Aditya Tandon
Head- Brand Marketing , CNN NEWS 18
Aditya has over 2 decades of experience in market strategy, brand management and communication in the media and technology/web domains across India, Nepal and Mauritius. He currently runs the marketing function for CNN-News18 and News18 India, the national general news channels of Network18; News18 World which airs CNN-News 18 content in the US, UK, Middle East and Singapore markets and Firstpost Weekly, Network18’s first newspaper venture to be launched shortly. Aditya is also currently involved in the re-launch of the CricketNext App.
In his current role, he has lead managed the successful re-branding of CNN-IBN to CNN-News18, of IBN7 to News18 India and ETV HSM channels to News18. He has also been responsible for developing and executing several strategic campaigns at Network18 aimed at positioning the Network / brands as leaders in the category. Aditya has also led the communication mandates for high profile programming / events such as the General Elections 2014, the PM Modi interview and now General Elections 2019.
Aditya has, in the past, successfully led mandates for brand / product launches
The Bigrock.com brand in India – with a first of its kind mass campaign for the domain / web infrastructure category in the country
Le Matinal in Mauritius -a unique bi-lingual newspaper product developed for that market
The Himalayan Times in Nepal - the brand became the No.1 English newspaper in that country within three months of launch and continues to hold the position till date
A 25 edition, 14 language captive publication for the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India
Aditya is a nominated member on the Consultative Committee on Communication and PR, BIS, Government of India. He has also been featured in various lists of the most influential marketers in the country apart from being a regular invitee at various industry / academic forums. Several of the campaigns led by Aditya have won top honours at various industry awards. Aditya holds a BA (Hons) in Economics and a Post Graduate Diploma in International Marketing (Department of Commerce, Delhi School of Economics) from the University of Delhi. He has further obtained his Master's in Management Studies from the Sprott School of Business, Ottawa, Canada.
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.
Manoj K sharma
Founder of PRGuru, former Director, Goldmine PR
Manoj K Sharma is a journalist turned academician and than a PR Person. He is founder and MD of PR Guru , a PR Agency based at Delhi. He had worked as Director, PR with Goldmine Advertising Agency too. He is a visiting professor at Delhi University, IP University & Amity too.
He is a M.Phil and MA in Journalism.
Samir Vora
CMO, Daily Hunt
Specialist in marketing, sales and market development. Over 17 years of experience in financial and media industry across premier brands such as ICICI Prudential, Aditya Birla Capital and Star TV. Exposure to brand and communication development, product development, channel management, business analytics and sales strategy.
Specialties:
1. Brand and communication development, digital native, direct marketing and business analytics
2. Product development and distribution management
3. Sales strategy and deployment
Nikhil Dey
President
With over 20 years of experience in both, the agency and corporate sides of communications, Nikhil plays a key role overseeing the firm’s client growth strategy in addition to scaling up the recently launched Centres of Expertise.
Nikhil joined Genesis Burson-Marsteller in 2004 as the head of the northern and eastern markets. Mentoring and growing his team since then, Nikhil has developed some of the best talent in the country. As President, Nikhil oversees a diverse staff of communications professionals across seven key markets. He works closely with client leaders to formulate targeted communications strategies, message development as well as providing crisis counsel and training.
With a view to share his wealth of industry insights, Nikhil conducts a number of communication courses and guest lectures at a number of esteemed institutions from time to time. These include ISB Hyderabad, Symbiosis Pune, Delhi School of Communication, International Management Institute, Lady Sriram College, Institute for Technology and Management, KC College of Management, IIPM and Apeejay Institute of Management.
Prior to joining Genesis BM, Nikhil was Vice President, Corporate Communication for Fiat India. His previous experience includes his time heading northern India operations for a prominent public relations firm.
Nikhil has been named by PRWeek among the most influential PR professionals as part of the Global Power Book 2016. In 2017, he was recognized in the Reputation Today 100 Most Important Professionals – 2017 in the Indian Public Relations and Corporate Communications industry. He has been associated with the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) in various capacities starting 2009 as the chairperson for the Northern region and then taking on a role as the Vice President in 2012. He is currently serving as a member of its Constitutional and Advisory Committee (CAC) since 2014.
