Deeptie Sethi

Deeptie Sethi is the head of Communications at Ford India. She reports directly to Joginder Singh, president and managing director, Ford India. Deeptie is responsible for handling entire gamut of Communications for Ford in India, including both internal and external communications.

Prior to joining Ford India, she managed public relations for British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in India and was responsible for promoting the world’s leading news channel and launched its India strip of programming.

At Ford India she has been instrumental in building a positive image of the Blue Oval in India and has launched several successful campaigns for Ford’s products including the Endeavour, Fiesta and Classic. She was responsible for the launch of Figo, Ford’s first small car in India which has been recognized as the most awarded car ever in 2011. Deeptie additionally manages Ford’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in the country. Her media understanding, strategic media relations and deep knowledge of traditional and social platforms have ensured that the Company’s communication plans support Ford’s business objectives in India.

Sethi has more than 16 years of experience in communications and public relations. She has done her Master’s in Business Administration from New Delhi. An avid reader, her hobbies include dramatics, travel and music. Deeptie is married and is mother of two children.

Prateek Chatterjee

Prateek is currently working as Vice President, Corporate Communications & Marketing at Asia’s largest IT Training Company, NIIT Limited. He is responsible for the communications strategy and brand awareness for NIIT through focused media initiatives, and drives stakeholder communication spanning investors, industry-connect forums and employees. He is also actively involved in positioning the recently-launched NIIT University as a new model in higher education.

In his role at NIIT, Prateek is also responsible for leveraging Chess Grand Master and Brand Ambassador Viswanathan Anand for various initiatives rolled out by the company across geographies. In recognition of leveraging Brand Ambassador engagement towards effective Corporate Communications, Prateek has received the Corporate Communications award at IPRCCA- 2011 by the Exchange4Media group.

Prateek has leveraged social media to garner a holistic mindshare for NIIT amongst its younger target audience. He has successfully completed 'NIIT Global Leadership Program (NGLP)' - an accelerated one-year focused program designed by NIIT to develop the next line of leadership for the organisation.

A seasoned communications professional with around 17 years of experience, Prateek has been associated with companies spanning broad range of industries including real estate, hospitality and IT education. During his earlier stint at real estate major Ansal Properties and Infrastructure, he was deeply involved in transforming the 40-year old brand identity of the organisation into a vibrant and younger avataar – `Ansal API’.

Prateek graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa, and followed it up with an MBA in Marketing. An ardent networker and a new media enthusiast, he can be found Tweeting in his spare time and can be reached on his Twitter ID --- @prateekchat.

karthik Srinivasan

Karthik Srinivasan is a seasoned communications professional with over 15 years’ experience across client and agency environments. In the agency side, he has led PR, digital and social media mandates for brands like Intel, Lenovo, ARM, Cisco, Cricinfo, General Motors, BlackBerry, LinkedIn and Infosys, among others.
An avid blogger, Karthik has two music related blogs that he has been managing for over a decade, both of which are very popular among Indian music aficionados. Karthik’s blog on social media and PR – http://www.beastoftraal/ – is one of the leading blogs in India on the intersection of PR, marketing and all things social + digital.
An active Twitter user, Karthik is regularly sought for digital and social media events, and by mainstream media, for thought-leadership pieces on social media references in brand-led and topical events.

