With over 15 years of experience, Mr. Bishwajeet Samal is a seasoned marketing professional with over a decade of experience within the Volkswagen brand. He joined Volkswagen India in 2008 and prior to his current appointment at Volkswagen Passenger Cars in India, he spent over three years in charge of Regional Marketing, International Communications at Volkswagen AG, Germany.
In his expansive career, Mr. Samal has worked in Media, Advertising and Telecom industries before joining Volkswagen. He holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, with a specialization in Marketing from the Institute of Management Development and Research (IMDR), Pune.
Mr. Samal’s appointment has been effective since June 2018 and in his new role as Head of Marketing, Volkswagen Passenger Cars in India, he will be reporting to Mr. Steffen Knapp, Director, Volkswagen Passenger Cars India.
He loves traveling, enjoys interacting with people and exploring different cultures. His other interests include Skiing, playing Tennis & Swimming.
Gaurav has over 18 years of extensive experience across communication verticals of Marketing and Public Relations. In 2017, he was named as the Reputation Today’s Top 100 Communicators in India.
He was selected as a Powerful Influencers in the area of Marketing and Communication by AdGully Times Network in 2018.
Gaurav presently is on the management team of Audi India. In his role as Head of Marketing and PR, Gaurav is responsible for planning, development and implementation of all of the Audi India’s marketing strategies as well as communication, and public relation activities, both external and internal.
Gaurav has Master’s in Communication Management from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC). He has also completed Management Development Program -- Strategic Leadership conducted by Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Gaurav began his career in a Media organization (newspaper) and thereon in a PR consultancy firm. Gaurav joined Audi India in April 2008 as a Manager Communications. He has steadily grown and risen through the organization, first to Head the Communications department and now heads both Marketing and PR verticals.
Gaurav is award winning PR professional; He and his team were voted as the ‘‘Best PR & Communication Team’’ by NDTV in 2015 and then again in 2018.
He is married and has two children. He lives in Mumbai and has a passion for sports including cricket and football and is an ardent fan of Manchester United Club.
Accomplished marketing professional with diversified experience & proven track record across various brands in FMCG category ,Rajeev Jain has an experience spanning over 25 years in different facets of strategic brand management. His core competency includes new product development and launches, brand architecture and brand extensions strategies, integrated marketing communication , media planning and buying etc.. He has significantly contributed in development of various big brandsin fast paced &challenging market environments with innovative & creative marketing solutions.
Strategic thinker & problem solver with pragmatic approach to marketing management, he has developed & led highly productive and motivated teams to exemplary performance across various brands in FMCG category.
He serves as Vice President (Marketing) with one of the leading business conglomerate DS Group and has played pivotal role in various new product launches and vertical growth of various brands of the company. Having an eye for detailing and strong believer in micro data analysis, he has successfully developed various statistical tools instrumental in establishing various problem solving models for various complex marketing challenges and business decisions. He has hands on experience of working on various successful brands including Rajnigandha, Catch, Pass Pass, Silver Pearls, Chingles, Pulse etc.He has been able to develop a robust brand architecture for various brands of group laying roadmap for long term brand growth.
Prior to DS Group, Rajeev was associated with leading lighting company Surya Roshni and also with Intex Mobiles. In the initial years of his career he did his training with Ulka Advertising in account planning department and also had 3 years stint with Arms Advertising as Account Planner.
Rajeev holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration with specialization in Marketing from Ajmer University. He also holds a bachelor degree in Biology from Hans Raj College, Delhi University.
In addition to, attending management development program at IIM Ahmedabad, Rajeev is also widely travelled and participated in various management courses conducted by world renowned management gurus like Philip Kotler, Jack Trouts etc.
Rajeev likes to travel and is fond of photography . He has also done course in photography from Triveni Arts,New Delhi.
Mr. Nikhil Chand joined Nestlé India in 1998 as a Management Trainee from IIM Ahmedabad and has worked across Sales, Factory, Culinary, Confectionery and Nestlé Professional businesses till 2008. In 2009 Nikhil started international career with Nestlé Russia where he was part of CHF 1 bio biscuit/PPP project and Sales force optimization and Industrial restructuring. Under Nikhil’s leadership KIT KAT business in Russia became the 4th biggest KIT KAT business globally.
In 2013 Nikhil was transferred to Ukraine as Business Executive Manager Confectionery. He successfully grew the Confectionary business in a challenging environment through portfolio restructuring, accelerating heartland brand SVITOCH and growing share in LION and KIT KAT. Under Nikhil’s leadership and his drive for exceptional results, Confectionery business in Ukraine became the 5th highest growth contributor to Nestlé globally in 2014.