A post-graduate in Economics from Loyola College, Chennai, Nikhil is also an MBA from International Management Institute, Delhi.
Off work, Nikhil looks forward to the best four hours of his week—when he plays tennis over the weekend, and the best four days of the year, when he goes on a boys-only fishing trip.
Indu Sharma
Head Corporate Communications
A Communicator with the soul of an adventure seeker, Indu Sharma is a believer in the power of story-telling. She leads Communications for Reckitt Benckiser in India. Having spent 14 years in communications profession she is a guzzler of content from the varied news and non-news platforms. During her journey she had rich experiences of representing various brands across genres. She is an avid reader.
Umang Bedi
President, Daily Hunt
As President, Umang leads the entire strategic thinking and operational business delivery at Dailyhunt. He directly oversees Dailyhunt's user, product, engagement and revenue growth strategy across the entire family of applications.
Umang has close to two decades of leadership experience covering product development, sales, consulting, marketing and partnerships and has successfully championed collaborative cross-functional management, built teams and grown businesses for various multinational companies. Prior to Dailyhunt, Umang was the Managing Director at Facebook India and South Asia, where he was instrumental in growing India to the largest market in the world for Facebook and driving exponential revenue growth.
Before Facebook, Umang was the Managing Director at Adobe for the South Asia region and was responsible for growing the business in India making it one of the leading markets for Adobe in the APAC and global regions. At Intuit Inc., Umang served as the Managing Director for India & Emerging markets, where he lead the company's business and execution of the region's strategic plans.
Early in his career, Umang served as the Business Head of the Banking and Financial Services segment at Symantec India. In this role, he helped grow the BFSI business exponentially year on year by leveraging strategic enterprise level agreements with key financial institutions.
Umang is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and an engineering graduate from the University of Pune. He is the recipient of the '40 Under Forty: India's Hottest Business Leaders Award' given by The Economic Times and Spencer Stuart in 2014, 'GQ's 50 Most Influential Young Indians' for 2016 & 2017 and most recently the prestigious Fortune India 40 under 40 in 2017. Umang serves on the boards of several start-ups and large organizations.
Umang's hobbies include playing golf, photography, travel and often speaks on digital transformation at premier industry events and academic institutions.
John Bailey
Partner, Managing Director, Ketchum Singapore
John launched Ketchum Singapore (then known as ICON) in May 2005 and offers an unrivalled breadth of international experience, having worked in more than 50 countries in a 32-year career as a Public Relations practitioner and journalist. John led ICON’s development into the largest locally-owned PR agency in Singapore before it was acquired by Ketchum in November 2013.
John moved to Singapore from Geneva, Switzerland, where he created the successful IATA Crisis Communications consultancy service for the International Air Transport Association. John is responsible for overseeing Ketchum’s operations in Singapore and provides crisis management and crisis communication consultancy services to clients across the region, and globally, including airlines, hotel groups and major multinationals involved in logistics, manufacturing and financial services. He also continues to work with IATA on defining “best practice” in crisis communications in the digital age for the global aviation industry.
Raj Suri
Indian Australian Influencer. Brand Consultant. Talent Mentor. Photographer. Actor and Film Producer
Raj Suri an Indian Australian Influencer, Raj Suri has worked across multi-platform industries – film, Australian TV, fashion, talent, international education, lifestyle and media content production for over 15 years. Raj is the former judge/panelist of Australian TV series BOLLYWOOD STAR SBS which was aired nationally in Australia in 2012. Raj leverages his vast experience in helping clients in personal and business branding. Raj is passionate about making a difference by contributing his multi-field experience across culture engagement and growth between India and Australia.