Radhika Shapoorjee

Radhika Shapoorjee is recently promoted as President-South Asia of IPAN Hill+Knowlton Strategies, India. She has been President for five years. She was instrumental in driving the merger with Hill+Knowlton Strategies in 2009. She drives a result oriented culture, true collaboration and teamwork across the network of 5 offices- Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai & Kolkata. She has provided strategic counsel and messaging for the winning election campaign in 2009, to building thought leadership for Max Life Insurance by driving partnerships with India’s premier think tank NCAER,  eminent economists and regulators, to shifting the strategic direction for Sony Entertainment through a repositioning exercise, to creating one of the most influential advocacy program for shifting Public opinion for Vodafone in India are some examples of good work. She has been a trusted advisor to the top leadership of many clients on crisis, messaging, positioning, public affairs and managing issues.
Radhika has over two decades in the marketing and communications industry that includes direct marketing, sales, film-making, advertising and public relations She joined IPAN H+K as the Vice President in 2007,  prior to that Radhika was Chief Innovation & Quality Officer at Burson-Marsteller, where she worked for over seven years. Her early career included ten years in advertising at FCB-Ulka where she led strategic planning and client servicing for the creation of multimedia campaigns for large national and international brands.
Radhika is a fellow at the India Leadership Initiative (ILI) Fellowship program of the Aspen Institute. She is on the advisory committee of India@75, a key initiative of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) She was the jury member for the prestigious Spikes Asia Award held in Singapore in 2011. She also writes on a regular basis for Marketing Whitebook brought out by Businessworld. She has been on several panel discussions on business channels.
She is a graduate in History (Honours) from St. Stephen's College. She has played national level basketball, and is an avid swimmer. Radhika is married to Mehernosh with two lovely children Taera and Zahaan.

Ashwani Singla

Ashwani Singla is the MD & Chief Executive of Penn Schoen Berland (www.psbresearch.in), Asia. In his two decade of experience in the communication & service industry, Ashwani has donned the role of a trusted advisor and strategist for the C Suite of top MNCs, Indian enterprises and emerging Indian MNCs across a wide range of sectors. He has been voted as one of the most well respected professionals in India by the Holmes Report in its inaugural Asia ‘Agency Score Card’, Ashwani has also featured in the Campaign India Magazine’s ‘A list’ and recognized among the top professionals in Agency FAQ’s listings. Prior to his current role, Ashwani was the Chief Executive of Genesis BM and Member of the Asia Pacific Board of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide. Under his tutelage of close to a decade and a half, Genesis PR grew from infancy to becoming India’s most trusted public relations & public affairs. A believer in the power of combining the understanding of human behavior with the creativity of communication, Ashwani has led some of the best cutting edge practices in the industry that led Genesis became the first Indian public relations consulting firm to receive the global Consultancy Management Standards (CMS) certification and recognized as the India Consultancy of the Year by the Holmes Report in its inaugural Agency Report Card for Asia. Ashwani has been an India board member of the International Association of Business Communicators (www.iabc.com) and has played an active role in the founding of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (www.prcai.org) and the International Communications Consultancy Organization (www.iccopr.com). He is also an advisory board member on several companies in early stages of their corporate life, mentoring them to build their marketing and branding capabilities. Passionate about sharing his experiences, he often dons the professorial hat in teaching courses and conducts training programmes across the country. He has been invited to speak at several prestigious campuses and associations across the globe including the US, Europe and Asia Pacific. He was also been a jury member for the Asia Pacific region for the Gold Quill Awards. Ashwani is an honours graduate in Economics and holds a postgraduate qualification in International Business & a Diploma in Hotel Management and attending several executive education programmes run by the Harvard Business School and the Indian School of Business.

Anne Costello

Anne is Text 100’s Regional Director for APAC and a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. She is located in Sydney and is responsible for the success and growth of Text 100’s client relationships, consultancy and teams in the region.

Anne has 20 years’ client-side and agency communications experience in Asia, Australia and Europe with both B2B and B2C clients. She has led campaigns in all communications disciplines and specialises in thought leadership programmes, employee communications and crisis management. Her client experience includes: IBM, Nokia, Standard Chartered Bank, Cisco, Coca-Cola and Xbox.

Prior to her current role, Anne was responsible for Text 100’s operations for South Asia, Director of ASEAN, and she has been MD of Text 100 Hong Kong, practice lead for Text 100 Australia’s influencer team and Managing Consultant of August.One Communications Hong Kong.

She has also held European and global communications roles with De La Rue card systems (now part of Oberthur) and financial software vendor SunSystems.

More information can be found at: Google profiles or Linkedin else follow anne on Twitter @acostie

Dhrubajyoti Gayan

Dhrubajyoti Gayan is the Managing Director of Candour Communications, a full service Public Relations and Public Affairs agency headquartered out of Delhi with offices across the country. Just prior to starting Candour, Gayan used to head up the India operations of Brodeur Partners, a global PR agency network within the Omnicom Group. In a career spanning over 15 years, Gayan has worked in some of the largest agencies in the country handling some of the foremost multinationals, Indian business houses and industry associations.

