Dasgupta
CEO- BARC India

Partho Dasgupta is a general management professional with diverse experience in consumer goods industries and in media, across print, television and out-of-home. His wider career has been in media and consumer industries where he worked on large and small start-ups.

Partho has led start-up and management teams for Times Now, Future Media, The Economic Times and Times Multimedia.

A keen observer of consumer and media trends, Partho is the CEO of BARC India, a joint initiative of broadcasters, advertising agencies and advertisers, which is India’s only registered TV measurement agency. BARC India is the largest Television Measurement system in the world and is now evolving the business into Digital Measurement and Data backed consumer Insight areas.

Sattvik Mishra
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, ScoopWhoop Media Pvt Limited

Sattvik is the Co-Founder & CEO at ScoopWhoop Media Pvt Limited. ScoopWhoop is India's most exciting youth media platform for social news & entertainment largely appealing to the 16 - 35 demographic. It reaches over 30mn Indian millennials monthly across three digital publications ScoopWhoop.com, Vagabomb.com, and ScoopWhoop HIndi (ScoopWhoop’s Hindi publication).

Sattvik started ScoopWhoop.com as an experiment along with 4 friends in August 2013 with no intention of being an entrepreneur or starting a company. For six months he was doing his day job at an advertising agency and moonlighting as the CEO/content writer for ScoopWhoop. In 2014, ScoopWhoop went from an experiment to one of the leaders in the media-publishing space.

Under his leadership, ScoopWhoop has grown tremendously in a short span and is widely considered as a brand that is on the cutting edge of youth culture in India. Today, ScoopWhoop clocks over 250 million video views, and over 400 million content engagements across social and owned platforms monthly. So far ScoopWhoop has raised more than 6m USD from Kalaari Capital and Bharti-Softbank, making it one of the few media companies in India the market is ready to back.

Educated from IIMC in Advertising and PR and having completed BCA in Computer Science from Symbiosis International University, he is one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the media space.

Fortune India included Sattvik in their prestigious 40 Under 40 list two years in a row, 2015 and 2016. He was also part of Forbes' 2016 '30 Under 30 Asia' list.

With an active lifestyle, he spends his free time traveling and watching movies.

Amit Shah
Senior President & Country Head, Strategy and Marketing & Corporate Communication, YES BANK & Executive Director, YES Global Institute

Amit Shah, a senior leader at YES BANK and founding member of YES Global Institute, YES BANK’s practicing think-tank, is a ‘design-thinker’ and TEDx speaker with extensive experience in transformational leadership in the financial services and consultancy sectors across the world, and has made valuable contributions to the public understanding of FINTECH and Digital Banking.

Recently recognized by LinkedIn as a key social media influencer with his profile featuring among the LinkedIn Power Profiles India 2018, Amit has been instrumental in creating and strengthening the ‘YES BANK’ brand over the last eight years. During his tenure, the bank’s profit has grown more than 10x, and the bank has emerged as one of the Top 500 Banking Brands globally.

His responsibilities include business strategy, planning & analytics, marketing, internal & external communication, branding, digitalization, public & social policy advocacy, CSR strategy and sustainability initiatives.

Prior to joining YES BANK, Amit has worked with organizations like TSMG and L&T. He has completed his MBA from NITIE - Mumbai and Engineering from NIT - Surathkal.

Madhavan Narayanan
Senior Editor, Writer, Mentor, Consultant and Commentator

Madhavan Narayanan is a an editor, journalist, writer and columnist with more than 30 years of experience in both Indian and international environments, having worked for respected media entities including Reuters, The Economic Times, Business Standard and Hindustan Times after starting out in the Times of India Group.

He is currently an independent writer, media entrepreneur, consultant and columnist and regularly features as a commentator on BBC radio, Al Jazeera English, ET Now and Lok Sabha TV, in addition to writing for Firstpost.com, India's frontline news portal, Asia Times, Moneycontrol and Business Standard. He writes regular columns for Zee News on politics and Reputation Today, India's public relations industry portal, about journalistic perspectives on reputation and branding.

Madhavan also advises startups involved in the media field and has also launched with his partners a festival called Knowledge Factory, an events-and-talks venture that aims to spread deeper inter-disciplinary perspectives thorugh informal means. He is also active in the social media and is listed among the top 200 Twitter influencers in India.

In his long career, Madhavan has covered topics including technology , business, economics, public policy, politics, diplomacy, entertainment and social issues as a correspondent and has observed the information technology industry, media, Internet, policies, macroeconomics, and social trends from close quarters. He also has a personal interest in cinema, music, poetry and the arts. He writes and tweets in Hindi and Tamil as well, and is in the process of venturing into translations from Tamil to English.