Vikram Chandra
Founder, Editorji Technologies
Vikram is the founder of Editorji Technologies - a start-up that will seek to transform video news through innovation in user experience, using artificial intelligence. He is one of India's best known TV anchors, presenting shows like "The Big Fight" and "Gadget Guru”, together with programmes for social transformation such as the Cleanathon and “Save our Tigers”.
In his earlier avatar, Vikram was the CEO of the NDTV Group, and the person who steered NDTV Convergence from launch to becoming one of India’s leading digital destinations. Along the way, he helped pioneer innovations such as news on mobile phones, the live streaming of video on the internet and the first major news app in India.
Vikram has been named ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow’ by the World Economic Forum in Davos; and has won the Indian Television Academy Award for "Best Anchor for a Talk Show", the Hero Honda Award for Best Anchorperson and the Teacher's Achievement Award for Communication, along with featuring in the top 20 on the Impact list of the Digital Power 100. He was educated at Oxford University and St Stephen’s College, before attending the Mass Media Institute at Stanford University.
Shweta Rajpal Kohli
Director - Public Policy & Govt Affairs, Salesforce, India & South Asia
Coming soon...
Swati Maliwal
Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women
Swati Maliwal was born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on 15 October 1984. She went to Amity International School and then received a Bachelors degree in Information Technology at the JSS Academy of Technical Education. She started her first term as Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women in July 2015. At the time, she was the Aam Aadmi Party leader. Her tenure in the position was extended another three years in July of 2018. She is the youngest person to hold the role of commissioner for women.
Amith Prabhu
Founder of Praxis and Promise Foundation
Amith Prabhu is a Reputation Management professional with 15 years of experience both at consultancies and in-house, having worked with pioneering companies in India and in the USA. Prabhu is the co-founder of India's only weekend offsite summit for the profession - PRAXIS under the aegis of The PRomise Foundation. He writes the only weekly online column on Public Reputation in India that features on Reputation Today. Amith is the founding dean of the School of Communications & Reputation (SCoRe). He is a graduate in Academic Law and a post-graduate in Communication Management. He has a certificate in Marketing Strategy from Harvard University.
Anamika Sirohi
Head Marketing Hindware
AnamikaSirohi has built brands and businesses for over 17 years in various MNC and Indian organizations, mainly in foods and personal care and is on the CMO Council “100 most influential marketers” list for 2018.
She has also led media, digital, design and brand communicationat Nestle India.
She currently heads marketing at Hindware, the Indian leader in sanitary ware and bathroom products.
She is an MBA from FMS Delhi and has completed her graduation in Electrical Engineering from MNIT Jaipur.
A passionate marketer, she writes regularly on marketing for publications like the Forbes and Fortune. She also speaks often at conferences on business and marketing.
Her other passions are running and travelling and she is a certified yoga teacher.
Dilip Cherian
Founding Partner & Group Chairman, Perfect Relations
Dilip Cherian is Founding Partner and Group Chairman of Perfect Relations, South Asia’s largest communications consultancy with 14 offices and over 350 professionals on the team. He is regarded as India's Image Guru. He's been a Bureaucrat, an Editor and an Entrepreneur. Widely read newspaper columns, TV debates & his Twitter feed sometimes reveal his views on the many subjects he engages with. He advises Corporations, Political Parties & Startups. His specialties are Crisis Communications & Public Affairs.
Ganshyam Tiwari
National Spokesperson of Samajwadi Party
Ghanshyam Tiwari is National Spokesperson of Samajwadi Party. An alumnus of Harvard, Kellogg, and IIM Bangalore, Ghanshyam co-founded high school video learning company GoodEd Technologies and serves as the CoChair of EdTech Committee at IAMAI. He has advised Chief Ministers and Parliamentarians, served global organizations such as BMGF and LSE, worked at McKinsey, Intel, and Texas Instruments. Ghanshyam is passionate about building stronger public leadership and transforming high school education for the poor in India. He aspires to build Learner.in into a one-stop vernacular videos platform for Government and low income high school students offering courses for school, competitive exams, and life skills. Ghanshyam is a member of the Executive Council of Harvard Alumni Club of India.