Sonya Madeira Stamp

Sonya Madeira Stamp has close to 18 years of experience working in India and Singapore with clients across industry sectors. She set up Rice Communications in January 2009 to add value to her clients  . Under her guidance, Rice Communications was awarded the PR Consultancy of the Year 2012 by the Institute of PR Singapore.

At Rice, Sonya oversees the growth of the business and manages key accounts for the company. Her focus includes managing client delivery and satisfaction, and building a solid reputation for Rice in the region. She regularly speaks at industry events, as well as academic institutes.

Her expertise spans business-to-business and business-to-consumer communications, internal and channel outreach as well as counsel to C-level executives. She is personally keen on working with start-ups as well as mobile technology firms. In this area, she is Chief Evangelist at Mobile Monday Singapore and was a Board Member of the Mobile Marketing Association Asia Pacific.

Before Sonya set up Rice, she led the Singapore office of local firm EASTWEST PR for five years, growing her team from one person to an 18-consultant office. Between 2002 and 2004, Sonya worked at multinational firms Hill & Knowlton and Weber Shandwick in Singapore on regional accounts for global leaders. Sonya also spent time building intranets for companies at Friday Corporation in India.

In 1997, Sonya joined the start-up team at Text 100 India. She last held the position of Joint Deputy Managing Director of the Delhi office. Sonya started her PR career at Genesis , in 1995.

Kunal Kishore

Kunal Kishore started his professional journey about a decade ago with a Delhi based PR agency e-Lexicon Communications. Very early in his career, he decided to take the entrepreneurial route with an aim to create an organisation which understood the changing paradigms of communication.  He formed Value 360 Communications with the support of two co-founders Gaurav Patra and Manisha Chaudhry. During his brief stint of over a decade in the PR industry, Kunal got an opportunity to work on many global brands like BMW, Walt Disney, Johnson & Johnson, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Budweiser, Cathay Pacific Airways, L’Oreal Paris, Maybelline New York among many others. 

His agency, Value 360 Communications has played a critical role in strategizing and executing PR campaigns for many startup businesses like Snapdeal.com, Cocoberry, Olx.in, Fashionandyou.com, among many others. Today, Kunal represents more than 70 brands under his PR firm with 6 operational offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Lucknow. Currently, Kunal is heading the new business acquisition team and is intrinsically involved in the expansion strategy and growth plans of the company.

Thennavan Subbiah

Thennavan heads the Digital Marketing Solutions at Adobe India. In his role, he closely works with marketers to accelerate the time to market of their online initiatives using Adobe Marketing Cloud. Thennavan had worked in Product Marketing and Management roles in Oracle and Annuncio Software where he had closely worked with B2C and B2B customers to develop solutions for executing their online marketing strategies.

Thennavan has 20+ years of experience in Sales, Marketing, and Development in US, APAC and India. He has an MBA in Marketing and Enterprenuership from Santa Clara University.

Dilip Cherian

Dilip Cherian is one of India’s foremost public affairs consultant and political advisors. Widely regarded as India’s ‘Image Guru’, he started Perfect Relations in the early Nineties, and its now South Asia’s largest communications consultancy with 14 offices and 550 professionals.

 Whether it is launching a new product, managing a political campaign or coping with a crisis, it is usually Cherian who is called in by those who strategic want communications as a tool to win hearts, minds or markets.
He has been Editor of India’s biggest business magazine Business India and at the Observer Newspaper. His weekly columns appear in Asian Age, Indian Express, Punjab Kesari, Chauthi Duniya, Orrisa Post and Bureaucracy Today.
Dilip is an Independent Director on several Media Boards which include the Radio FM channel ‘Radio One’ and on India’s largest Daily Newspaper – ‘Jagran’.

