With 21 years of proficient experience in the arena of Advertising, Marketing & Brand Communications, Public Relations, Licensing, Retail, Publishing and Business Development, Sangeeta Chacko has had an illustrious career with many leading global organizations including Ogilvy & Mather, The Walt Disney Group, Travel Corporation India, Abacus Distribution Systems, and Kuoni Travels.

She joined Percept Limited in 2006 as Head – Corporate Communications where she set up the Corporate Communications programme for the Percept Group encompassing Stakeholder Communications, PR, Loyalty Programmes, Conferences & Corporate Events, Website and Intranet Management, Knowledge Management Projects, Communication Audits, Social Media Marketing and CSR initiatives.

An International & National award winner, she is featured in the prestigious 31st Edition of ‘Marquis Who's Who In The World®’ 2014 Directory encompassing biographies of renowned achievers from around the world. She has been conferred with the esteemed ‘Bharat Excellence Award’, ‘Rashtriya Mahila Gold Award’, ‘Outstanding International Business Communicator Award’ and the ‘Rashtriya Nirman Ratna Award’ in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Communications arena.

Dr. Lavanya Wadgaonkar leads Communications & CSR at Nissan Group of India. She is responsible for leading strategic communications for Nissan and Datsun brands, including external, internal and marketing communications and corporate social responsibility.

Prior to this, Lavanya was General Manager & Head of Marketing & Public Affairs, India at Eaton Corporation responsible for leading strategic corporate marketing, brand and communication activities. With twenty years of experience in Communications field across various industries such as Manufacturing, Energy, IT and Infrastructure, Lavanya has a proven track record in formulating and executing Strategic Marketing, Communications, Brand management and CSR plans.

She is a multi-faceted individual who has been an actress, radio jockey, columnist, film critic, as well as producer of radio documentaries. She has won a National award for her radio documentary from the Prime Minister of India. She has published a book of stories in translation on women empowerment.

She also strongly believes in individual social responsibility and volunteers at many NGOs dedicated to eradicating child labor, environmental issues and civic sense.

Lavanya holds a PhD and MPhil from Osmania University, Hyderabad.

With over 30 years of media, MARKETING and brand communications experience , Paulomi Dhawan, has played an integral role in shaping the fortunes and brand equity of many leading Indian lifestyle brands like Samsonite, Parle, Raymond, Park Avenue, Eenadu, Star TV among others.

Mrs. Dhawan started her career as a Media Planner at Everest Advertising, where she went on to become Media Director. Consequently, under her leadership as President, Media Supermarket (the media division of iB&W Communications) she bagged the first independent media business (AOR) in India in 1995 -Videocon.

Following her career in advertising, Mrs. Dhawan took on a senior managerial role at Raymond Ltd. as Head of Media and Corporate Communications, where she played a key role in positioning the brand as the leading luxury lifestyle textile player on a global level. She had the responsibility of heading the 360-degree brand communication for Raymond.
Later, she went entrepreneurial with First Row, her own venture andin the fashion lifestyle space. She then identified and launched two emerging sectors –wellness and Media & entertainment for the listed company Landmarc Leisure Corporation as its Managing Director.

Currently, she is on the Executive Council of the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), serving as Chairperson, Events Committee and Treasurer of the organization.

Strategic Advisor to CMD/ CEO/ Board members of large listed company- perception management and MARKETING, media communications and Independent Director on Pvt. Ltd. companies.

Viswakumar Menon has 18 years of experience in communications across all disciplines. His career spans across consumer durables, textiles, finance, infrastructure and now with Shell, in the hydrocarbon industry.

As corporate communications head for Shell India since September 2013, Menon is responsible for the brand and reputation as well as protecting the license to operate of Shell in India. Other elements of his function include proactive stakeholder engagements, issue/crisis management, campaigns and social media and CSR.

Prior to Shell, Menon was the head of communications at Siemens Ltd., responsible for all business spanning across the South Asia market. Here, he led some of the most innovative campaigns in the B2B industry which straddled PR, marketing communications and stakeholder engagement through infotainment programs, partnering with media houses such as NDTV, CNBC and the Times Group.

He has a post graduate degree in Marketing Management from Jamnalal Bajaj (Mumbai) and a bachelor’s degree in journalism, psychology and literature from Christ College (Bangalore).

Menon lives in Mumbai with his wife and five year old son. On the hobby front, he is an avid biker - escaping at every opportunity for a ride out of Mumbai, a soccer fanatic supporting Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund and consummate movie buff.

Heena Kanal started her career over 16 years back with leading PR agencies namely: Enterprise PR, Paradigm Shift and 20:20 MEDIA and has experience across technology, media, retail, hospitality, lifestyle, beauty and wellness sectors.