Jaya Prasad
GM & Country Head, Serviceplan India
Jaya Prasad is a specialist in advertising and marketingcommunication. She has travelled overseas and lived indifferent countries, an experience that proves invaluablewhen working with people of diverse cultures. After com-pleting a Master’s degree in communication management from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communica-tion with a special-isation in advertising and PR, she start-ed her professional journey as a copywriter at DraftFCB inMumbai in 2000 and then moved to New Delhi. Duringthe following 15 years Jaya worked for companies includ-ing Iris Worldwide, JWT and Rediffusion DY&R and nurtured brands such as ITC Hotels, Swatch group, Lotto shoes, Sony Mobile and GeneralMotors. She has a strong knowledge of the local market gained over many years, as wellas extensive international experience. In 2012 she founded IdeaSugar, a fully integratedad agency that provides brand solutions in any media. And since 2014 she has held thepost of General Manager at Serviceplan India. Jaya is also founder of the blog Noisypost.- com and the digital media marketing agency SRV Media. In her life beyond work, sheloves writing, travel, yoga and photography.
Jitendra Vashistha
Head- Corporate Communications, JSW Steel
Jitendra Vashistha spearheads Corporate Communications function for India's largest integrated steel plant - JSW Steel Ltd. and is based at their flagship plant of Vijayanagar, Karnataka. He possesses comprehensive multi-industry experience in the areas of Corporate Communications & PR, encompassing internal & external communication, marketing communications, and CSR for over two decades with the multinational and blue-chip organisations in the industries covering FMCG, Financial Services, IT, Manufacturing and Telecom. He’s a seasoned corporate communications' professional with hands-on exposure, experience, and expertise in leading strategic communications for the leading multi-national brands in the likes of Fidelity, RPG Enterprises, Amway, Fidelity, HSBC, and Vodafone.
Jitendra has cut his teeth in the entire gamut of corporate communications in establishing & developing communication function, mentoring teams, relationship building and strategic engagement with external and internal stakeholders for delivering strategic, effective & measurable communication in a global change-environment.
He was the first communication executive from India to earn a seat at HSBC’s Executive Council – EXCO, of Global Technology. He was instrumental in partnering & deploying one of the largest Change Communications' programmes of HSBC Group, impacting over 30K employees worldwide. He curated and led some interesting PR properties at Amway Corporation, which helped him steer the challenging & intriguing crisis communications management programme. At the moment, his primary thrusts are on safety communication and to find inclusive communication threads to build employee and media relations in an era; engulfed by social media, digitalisation and disruptive interventions.
Karan Rajpal
Head of Digital Marketing
Karan Rajpal is a digital marketing professional with over a decade's experience, helping run brand and reputation management programs on digital. He's worked across Media, Insurance, Consulting and IT sectors, and currently leads digital marketing at Dalmia Bharat Group. He’s a strong proponent for an integrated newsroom like approach to brand presence and promotions on digital.
Kartikeya Sharma
Founder and Promoter at iTV Network
Kartikeya Sharma is the Founder and Promoter of iTV Network. iTV Network is one of India’s fastest growing news network. iTV owns and operates two national news channels (India News & NewsX), two newspapers and various digital assets. It has a reach of millions viewers and readers on a regular basis.
NewsX, the National English News Channel of the network, has been a trend setter in the English news genre with its crisp format, direct reportage, pointed debates, trending hash tags and engaging mix of stories. It has recently won the best English channel award at the prestigious eNBA awards.
In a short span of time, India News Hindi Channel of the network, has emerged as a leader in the most competitive genre, winning the trust of the Hindi News viewers.
The regional channels of iTV Network, India News Uttar Pradesh, India News Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh and India News Haryana have further strengthened the channel’s dominance in these Hindi speaking regions.
The Sunday Guardian dubbed as the finest Sunday Newspaper, is run and managed by the network, and is sought after by country’s discerning readers for its engaging content and innovative format.