He is a member of the Board of Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) and has been on the Governing Council of the National Institute of Design (NID) and the Censor Board.
This year he has agreed to be on the jury for the SABRE Awards in P.R. for ‘Holmes Report’ and is currently on the P.R. Jury at the Cannes Lions festival.
The net is not quite his alter ego but its favoured stomping grounds include him @ DILIPtheCHERIAN on Twitter and at linkedin.com/in/dilipcherian

Varsha Chainani

Varsha, a Marketing and Communications specialist with over 23 years, has rich and insightful experience in building reputation and helping companies work through change and achieve growth, in both National & Global environment.  She has worked with industry-leading global organisations like IBM, Indian Hotels Company Ltd and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.

Varsha is the Director, Public Affairs at Abbott, India’s largest pharmaceutical company and a leading healthcare company. She responsible for strategic PR, reputation management and citizenship programs for Abbott in India, with the objective of enhancing Abbott’s reputation and creating a positive environment for Abbott to do business. 

Prior to joining Abbott, Varsha was with IBM India for over 11years and held various positions including Vice President, Communications, Business Partner Organisation across Growth Markets (Asia Pacific, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa);  Head of Marketing for IBM’s products and services in India and Country Manager, Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility Programs. She was instrumental in strengthening the communications function and building IBM India’s brand image as a services and solutions company.

Varsha is a MBA (Marketing), holds a Commerce degree (B.Com) from Bombay University and a post graduate diploma in Public Relations. She and her husband, Gautam have 17 year old daughter, Esha.

Aseem Sood

Aseem Sood is a technology enthusiast. He loves to evaluate and apply technology solutions to solve business problems. He believes that companies offering news analysis services can help PR professionals demostrate the importance/ attention that communication, as a function, deserves in the corporate bardroom.

Aseem is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Impact Research & Measurement Pvt. Ltd. He is also a Director at The International Association of Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, UK. He also plays the role of Vice President in the Executive Committee of International Association - FIBEP.

Prior to Impact, Aseem worked with McKinsey & Co. as an analyst. At McKinsey he worked with clients in Europe, US and China, helping them improve their operations' effectivesness in the domain of purchasing and supply management. He also worked in McKinsey & Co.'s Business Technolgy Office (BTO) practice, a special initiative of McKinsey & Co. that offers technolgy consulting services.

Aseem holds a Post Graduate Degree in Business Administration from International Management Institute, India and a Bachelors Degree in Business Studies from University of Delhi, India.

Aseem spends his free time playing with new electronic gadgets/ softwares; helping friends choose the right gadgets; listening to music; or connecting with old friends.

Nandita Lakshmanan

Ashok Lalla

Ashok Lalla

Arti Luniya

Arti Luniya

Atul Ahluwalia

Atul Ahluwalia is the President of Corporate Voice | Weber Shandwick, India’s premier and the most awarded public relations firm. He has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry. 

With an astute focus on path breaking campaigns, Atul has catalyzed his firm’s journey of winning global awards such as the APAC SABRE, IPRA, PR Week, IPRCCA, Stevie's, UN Grand Prize for PR Excellence, among others. 

Atul is a founder-member of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India and the Chairman of its Advisory and Constitutional Committee. He was the Chair of the Jury at the Stevie’s Awards 2011.

Paresh Chaudhry

Paresh began his career as a Marketing professional and has been extensively involved in Brand building, Brand Management, Sales management and Corporate Reputation Management. Across industries. With over 25 years of experience, he has worked in a number of blue chipped companies including Reliance Industries Limited, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Smith Kline Beecham, Wockhardt and Raymonds. His varied experience in several industries clearly reflects that his Corporate Communication skills cut across all products and services influencing Brand and Corporate PR. Paresh is an MBA with specialization in Marketing and has completed a Public Affairs certification course from the Hong Kong University.

Paresh is the founder President of Indian Forum of Corporate Communicators (IFCC), a large group of practicing Corporate Communications professionals from leading corporates across the country. He is an active member of Round Table India, a social, non-political, cultural International organization. He has held several National positions in the organization including being the Chairman of Round Table Bangalore and North India.