In her current role, Heena heads Corporate Communications and Brand PR at Marico Limited. She is responsible for all internal and external communications for the organization and its CSR initiatives including the Marico Innovation Foundation and Ascent Foundation. Heena’s responsibilities include positioning and managing the Marico Corporate brand, all External Communication including Corporate & Brand PR for all Marico brands and CSR, Internal and Digital communication. Heena is currently also leading the Global Centre of excellence for PR for Marico worldwide.

Prior to Marico, Heena headed PR and Analyst Relations for erstwhile Patni Computers’ global markets namely; APAC, EMEA and the US. A post graduate from XIC (Xavier Institute of Communications), Heena believes in living life to its fullest every day.

Arijit De is senior vice president and head of India Marketing and Corporate Affairs for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. As part of BofAML's country management team, he is responsible for directing the firm’s external and internal communications, CSR and marketing agenda in India.

Prior to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Arijit worked in Standard Chartered where he was head of corporate communications for South Asia. His stint at Standard Chartered included two years in London as head of group media relations. During that period, apart from acting as the chief group spokesperson and managing the Group CEO's media, he led communications for over a dozen acquisitions and divestitures, and a $3bn rights issue during the height of the 2008-09 global financial crisis. He was the project leader for the listing of Standard Chartered in India, the only foreign company to do so.

Before moving to communications in 2004, Arijit was a financial journalist for nine years at some of India’s leading publications including being the Mumbai bureau chief for the Business Standard newspaper. He has also worked at Business Today and Financial Express.

Neeraj Jha, a student of communication has the vision to unravel social media and how it can be used for Digital PR/communication and how to digital with conventional media for better brand building. Objectively and scientifically measuring impact of PR/communication is another subject matter is a great interest to him. In his opinion PR/communication is more than absence of measurability, and the resultant subjectivity that surrounds it. He believes that though PR/communication has come a long way, both as a domain of expertise and career, the best is yet to come.

Currently, Neeraj Jha heads the Corporate Communication function at HDFC Bank Ltd. In last 8 years, his role has grown in size and importance, and so has his team in skill and expertise. He moved from Reliance Communications, which incidentally was his first job on the "other side of journalism".

In his 10-year stint as a journalist, he has worked with top editors and some leading media houses/publications such as The Times of India, The Asian Age, The FINANCIAL Express, and CRISIL among others.

Neeraj Jha is a 1st class Graduate in Economics and a PG Diploma in Journalism

Mr Rajat Mukarji is the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of IDEA Cellular Limited and has been with the Company since its inception in late 1995. He joined the erstwhile Birla AT&T and was responsible for setting up the Sales and Marketing function in the organisation, and recruiting and training the team. Since then he has headed various functions in Marketing, Business Development, and Customer Operations, before taking charge of Corporate Affairs in the year 2003.

With a career of over 30 years in Sales and Marketing in Textiles and Electronics, he is a seasoned professional who has witnessed the hurly burly of the telecom regulatory environment in India, and is happy to have been part of the continued growth in the sector. As head of Corporate Affairs for Idea Cellular, he is based in Delhi, and is the company spokesperson. He is responsible for the management of the company’s relationships with external stakeholders such the Government Departments, Regulator, Media, other industry bodies etc.

Mr Mukarji has been associated with various industry associations. He is a member of the Telecom Committee of CII, and Chairman of the Business Development Committee of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

Mr Mukarji is an honours graduate from St. Stephens’ College, Delhi with a post graduate Diploma in International Marketing.

Mr. Nazeeb Arif is the Vice President and Chief of Corporate Communications of ITC Limited, one of India’s leading multi-business corporations. As the spokesperson for ITC, Mr Arif interacts, on behalf of the Company, with its varied stakeholders including Media, Government, International Bodies, Chambers of Commerce etc.

Mr Arif’s professional experience spans over 28 years. Prior to joining ITC in 2006, he led the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) as its Secretary General and CEO.

Mr. Arif started his career in the Chambers of Commerce at the apex national Chamber, FICCI in New Delhi. During his career, he played an active role in policy advocacy in areas such as Economic Reforms, Regional Economic Co-operation, Foreign Investment, Infrastructure Development, Information Technology and so on. He has also been involved in several bilateral business negotiations with US, UK, EU, China, Japan, Singapore, Mauritius etc. He has also advised Government agencies in several State Governments for investment promotion.

Mr. Arif was invited by the United States Government to participate in the International Visitors Program,by the European Commission for the European Union Visitors Program and is also an alumni of the International Institute for Leadership in Germany. He was also an advisor to the Asian Development Bank in the South Asian Regional Project (SASEC).