The network also publishes Aaj Samaaj, a popular Hindi newspaper that caters to the informed readers in Delhi National Capital Region and the state of Haryana.
Kartikeya is an Oxford graduate with Masters in Business Administration from King’s College, London
Dr. Ranjana Kumari
Director, Centre for Social Research
A renowned social activist and a prolific academician, Dr. Ranjana Kumari is the Director of Centre for Social Research as well as Chairperson of Women Power Connect. Dr. Kumari has dedicated her life to empowering women across the South Asia region, and isalso a prolific writer of many well-known publications. Dr. Kumari went to school in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Her paternal grandfather, a freedom fighter, Pandit Vishwanath Sharma, was the founder member of the famous Kashi Vidyapith of Varanasi, which was the first modern University organised by Indians in British India. After finishing her schooling, she moved to Delhi and did her MA, M.Phil and Ph.D in Political Science from Jawahar Lal Nehru University.
Her foray into social work was initiated by her concern for a dowry death that took place near her home in 1976. This led to her activism on world famous publication “Brides are not for Burning”.
She has served as the Coordinator of the South Asia Network Against Trafficking (SANAT) in Persons and is a member of the Central Advisory Board on “Pre Conception and Pre Natal Diagnostic Tests Act, 2001”, as well as the Central Advisory Committee for Prevention of Trafficking in Women and Children. Some of her most passionate causes have been the participation of women in democracy and governance, the termination of dowry practices and dowry-related violence, and the abolition of female foeticide.
In the past, she was a member of the Task Force on Industrial Relations for The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva and worked as senior professional at United Nations. Currently, she is a member of Global Safety Advisory Board of Facebook. She is also a member of the Twitter’s Trust & Safety Council.
Rohit Bansal
Group Head of Communications, Reliance Industries
Rohit is a media leader and influencer. He is an alum of Harvard Business School and St Stephen’s College. Rohit is a multiple TEDx speaker and a Distinguished Fellow at India's premier think tank, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). He serves on the National Executive of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and three national committees of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on i) services, ii) skill development iii) media and entertainment. Rohit is a British Chevening scholar. He has undertaken short professional programmes at University of Westminster, The Times Centre for Media Studies, and The European Journalism Centre, Maastricht. Rohit serve/d on the boards of Network18 Media & Investments, TV18, IBN Lokmat TV, Viacom18, HS18, Panorama, Prism, and News Broadcasters Association; Fellow, Institute of Competitiveness; Mentor, JioGenNext; as Resident Editor of The Financial Express, New Delhi; Managing Editor (and later COO) of Independent News Service; Editor-Business, Zee News; Special Correspondent, Television 18; and Senior Business Correspondent, The Times of India. In collaboration with law firm Hammurabi & Solomon, Rohit advised CEOs across the spectrum on policy and the media. He served as Treasurer of The Editors Guild of India and the Foundation of Media Professionals, was on the board of a hospital company and two start-ups in Essel Group. Rohit served as Trustee, St Stephen's Alumni Foundation Trust. His expertise is at the intersect of Government and Regulation, Media/Social Media, Reputation, Corporate Communications, Strategy, Alliances, and Legal Affairs.
Sameer Bajaj
Director - Corporate Communications and External Affairs, Discovery India
Sameer Bajaj has over 20 years of work experience in strategic communications, advocacy, public relations, internal communications and CSR with global organizations across different industries. He is currently working with Discovery Communications India as Director – Corporate Communications & External Affairs. Prior to Discovery, Sameer has also led Corporate Communications verticals for Amway India and STAR Sports.
Xavier Prabhu
Founder & Managing Director, Company PR Hub
A leading thinker/consultant on branding & communication globally, Xavier combines his deep subject knowledge with his role as an entrepreneur over the past 15 years in creating PRHUB - one of India's leading, full service, independent communication firms. He has worn multiple hats of writer, editor, teacher, trainer, consultant and entrepreneur in a successful career span spread over 22 years. A sought after speaker, Xavier does a speaking engagement every month on an average speaking on topics as varied as branding, PR, social media, leadership, entrepreneurship and motivation. He is one of the few Indian communication professionals who have spoken in over 8 countries beyond India – US, Belgium, Germany, Slovenia, Iran, Kazhakstan, Mexico & Turkey.