An acclaimed speaker, he has been guest faculty to the top management institutes, mass media & brand educational colleges. He has also advised a few companies to develop their message house for sharp brand positioning. A voracious reader, Paresh is a keen sportsman with cricket being his favorite. He has captained University Cricket teams and Bombay Cricket Associations.

Prema Sagar

Genesis Public Relations, which Prema established in November of 1992, mirrors the journey of India's most trusted public relations and public affairs firm. In 2008, it was ranked as 'India Consultancy of the Year' by The Holmes Report,             acknowledging Prema’s success in nurturing reputation whilst managing complex issues in a business environment rife with inherent contradictions.

Prema has played a leadership role in the industry demonstrated in her role as the Founding President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India , Council Member for India of the International Public Relations Association and member of the global Board of Management of the International Communication Consultancies Organization.

In recognition of her contribution to global public relations, Prema was invited as the only Indian on the global jury for the first ever PR Lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009. She was earlier in Oct 2005 inducted into the 'ICCO Hall of Fame', the first Asian to receive this rare honour, joining a select group of global personalities including Daniel Edelman, Founder and Chairman of Edelman, John D. Graham, Chairman & CEO, Fleishman-Hillard and Harold Burson, founding Chairman, Burson-Marsteller.

As a successful entrepreneur, she mentors future leaders as a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs , the world's largest not-for-profit organisation promoting entrepreneurship.

Inspired by Mother Teresa, Prema established the Genesis Foundation, a trust created to provide access to world class medical care for abandoned and underprivileged children facing life-threatening ailments. The work at the Foundation is Prema's life mission.

Prema is married to a lawyer. Her son is a professor and daughter is learning the ropes of PR.

Sharif Rangnekar

Sharif has over 20 years of experience in the fields of journalism, communication and publishing, having worked with organizations such as Penguin Books India, The Economic Times and The Pioneer. During his career he has held prestigious positions and in fact was the sole Indian representative of the Indian Government at WIPO in 1997.In the past few years he was elected thrice to the board of global network of independent PR and marketing consultancies, PROI, and is currently in his second term as President of PRCAI - the association of Indian PR consultancies. During the past four years he has become an active teacher and speaker at different forums. He was a special invitee to the 10 year celebrations of PR in South Korea and has held training workshops for various groups including the Information Officers of the Malaysian Government. As a writer he continues to contribute to various publications such as the Business Standard, Hindustan Times, Times of India (Crest), Hindu Business Line, www.indiabiznews.com and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He was also the editor of the bestselling book - Realising Brand India.

Shreya Singh

Shreyasi Singh is the Managing Editor for Inc. India, the Indian edition of the iconic American magazine Inc. In the nearly three years since Inc. India launched, it has built a reputation for its refreshing, insightful treatment of entrepreneurship. Shreyasi began her career with Asian News International, India's oldest television news agency, and a partner to Reuters International. AT ANI, where she spent several years, she was a Press Information Bureau-accredited correspondent, a select privilege. She has worked for launched Headlines Today, and also was the associate producer for the popular current affairs programme HardTalk India. In her print journalist avatar, Shreyasi has been widely published in several international publications like The Women’s International Perspective, The Diplomat, Asia Times Online. She is a graduate of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi.

Rajiv Bakshi

As Vice President of Marketing for the South Asia region, Rajiv Bakshi is responsible for the brand management for the entire Discovery portfolio of eight networks– Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Kids, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, Discovery HD World and Discovery Tamil.

Rajiv is charged with developing and executing the networks’ consumer marketing campaigns, on-air strategies and trade marketing. In addition, he leads the PR, Corporate Communications and Business Operations for the region.  He is based in New Delhi and reports to Rahul Johri, senior vice president and general manager, South Asia.

A management graduate in marketing, Rajiv joined Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific (DNAP), India in 2004.  He was part of the TLC’s launch team (formerly Discovery Travel & Living), India’s first international lifestyle channel. During his tenure, Discovery Channel gained undisputed leadership and became India’s leading non-fiction channel and Animal Planet becoming a household favourite. As part of the senior management, Rajiv has contributed to the launch of Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, Discovery HD World, Discovery Tamil and the game changing channel in the kids genre - Discovery Kids. He has partnered in the company’s localisation drive for all channels.