Madhavan has majored in economics and political science from the University of Delhi.

Khurafati Nitin
radio jockey

Khurafati Nitin started my radio career 18 years back, with All India Radio. I did my schooling from St Columba's Ashok Place, and then did English hons from KMC,DU. My shows allow me to talk to people, understand their problems, basically give them a vent to let out the steam and relax.

Awards are not a benchmark to measure success or for good work, yet they do give a lot of boost to his morale. In all humility i say that I am India's most awarded Radio Jockey, and have been awarded the RAPA award, Promaxx Award, Paranshree award,Media Federation of India Award(thrice),Indian Achiever's award for the best Radio jockey across India 2012 and 2014 for myCSR initiatives on radio and three prestigious New York Festival Awards.

I have also hosted television shows like Brand Equity on Times Now, Brady's Day Out on Times Now, Dilli Ki Khurafat Nitin Ke Saath on NDTV and Living Cars on News X

I currently host the Morning Prime Time Show from 8AM to 12PM Monday to Saturday on 92.7 BIG FM Delhi.

Neeraj Jha
Head-Corporate Communications, HDFC Bank

Coming soon...

Nandini Chatterjee
Chief Corporate Communications Officer, PwC

Coming soon...

Bhupendra-Chaubey
Executive Editor, CNN News 18

Coming soon...

Charanjeet Singh Arora
Co-CEO- Kinetic India

Believes in Clarity of task , experience across different industries . A team player , Leader with a vision of 10 X growth . Lead and drive business like an Entrepreneur , can work and grow in any environment. Know how to build high performance teams - believe in sharing knowledge and empowering.

Highly flexible to new ideas and ready to take new roles and responsibilities.

Deepak Bhatt
Manager Communications – IIM Ahmedabad

Coming soon...

Sanjeev Handa
Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications

Sanjeev Handa is the Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. He is responsible for leading and driving the Communications and PR strategies for Maruti Suzuki. Additionally, Sanjeev also spearheads the communication strategy of the CSR programmes for the company.

Prior to this role, he was the Vice President of Marketing at Maruti Suzuki India Limited, where he was responsible for NEXA, Product marketing, True Value, Media, Market Research, Loyalty, CRM and Motorsports and setting up the Digital marketing infrastructure for the company. He has contributed in a major way in steering the success of many leading brands in the company’s portfolio.

Sanjeev is an Indian School of Business- Hyderabad Alumni and an Economics Graduate with over two and a half decades of solid experience in Marketing, Strategy, Brand Management, Advertising, CRM and Sales in leading global organizations. He has received multiple awards, ‘Most data driven CMO’ by CMO Awards of India, ‘Digital Marketer of the Year 2016’ by IAMAI, to name a few.

Dimple Kapur
Head-Corporate Communications, Piramal Group

Coming soon...

Latika Taneja
Director – External Communications, Marketing & Communications – South Asia

LATIKA TANEJA, Director – External Communications, Marketing & Communications – South Asia
Latika Taneja is heading corporate communications for Mastercard in South Asia with for last one year. Previously she has worked with DuPont India Pvt Ltd as the head for external affairs for the company. Latika has 14 years of work experience in corporate & marketing communications and public affairs functions.

Latika has actively contributed to the defining and development of well-known brands. She has worked for large multinational companies and leading communication agencies and across FMCG, Consumer Durables, Telecom, ITES, Financial Services and Chemicals Industries.

Latika is BA (Hons) English from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and Post Graduate Diploma Business Management - Symbiosis Institute Of Management, Pune.

Rameet Arora
COO & Head of Digital, HT Digital streams

Coming soon...

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 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, P & L responsibilities, Corporate Relations, International Operations etc

In 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.

At ICFAI, Sudhakar Rao is the Head of Branding for the entire Group that includes 11 ICFAI Universities, 9 ICFAI Business Schools, 7 Tech Schools, 6 Law Schools and a huge Distance Learning Program.

He is also the official spokesperson for the ICFAI Group.

“I am indeed honoured to be the Chair of IPRCCA 2018. Even more to be in the midst of all of you, 22 highly competent and well regarded colleagues. I am sure the evaluation process will prove intellectually stimulating, full of rigor. Likewise our expectations from the presentations are clear – they must reflect a communication vision, purposeful strategy, roadmap and focus. Of course execution is key. So is measurement. Staying the course in today’s unbelievable challenging environment, being well grounded in the complexities is critical as well. In sum, the winners will be communication champions with an ethical work ethos. A very hearty welcome to all of you. Guess there will be a few takes for us too, given that learning afresh is always our motto. Cheers!”