In 2007, he addressed a group of communication and PR agency owners in Brussels on India – the opportunity. In April 2008 he was one of the entrepreneurs in the branding space chosen by Insead business school Singapore to interact with its students on a visit to India and in May 2008 he was a speaker at an International Communication Conference in Slovenia organized by ICCO, he was the lead speaker at the Eurasian PR conference in Almaty in October 2008 and a VIP speaker at the 5th International PR conference in Teheran. In 2010, he was a speaker at ICCO’s regional PR summit in Slovenia. In 2011 he took a workshop on cracking India as a market for corporate communication professionals in Brussels. In 2012, he was leading one of the breakfast round tables at The Holmes Report PR summit in Miami, US.
Xavier headed editorial for close to three years from inception for businessgyan - a business handbook in Bangalore besides freelance writing for one of India's largest IT periodicals and was National brand advisor to AIESEC India during which time he helped formulate a new positioning line for them. Xavier has had the privilege of being on the boards of multiple institutions – COMMITS, ISB & M, SIMC and GICONS among others. He led a full credit course on emerging economies for JGI – IdeA, an unique 2-year MBA program of Jain University besides being a visiting faculty at many leading educational institutions in India. He was chosen by the Leadership Institute, US as an outstanding achiever from India.
Xavier has had the opportunity to be taught Time Management by a leading trainer in India on the topic and has attended the Achievers workshop by Shiv Khera and an intense course on public speaking. He writes fiction and non-fiction in his spare time and hopes to churn best sellers someday when he has enough time to read and write. A foodie, Xavier loves traveling, meeting interesting people, writing and occasionally shaking his legs on a dance floor. Not to mention being a friend and doting parent to his daughter and son.
Khurafati Nitin
RJ, 92.7 BIG FM Delhi
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.
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.
Maheish Girri
National Secretary & Hon'ble MP
He is an Indian social activist and politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and currently the National Secretary of the party. He is a Member of Parliament from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. Girri is an Art of Living faculty and a former International Director of the Art of Living Foundation. He is also the founder of the NGO Navbharat Sewa Samiti.
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.
Muhammad Ali Khan
Lawyer & Spokesperson, Indian National Congress
Muhammad Ali Khan is an advocate who specializes in environmental, administrative and constitutional law. He is a spokesperson of the Indian National Congress Party and was awarded the Georgetown University, Young India Fellowship for the year 2015-2016. He is the co-author, along with Mr. Jairam Ramesh, of Legislating for Justice: Making of the New Law on land acquisition (Oxford University Press, 2015).
He was formerly the officer on special duty to the minister for rural development in the Government of India. At the Ministry, he was the lead author of the new national law on the subject of land acquisition (the right to fair compensation and transparency in land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement act 2013).
Prior to this assignment, Khan worked as the advisor (on law and policy matters) to the minister for environment and forests, Government of India, where he was involved in the drafting of new legislation and the supervision of litigation strategy. He was also part of the team that worked to establish the ‘National Green Tribunal’- an expert judicial body to hear environmental matters.
Khan is also the editor of a book on former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi titled Indira Gandhi on Environment and Forests, which chronicles her contribution to the development of the field. For his work at the Ministry of Environment and Forests, he was invited to become a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law in 2011.
Nidhi Malik
Vice President- Communications & CSR, Home Credit
A seasoned brand marketing specialist - Nidhi Malik joined Home Credit India Finance in June 2018. Backed by a rich, multi-disciplinary experience of 22 years that speaks highly of her passion of building brands, Nidhi is spearheading the Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) function. The mandate includes building a positive brand image for the organisation, besides delivering on key business and sustainability goals.