Rajiv has conceptualised and executed multiple branding initiatives resulting in all the channels’ nationwide appeal and viewership. Some of his key campaigns include TLC’s Living with a Superstar: Shah Rukh Khan, Oh My Gold! With Lisa Ray and What Not To Wear- India, Where Tigers Rule and Yeh Mera India anthem for Animal Planet and many more.

Rajiv holds over 13 years of experience in marketing and communications across industries.

Shreya Singh

Sandeep Bamzai is a well known journalist and author who has worked in three different metropolitan cities – Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi – in the biggest media houses in the country in senior positions. From the Statesman in Kolkata which he joined even while he was studying in college to the long years spent in Indian Express, Illustrated Weekly, Times of India Group, Business India in Mumbai to the Hindustan Times and TV Today group in Delhi, Bamzai’s journey has been long and fruitful. A passionate cricket junkie, Bamzai has authored two celebrated books on the societal impact of cricket in India and one that he chose to write during a sabbatical after a long stint with Hindustan Times in Delhi. As an ode to his place of birth, he wrote what turned out to be the most definitive history of the accession of Kashmir to the Union of India. A keen watcher of the political economy, Bamzai has written several pathbreaking stories on the space where business and politics converge. One of his specialities of course is telecom, a sector which he has tracked with great gusto over the years, knowing the players, the policy makers and the sector.

Pradeep Wadhwa

Pradeep is Director Corporate Communications for PepsiCo India Region and heads both the external and internal communications agenda as well as Consumer Relations. 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. In this role, he was instrumental in running the Delhi branch by leading a team of communication experts. He also 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 and was involved in managing his SBU as an independent profit center.

Pradeep started his career with Berger Paints Ltd as a Management Trainee and then moved as an Assistant Product Manager in marketing department. Post that he joined Perfect Relations as Associate Image Manager and was involved in client servicing. In his last stint at Perfect Relations as Senior Manager he was responsible to create best in class services in Image Management Advisory.

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.

Rathindra Basu

In July 2002, Rathindra Basu joined ESPN STAR Sports India and is currently heading the Corporate Development, Corporate Communications and Events Management function for South Asia covering India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives. In addition to syndication sales and affiliate distribution in countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives, Rathindra is also involved in working closely with the Ministry of I&B as well as Prasar Bharti as part of his corporate affairs responsibility.

Rathindra comes to ESPN STAR Sports with a strong marketing background. Prior to this assignment, Rathindra has worked in senior management positions with leading companies like Maruti Suzuki, Mindzones.com and Bharti Airtel Limited. He is also an avid quizzer and quizmaster and has conducted over 150 quizzes nationally for clients like National Geographic, History Channel, Silchar Municipal Council and schools and colleges in Delhi and Kolkata.

Rathindra holds a Post Graduate degree in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata and a Bachelor in Electrical Technology degree from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Besides being an avid Manchester United fan, he enjoys reading and playing soccer and basketball.

Deepak Jolly

Deepak Jolly is Vice President Coca-Cola India and South West Asia. In his current assignment he headsPublic Affairs & Communications function for the India and Southwest Asia Business which includes India,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives. Deepak specializes in the field of Corporate Communications, Public Policy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Consumer Response and CorporateSecurity. He has been working with Coca-Cola since year 2005.

A Public Affairs professional with 29 years’ experience, Deepak has worked in service and manufacturing across diverse industries such as hospitality, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and Telecom.In the last fourteen years, Deepak has also served on numerous Managing Committees of FMCG companies such as Pepsi Foods Limited, Godrey Philips India and Bharti Airtel.

Since the last eight years, Deepak is a part of the Leadership Council at Coca-Cola in India. His continuous engagement with opinion makers, regulatory bodies, media, and industry bodies has led to successful mitigation of crisis which was created by allegations of false pesticide contamination in the product.