During his time in Ukraine, Nikhil received Market Head Award “Team Leading by Example” which recognized his inspirational leadership and exemplary behaviors.
Currently Mr. Nikhil Chand isheading the FOODS and Chocolates & Confectionery business at Nestle India.
Vivek Gambhir is Managing Director and CEO, Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL).
Vivek was the key architect of GCPL's 3 by 3 strategy and has been instrumental in driving the company's efforts to become a leading emerging markets FMCG leader.
He joined Godrej Industries in 2009 as Chief Strategy Officer responsible for guiding overall Group strategy, conducting portfolio analysis and driving special projects. He helped define the CREATE portfolio approach and the 10X10 objective for the Group.
Prior to joining the Godrej Group, Vivek was a partner at Bain & Company, one of the world's leading business consulting firms. He worked with Bain in Boston, Singapore and New Delhi. He was a founding member of Bain's consulting operations in India and led the firm's FMCG practice in India.
Vivek is an Independent Director on the Boards of Metropolis Healthcare Limited and Samast Technologies Private Limited. He serves as President of the Harvard Business School club in India and is an advisor to the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation. Vivek also writes a weekly blog on leadership called 'Monday-8AM' (http://www.monday8am.com).
He has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS (Computer Science) and BA (Economics) from Lafayette College.
Vivek is married to Roopika, who is a photographer and a social worker. They have three children, Janya, Aarav and Imara.
Mr. Dilen Gandhi is the Senior Director, Marketing – Foods Category at PepsiCo India. In his present role Dilen is responsible for leading end-to-end marketing and P&L for PepsiCo India’s largest, fastest growing, most profitable portfolio. Dilen has been leading a cross-functional team, including 4 direct reports, to shape the future of the Indian Snacks market.
Having been associated with PepsiCo for over 3 years, Dilen has been spearheading growth of the Foods business across key markets. He has led flagship Lay’s to double-digit growth, behind a combination of strong marketing inputs and seamless execution and has played a key role in expanding Lay’s portfolio by reigniting Lay’s Maxx premium PC and scaling-up Lay’s Crispz/Twistz platform.He also successfully launched Doritos in India and achieved market leadership within eight months of launch.
An accomplished international marketer with more than 15 years of successful brand building, marketing and sales experience at blue- chip FMCGs like PepsiCo, P&G and Gillette, Dilen Gandhi has delivered unprecedented results such as building $100M dollar businesses and achieving record market shares in a multitude of business situations, ranging from new launches to turning around struggling businesses.
Dilen has a remarkable and comprehensive commercial experience, including sales management, commercial marketing, P&L management, brand strategy & innovation across multiple product categories like Snacks, Diapers, Sanitary Napkins, Fabric Care and Male Grooming. Additionally, he has a market experience spanning ASEAN, Middle East &Africa.
An outstanding leader and team builder, Dilen is truly passionate about all things marketing. What excites him as a marketer is the “privilege of meeting hundreds of people during consumer research at their homes”, whom he would not have ordinarily met or spoken to.
Dilen Gandhi holds an MBA in Marketing from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. He is also an alumnus of NarseeMonjee College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai where he pursued his Graduation in Commerce (Accounting and Finance).
Anupriya Acharya, CEO, Publicis Media India is an eminent media professional with 24+ years of experience in media agencies across India and Singapore. Prior to this, she has also held positions of Group CEO of ZenithOptimedia, CEO-Aegis Media Singapore, Leader-Team Unilever, South Asia at Mindshare and President – The Media Edge, India.
She is a Jury member on key media industry awards in India and APAC, and speaks frequently at key industry events. Fortune India listed Anupriya in its Most Powerful Women (in business) 2018 list. She has also been felicitated by Forbes India as ‘W-Power’ Trailblazer 2018 and received the ‘Beti’ FICCI FLO Gr8 Award 2018 for Media & Advertising. She is among the Top 10 in Impact’s list of ’50 most influential women’ 2018. She is also an Independent Director on the Board of DB Corp Ltd.
A Post Graduate in Chemistry from IIT - Roorkee, her interests are adventure trips, photography and interior designing.
Overview
Sujatha has over 20 years of working experience in the field of Marketing. She has worked extensively in
all key areas, such as Brand Development, Launch Strategy, Category Management, Retail Strategy and
Promotions, Creating Advertising, Media, Consumer Behaviour, Client Engagement, Market Research and
In-market implementation of Programs.
Current Position and Responsibilities
Sujatha is the Head of Marketing for Visa for the India and South Asia region. She is responsible for driving
the overall marketing strategy and execution, including consumer, retail and digital marketing initiatives
for India and the emerging markets of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Maldives.