Prior to joining Home Credit, Nidhi was heading the marketing function at Jubilant Lifesciences (JLL). There she was accountable for driving Brand Harmonisation across its key businesses in the B2B and B2C domain. She also managed the External & Internal Relations for the company, by creating a winning mix of offline and online PR and Communications strategies. Creating visibility for the larger umbrella brand, (other than Domino’s) was an integral part of the overall future growth roadmap at JLL.
At Shell Lubricants, she was instrumental in bringing about a sea change in the marketing strategy of a matrix organisation by rolling out a specially curated PR strategy for its three brands catering to different target audience from elite car owners to truck drivers to technical heads of organisation. This led to a significant increase in the average‘Top of the mind Brand recall’ from 7 % to 57%. She was also instrumental in implementing an online marketing tool for the first time.She was honoured with ‘Best Global Campaign Execution’ award for Shell Rimula R3X promo- Shell Lubricants in the year ___________.
Nidhi has worked with leading creative and media agencies O&M, Dentsu, Percept H, Group M and has had successful stints with several mainline PR and Event agencies like Weber Shandwick, Perfect Relations, 20.20, and WSG as well. Exposed to working with multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary teams, Nidhi believes in driving growth & profitability through Strategic Direction, Building Brands, Online Marketing, Social Media Communication, PR And Outcome Based Marketing.
Nilanjana Bhaduri Jha
Chief Content officer, Hindustan Times Digital
As Chief Content Officer of Hindustan Times Digital, Nilanjana Bhaduri Jha is the group's digital editor in chief. She was previously Chief Content Officer at NDTV Convergence. Nilanjana has also in the past been Editor, Times of India.com. She has 26 years in journalism, 18 of those as a digital journalist. She has set up and led large digital newsrooms in India's top media houses and enjoys building processes and tools for them. She also takes special pride and identifying and mentoring new leaders.
Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury
Media Dean
Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury, a noted media academic and columnist, is currently the Media Dean of Pearl Academy, in Delhi and Mumbai. He has been earlier the Media Dean of Symbiosis and Amity Universities, and that of Whistling Woods International. With an academic background in International Relations and Communication Studies, Prof Chowdhury is widely traveled, have worked with WHO and Govt India as media consultant, and is a great believer in media convergence impacting communication education suitably in digital times.
Pankaj Pachauri
Editor In Chief
Pankaj Pachauri is an Indian TV anchor and journalist. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Gonews, India's first app-based TV News channel. Pankaj was associated with NDTV for 15 years. He was also associated with other international media houses including the BBC, India Today, The Sunday Observer and the Patriot newspaper. He has more than 30 years of experience in print and broadcast journalism. During the years 2012-2014, he served as the Communication Adviser to the Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He is a commerce graduate from St. John's College, Agra and studied journalism at Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Communication in Lucknow. He has worked for 7 years in print media, 6 years in radio and 16 years in television broadcasting in Hindi and English. He has been a member of the National Integration Council.
Sunetra Choudhury
Political Editor & Senior Anchor
Sunetra Choudhury is a Political Editor & Senior Anchor with the Indian news channel NDTV 24x7. She started her career with the newspaper The Indian Express in 1999 and became the Deputy Chief Reporter responsible for their city section Newsline. In 2002, she entered the electronic media industry when she joined STAR News as a reporter in Hindi. In 2003, she joined the New Delhi based NDTV and has been there ever since. She has been an anchor and reporter covering everything from natural disasters to crime, investigations, and politics. She is the author of the book “ Behind Bars”, she also received the Red Ink Award in 2015 for her story on how disabled children were being adopted by Indian families for the very first time.
Alan Vandermolen
International and WE+, WE Communications
Alan VanderMolen is a public relations leader and accomplished executive.
He serves as President, International and WE+, for global communications agency, WE Communications. In his current role he is responsible for the intellectual capital (Brands in Motion), global expansion and fortifying WE’s partner network. In under a year Alan has secured speaking slots at Cannes Lions Young Marketers, Global Summit in Miami, Indie Summit in London and Praxis in India.