Veena Gidwani, a Management graduate with over 30 years in Marketing, Advertising & PR is an independent Strategic PR Consultant, a teacher at post-graduate communication Institutes and a corporate trainer . She is an independent director on the board of Agrotech Foods Ltd.

Veena retired as CEO of Madison Public Relations, the specialist Reputation Management unit of Madison World in 2012 after successful 12 year tenure.She grew the business through innovative PR campaigns for clients like P&G, Levi’s, Britannia, Cafe Coffee Day, Godrej Group, Parle Agro, Fastrack etc. & built a team of young, qualified & motivated professionals.

Prior to Madison, she was the President & CEO of Prima Communications the image management agency of Pressman Advertising. Earlier she was the Director and CEO of Design Shop India Ltd, the Creative agency of Tata Donnelly which was set up at her suggestion to diversify into creative services.

Veena is presently Vice-President, ISB, Alumni Connect, Mumbai Chapter & has served on several industry bodies in varied capacities including as President of PRCAI and PRSI Mumbai Chapter and on various committees of the Advertising Club.

Ketan Kulkarni is VP & Head – Marketing, Corporate Communications & Sustainability at Blue Dart Express Ltd, South Asia's premier express air and integrated transportation distribution and logistics company and part of Deutsche Post DHL group. At Blue Dart, Ketan is responsible for product innovations, customer activation and loyalty, MARKET research, strategic intelligence, public relations, corporate communications and sustainability.

A thoroughbred marketing professional with expertise in Sales Management and Advertising, Ketan has tremendous insights into the national, regional and global market trends and evolving scenarios in the future of marketing, planning and strategy, managing customers and targets. Brand architecture, market research, retail management, buyer behaviour, environment scanning & strategy development are also his areas of core competence.

An experienced sales professional, prior to Blue Dart, he has successfully led goal oriented national sales teams. He has been involved in running sales coaching & training, incentive programs, portfolio management, TRADE channels & distribution set-up and strategizing & operating Key Account Management structures.

Ketan is in the advisory council of the CMO Asia Council and has received numerous awards across forums in the areas of MARKETING, Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility. He holds the jury position at the BSE – Corporate Responsibility Awards, the SIFE Panel and the Asia HR Congress.

Vaishali is Vice President - Marketing and Communications at Sony MAX & MAX2. Prior to her appointment in April 2013, she was Vice President, Marketing of Times Now. Her previous assignments were with BBC Global News and Walt Disney Television as head of marketing.

With 20 years of professional experience that ranges from launching brands and television channels to category creation, over the years Vaishali has developed keen consumer insights across a diverse set of audiences and has helped build brands across new media. Having begun her career in advertising she has undertaken path-breaking work in building brands in new media and adapting global strategies to bolster local brands.

From successfully setting up the brand equity base in India for Walt Disney to identifying a new approach in Marcomms strategy for the BBC offering in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Vaishali has always looked for dynamic ways for brands to make that consumer connect and identified potential areas for audience growth in new and challenging environments. She was amongst the two people nominated as “Individual of the Year” at the BBC Global Reith awards 2009 in London for achieving audience growths across the region.

A communication professional with 20 years of experience, Deepa started her career as a stringer with The Economic Times in Kolkata while she doing her Masters in English from Jadavpur University.

Her industry experience as an in house communication person includes hospitality, retail, real estate, aviation, telecom and heath care. She has also supported clients with business interests in infrastructure, consumer electronics and tourism. Currently the Head for Communications for India Sub Continent for GSK Consumer Healthcare, her last job was leading the India South Asia communication portfolio for India’s leading telecom operator, Airtel.

In the course of her career, she has worked on internal and external communication, online reputation management, brand communication, financial communication, and corporate reputation building campaigns.

A post graduate in English, she loves to write, read, travel and try her hand at various cuisine. She is married with a son.

Her motto in life is Work Hard - Party Harder.

Siddhartha is currently serving TAM Media Research as the Sr. Vice President, Eikona - a division of TAM Media Research for Earned Media Planning, Audit and Advisory.

Siddhartha brings with him over 15 years of experience in the area of Corporate and Marketing Communications. He spent five years in Delhi before moving to his current base city - Mumbai. Before joining TAM Media Research in 2004, he has worked in various National and Multinational Communications Consultancies including like Lintas, JWT and Burson-Marsteller Roger Pereira. This journey has provided him with the opportunity to learn the Corporate and Marketing communications dynamics across Paid, Earned and Owned media.

Siddhartha is a strong believer of the impact of Earned Media – Public Relations being a key form. As the Business Head of Eikona, he has been working closely with the Industry to arrive at a standard PR Measurement Tool. Towards this, he had presented a paper proposing a Standard PR Measurement Tool blue print to the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) in 2007.