Previous Positions
Prior to joining Visa, Sujatha was leading Marketing & Strategy at Google as Head of Brand & Reputation.
Sujatha started her career at Procter & Gamble and, over the years, has gathered rich experience in sales
and marketing across strong consumer marketing companies such as Gillette, Nokia, The Royal Bank of
Scotland and Coca-Cola.
Other Information
Sujatha is a graduate in Psychology and holds an MBA in Marketing. She is also the lead singer of a band
"Mid Life Crisis” (a band comprising people from the corporate world who have a passion for music), and
they have been performing in concerts for the last five years.
Mr. Arvind Chintamani is the Vice President - Marketing, at Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited (CPIL), since April 2018, and leads the marketing function. He joined the Company in 2000, and assumed increasing responsibilities in Customer Development, Marketing and Innovation across various geographies in India and in the U.S. In 2014, he was the Marketing Director of the Malaysia Hub. Prior to assuming his current position, he was the Worldwide Director - Oral Care, at Colgate-Palmolive's Corporate Office in New York.
Mr. Arvind Chintamani holds a Graduate Degree in Economics from Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB).
Naresh currently leads all Growth & Marketing at Cure.fit. He joined Curefit in April 2018 and have overseen a 5x growth in Top line over the last 12 months. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Electrical Engineering) and IIM Calcutta (MBA). Naresh joined Cure.fit from Myntra where he was the Chief Revenue Officer in his last role. He spent 6 years at Myntra overseeing a 100x+ growth in Revenue and Customers. He has spent the last 5 years leading Growth and Revenue at Myntra building the team from scratch to 90 members strong. He brings expertise in Growth, Planning, Digital Marketing, Customer Retention, Pricing, Profitability, Store Merchandising, Payments/Partnerships, Creative/Graphics, Growth Products/Tech and Leadership/Team management.
Prior to Myntra, Naresh spent 2 years as an investment banker with UBS Investment Bank in the Equity Capital Markets division.
Naresh is a huge Sports fan and spends a lot of his free time following a bunch of different sports around the world. He hails from a Sports family, his mother a Master Aerobics trainer and pioneer of Aerobics in India and ex physio for the Indian womens cricket team. His father was an opening batsman for Tamil Nadu Cricket team for over 10 years.
Karan Shroff leads Brand Marketing at Xiaomi India, and has been instrumental in driving the strategic creative campaigns of the Xiaomi brand in recent past.
Having joined Xiaomi in July 2015 wherein he led national and global events across several markets; in a short span of three years, Karan moved on to run brand strategy projects and now heads the Xiaomi Brand Marketing team.
Karan played a significant role in building Xiaomi’s widespread popularity among customers in India through iconic campaigns which include the latest Duur se Dekha featuring Ranveer Singh, KiskaBajaa campaign, and the Naya Note campaign, among many others. He leads the brand collaboration with Ranveer Singh as Xiaomi’s first ever smartphone ambassador. Karan spearheaded the Xiaomi India initiative that won a Guinness World Record achievement for the brand, creating the world’s largest lit mosaic (logo).
Karan also conceptualized the successful #NoMiWithoutYou campaign which led to designing the world's largest grain mosaic, and fed over 500,000 people in India to celebrate a company milestone. The campaign went on to be named among the Top 10 Ad Campaigns of Q3 2017 for YouTube India.
Karan serves on the jury board of the prestigious WOW Awards Asia Committeeand was recently awarded Marketer of the Year by IAA Leadership awards held by International Advertising Association (IAA) India Chapter. Karan has also been featured in Bloomberg-Quint’s Ace Team Initiative series as well as Campaign India’s A-List initiative. He was also named the Most Influential Youth Marketing Professional by Global Youth Marketing Forum 2019.
With nearly 10 years of valuable marketing and events expertise, Karan’s prior contributions include working with Herbalife International India Pvt. Ltd as the Events Manager; and previously leading key events for Wizcraft International Pvt LTD and Bertelsmann earlier in his career. Karan has also founded Ignis events company and co-founded Pixie events, offering event management solutions to major clients such as Pepsi, Nike, HSBC, and Airtel to name a few.
Mr. Dash has successfully handled various strategic and operational roles for the Company.
Some of his previous roles include Marketing Head for India, Team Leader of a Venture Team based in the UK and Senior Director – Marketing and Business Development – for Tata Starbucks. He has also worked for ORG Marg in various capacities in Consumer and Market Research. He was the Global Brand Director of TGB prior to his appointment as President - India and Middle East.