Before joining WE, Alan most recently served as Vice Chairman for DJE Holdings, Edelman's parent. VanderMolen was responsible for leadership of five businesses: Research firm, Edelman Berland; Edelman sister agency, Zeno; Edelman Digital; and, Edelman Canada and Latin America.
VanderMolen served nine years as Edelman Asia-Pacific President, taking it from the region's number 7 firm to a top 3 firm and recognition as PRWeek's Network of the Year. Alan drove Edelman entries into India, Japan and Indonesia, as well as Australia expansion.
Before Edelman, Alan spent 13 years at Burson-Marsteller. After three years in New York, Alan ran Burson in Taiwan and Malaysia before running the firm's Southeast Asia operations.
Alan has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, the BBC and in countless print media. He has spoken on roundtables at the UN Global Compact Leaders Conference, the Clinton Global Initiative and The World Economic Forum's Anti-Corruption Conference.
A graduate of The Ohio State University, Alan serves on its Board of Trustees. He has served on the boards of the Goodman Theater, the Planet Water Foundation and the Plank Center.
Nitin Mantri
Group CEO, AvianWe
Nitin Mantri is one of the most dynamic leaders in the world of communications today. He is the Group CEO of Avian WE, the President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI), and the Vice-President of International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO). He will become the President of ICCO in 2019.
Nitin joined Avian WE (then known as Avian Media) as its CEO in 2006. The firm was two years old and had 10 employees and a handful of clients. In a few years, Nitin set the template for year-on-year growth. Today, Avian has 182 employees, 100 clients and six offices in India, and has become one of the top 10 fastest-growing consultancies in the world (The Holmes Report, 2017).
Nitin founded Chase India, an associate company of Avian, in 2011 to work on public policy mandate for leading Indian and multinational companies.
Before joining Avian, Nitin worked atPleon, a Europe-based public relations and communications consultancy that belongs to the Omnicom Group, in London. He was responsible for Pleon’s UK operations and also headed the corporate and technology B2B practices.
Nitin started his communications career at Genesis PR after completing his MBA from the Birla Institute of Management Technology.
Nitin takes a keen interest in the development of the public relations industry in India. For several years, he has led the charge on the importance of ethics and a common code of conduct for the industry. Since he became the PRCAI President in 2015, he has focussed on improving the public perception of the profession.
As Vice-President of ICCO, Nitin is making the global PR industry relevant to different markets, and potential talent. He regularly speaks at the AMEC Global Summit, ICCO Global Summit and Sabre Awards.
Nitin received the ‘PR Leader of the Year’ award at the 2015 ICCO Global Awards for his contribution to the PR industry.
Nitin teaches and charts course syllabus at prominent mass communication colleges in India to increase awareness about the profession at the grass-root level and stimulate the learning process. He is on advisory board of The School of Communications and Reputation (SCoRe), a premier institute dedicated to the development of education & research in reputation management.
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.
Deepa Balasubramanian
Chief Executive Officer, The Sedibus
Deepa is the Chief Executive Officer of Malaxmi Group's The Sedibus, Complete Startup Ecosystem Platform for Andhra Pradesh. Previously an entrepreneur herself, Deepa has in depth knowledge about content strategy, creation, marketing, digital media, PR expertise and brand positioning. Deepa loves expediting end to end projects, and comes with a vast banking experience in operations, risk and compliance from her previous stint with HSBC Data Processing Pet Ltd. Deepa is an author by passion, and writes fiction.
Ashwani Singla
Founding Managing Partner, Astrum
Ashwani SINGLA: Founding Managing Partner, Astrum – India’s first science-based specialist reputation management advisory.Ashwani SINGLA: Founding Managing Partner, Astrum – India’s first science-based specialist reputation management advisory.
In his over two decades of experience in industry, he has donned the role of a trusted advisor and strategist for both the C-Suite & Senior Political leaders. A pioneer, and an untiring advocate of insights and data driven communication for persuasion, Ashwani advises corporations across a diverse range of sectors and leading political parties about winning and retaining public goodwill.