Cathy O’Dowd
Inspirational Speaker, Adventurer, Author

Cathy O’Dowd is the first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, from both its north and south sides, and remains an active adventurer today!

The years she spent on or around Everest were, for her, a degree ‘in living’. She shares in-sights about herself, individuals, and teams under high-risk, high-stress environments, while striving for big goals. Her experience has made her learn why plans fail and how teams crumble, and the key tools to get to the top.

She has faced the ‘worst storm in the history of Everest’ and the giant avalanches of the Kangshung face, alongside warring team members with rampant egos. She has experienced both the thrill of the summit and the reality of failure, and has paid the ultimate price with the loss of fellow climbers.

She has been a professional speaker for over 20 years and has presented her message to companies in over 40 countries in six continents. Her stories touch on the themes of importance to anyone trying to get the best out of people.

Kamal Basu
Marketing & PR Head, Volkswagen India

Coming soon...

Sanjeev Handa
VP & Head Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd

Sanjeev is an Indian School of Business- Hyderabad Alumni and an Economics Graduate with over two decades of varied experience in Marketing, Strategy, Brand Management, Advertising, CRM and Sales in leading global organizations across varied industries. His expertise has been in strategizing and creating innovative marketing plans, steering the execution of marketing programs and new product launches. He has demonstrated success by driving growth in targeted markets through implementation of key projects.

As Vice President and Head of Marketing at Maruti Suzuki India Limited, he is presently leading planning and strategy for all future and present products in Maruti's portfolio and also all the CRM and loyalty initiatives. Over the past nine years at Maruti Suzuki, he has orchestrated and augmented strategies for launch of the power brands in Maruti's portfolio – Swift Diesel, Maruti SX4, Swift Dzire, Grand Vitara and Kizashi. He's enabled Swift's turnaround and shaped it up to become an iconic brand in India.

Shantiswarup Panda
Chief Marketing Officer, Lifestyle Business

Shantiswarup Panda has over 13 years of experience in managing brands across various aspects of branding including Media Planning, Communication and Channel Marketing. Prior to Raymond, Shantiswarup was working with Hindustan Unilever for over 10 years and spearheaded sales and marketing roles in Oral Care and Personal Care space. His last assignment with Unilever was as the Head - Customer and Channel Marketing for Pureit India. Prior to HUL, he has worked with Infosys Technologies.

Shantiswarup is an alumni of IIM Indore and holds a BE (Honors) (Mechanical) degree from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela.

Sunita Bangard
President Marketing, Idea Cellular Ltd

An adventurous and fun loving person, I enjoy traveling, music and theatre. I am extremely ambitious and strong willed individual, who believes in being a critique of one’s work at all times. I have high levels of energy and have a ‘never say never die ‘attitude to work . I always look at innovative ways to solve the problem than get sucked in by them .Quite passionate about my work , my philosophy is to ask ‘why not’ instead of ‘why’ to come up with newer ideas or ways of working to improve results. I am a people’s person by nature. I go beyond the call of duty to understand my team members- their motivations and concerns, their personality types and offer support both personally and professionally. I have the natural instincts of leading a team and can relate quite comfortably with team members across levels. I use influencing skills , my natural strength as a way of getting things done rather than hierarchy. I have always tried to maintain high standards of execution in all the work that I do. That however does not stop me from holding my team and myself accountable for delivering objectives set by us and place great importance not only to execution but timely delivery as well. I think I demonstrate great enthusiasm in every activity that I take on and have tried in my own way to live the change I would like to see around me.

An enriching and exciting marketing experience of almost 25 years that has been quite diverse across A list brands and organisations namely Colgate Palmolive, L’Oreal, Unilever, Godrej, Lintas Advertising. Currently at Idea for almost 6 years and have been promoted twice from VP to SVP and now President Marketing on account of significantly contributing to Brand Idea's journey over the past few years Worked in various capacities both strategic and operational ,looked after not only brand equity but also P&L responsibilities with clear objectives of managing the financial health of my brands. Worked with large orgnizations, but also had the experience of a start up with L’Oreal, Was country Marketing Head at L’Oreal India and Regional Marketing Manager –Sunsilk at Unilever for South and Southeast Asia.

Have worked on several strategic initiatives in my career – Got L’Oreal on the personal care map in India where up until then Unilever dominated the market with a share of over 60% in every category they operated. Launching all the 3 brands of L’Oreal – L’Oreal Paris, Garnier and Maybelline New York with distinctive identities, Global relaunch of Sunsilk at Unilever, Portfolio Strategy at Godrej (Hair Color category), initiated work on rebranding and repositioning of Godrej Powder Hair dye . In 2011 shifted gears and moved to a completely different and dynamic Industry – Telecom. Have shaped the brand strategy at Idea keeping Industry trends and consumer insights at the core. Applied principles and practices of FMCG marketing

Sushant Sreeram
India Marketing Head, Xiaomi

Sushant Sreeram heads marketing for Xiaomi in India. Sushant comes with more than a decade of experience building brands and communities spanning eCommerce, Consumer Goods and Travel industries. At Xiaomi, Sushant leads marketing and brand building efforts focussed on strengthening the country’s largest and most engaged community of fans. As a former entrepreneur himself, Sushant believes the next wave of global technological innovation will come through from countries like India and by making technology accessible to the millions of Indians and is proud to live and follow through on this philosophy at Xiaomi, a company that believes in the motto ‘innovation for everyone’