During the last few years, Siddhartha has made a deep dive into the Subject of Corporate Reputation Management. More importantly, how an organization or any entity for that matter, can manage its Corporate and Product Reputation with the judicious fusion of Ethical Organizational Touch points and Communications via paid, earned and owned media.

Pradeep is Director Corporate Communications for PepsiCo India Region and heads both the external and internal communications agenda. Pradeep joined PepsiCo India in 2010 and is responsible for developing an effective communications strategy that engages and influences stakeholders, and protects and enhances the reputation, culture and brands of PepsiCo. He is also responsible for building the infrastructure, processes and the capability within the function.

Before joining PepsiCo he was the Branch Head and GM for Delhi office of Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s largest Public Relations firm. He played a key role in setting up communication outreach for a number of blue chip corporates.

Prior to this, he was working with Genesis Burson-Marsteller as Partner Associate.

Pradeep has done his Masters in Science and also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Birla Institute of Management Technology, New Delhi. Prior to that he has completed his BSc from Hansraj Collge, Delhi University.

Deepa Vaidyanathan joined Procter & Gamble in India in 2008 after a 5 year stint in Linopinion – the LOWE PR Division where she led the Lifestyle & Entertainment Practice. She joined P&G Communications leading Brand PR for P&G India’s Beauty business and has subsequently worked across brand & corporate communications in India. She graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and completed her Diploma in PR from Xavier’s Institute of Communications.

In her role as Head – Communications & CSR, P&G India, Deepa leads Company Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility, Brand Communications & Consumer Relations. During her career at P&G, Deepa has leveraged new innovations in CSR, Communications via Movements, Credentialing & Social media. Deepa has also played a leadership role in building P&G’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives like ‘P&G Shiksha’ which has built and supported over 330 schools and will impact the lives of over 600,000 children.

As Corporate Director – Public Relations of The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts, Rashmi Vasisht brings to her role fifteen years of strategic experience in public and private sectors. She has been engaged in corporate communications, media relations, social media marketing, social responsibility, journalism and public affairs.

Since joining The Leela in June 2011, she established a new Corporate Public Relations vertical for the brand and is responsible for overseeing all aspects from thought leadership and media relations to special events and social media marketing.

Prior to joining The Leela, Ms. Vasisht was the Deputy Press Secretary to the Attorney General and Governor-elect of New York State, where she specialised in creating highly integrated campaigns across multiple platforms. She also launched award-winning social responsibility campaigns on a wide array of issues ranging from the Public’s Right to Know to Prescription Drug Pricing and Health Care, and led public policy initiatives to much media acclaim and subsequently passage of new laws.

A former producer and on-air talent at WNYC-TV, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and a journalist for Village Voice, the largest weekly in the United States, she has been nominated as one of the most influential South Asians under 40 in the US by the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA).

Among other accolades, she is the recipient of the SeeThroughNY Award for Promoting Transparency in Government by Empire Center for NYS Policy; Innovative Solution Award by US Government Technology Conference.

Vinod Dua has been the face of Indian television since 1974 and has been associated with Indian television’s transition from a government controlled, black and white, single-channel entity to the present-day multi-channel transnational satellite T.V.industry. A veteran of thousands of hours of telecasting, he is an anchor, political commentator, election analyst, producer and director.

Vinod Dua first appeared on television in 1974 in Yuva Manch, a Hindi youth program aired on Doordarshan. In 1975, he anchored Yuv Jan for the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (S.I.T.E) telecast for the youth of Raipur, Muzaffarpur and Jaipur. In the same year he also began anchoring Jawan Tarang, a youth program of newly commissioned Amritsar T.V. In 1981, he started anchoring the Sunday morning family magazine Aap Ke Liye and continued to do so. In 1984 he co-anchored the election analysis programs on Doordarshan with the noted psephologist Dr. Prannoy Roy. Since then he has been a regular presence on election analysis programs for different television channels.

In 1985, Vinod Dua anchored Janvani (translation: People's voice). In 1987, he joined TV TODAY, a venture of the India Today Group, as its chief producer.

Vinod Dua is presently associated with IBN7 for daily news and analysis, election and budget analysis and was awarded the Padma Shri for Journalism in 2008.

Rohit is an alum of Harvard Business School and St Stephen’s College. He is a British Chevening scholar and has undertaken short professional programmes at University of Westminster, The Times Centre for Media Studies, and The European Journalism Centre, Maastricht. Rohit has served on the board of the News Broadcasters Association, 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 a start up of a leading media conglomerate.

Rohit works at the intersect of media, regulation and law on RIL.