He has also spear-headed number of water conservation and sanitation initiatives like Support My School Campaign. He is also a member of various national committees and several industry bodies. He is currently a memberof Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) committee on Rural Development as well as committee on Multi-Nationals.

He is a founding member of the Indian Beverages Association and has actively addressed various issues related to beverage industry at different forums. Deepak was awarded the best Communicator of the year award instituted by PRCI (Public Relation Council of India) for the year 2007 and most recently the received accolades for the Support My School campaign as the Best Corporate Social Responsibility Practice by the Blue Dart Global CSR
Awards and the Gold Standard Award for Public Private Partnership, Singapore. He is also the winner of Best MarCom Professional of the year in 2010 by Indira Group of Institutes and PRCI Hall of Fame for outstanding contribution to profession of PR.

Irfan Khan

Began his career as a journalist in 1957 as a newspaper reporter.Later held positions such as Chief Reporter, Senior Correspondent,Assistant Editor and Resident Editor. Worked for Press Trust ofIndia (PTI), Hindustan Times, New Delhi; Link & Patriot, New Delhi, Current Weekly, Bombay; South Wales Echo, Cardiff (U.K.) Sunday Times, London, Indian Express, New Delhi. In 1975 he moved to business communications. Worked for Hindustan Lever Ltd., a subsidiary of Unilever PLC, as Communications Manager, General Manager, Corporate Communications and finally as Vice President, Corporate Communications. Retired from Unilever in 2000. The same year, i.e. 2000, Coca Cola India, invited him to join their Management Committee, as Vice President, Corporate Affairs, in Gurgaon. I worked in that position till the middle of 2003 when my contract expired. Currently he works as part-time Communications Consultant with several firms and also the Chairman of Sampark, a Communications and Public Relations firm, in Mumbai.

Narayanan Madhavan

Narayanan Madhavan, senior journalist, columnist and editor, has more than 25 years of experience in journalism in Indian and international news organisations. He is currently a senior editor at Hindustan Times. He spent 12 of these years in Reuters, the international news agency, where he covered a range of issues from the Kargil war and general elections to being the Chief Technology Correspondent and Bangalore bureau head. He earlier worked for The Economic Times and later at Business Standard. He was also Senior Editor for a brief period in the Indian Express group
Though focused mainly on business and economic journalism with a strong exposure to information technology and the Internet, he has also covered or written on other issues including politics, diplomacy, cinema, culture, cricket and social issues.
He has covered India's economic reform and the information technology boom from the frontlines in Delhi and Bangalore during their crucial years and also covered leading events such as the nuclear tests and India-Pakistan conflict.
He likes to study and write on popular culture, and loves cinema and music in various forms. In addition to English, speaks Hindi, Tamil. Occasional poet who has written what he believes to be India's first current affairs column in verse.

Senjam Raj Sekhar

Named among the 100 most influential communicators in the world by the Holmes Report, Senjam Raj Sekhar oversees global communications and branding for Vedanta, a global natural resources company with operations in India, Australia, Ireland, Zambia, Liberia, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Namibia. Vedanta Group companies include Vedanta Resources plc, Sterlite, Sesa Goa, Hindustan Zinc and Cairn India. Earlier he was a Senior Vice President with Bharti, where he led communications for Airtel’s successful foray in 20 countries across Africa and South Asia.

Sanjay Mehta

Sanjay Mehta is a serial entrepreneur, in the new age businesses of Internet, E-commerce, Social Media and the like.

The Internet came to India in 1996. Sanjay has been an Internet entrepreneur since 1997.

In other words, Sanjay perhaps has as much hands-on experience on Internet businesses, as anyone could possibly have, in India!

At this time, Sanjay is the founder and Joint CEO of Social Wavelength, one of the largest, pure-play Social Media agencies in India.

Early in 2009, Sanjay identified the emerging trend of Social Media, and how companies will need to participate in this space, without exception. Recognizing that such participation is very different from traditional marketing and advertising that companies are used to, and due to which, they will need a specialized service provider, Sanjay set up Social Wavelength, to be a partner to any brand / organization, to help them navigate in this space of New Media.

In the short space of around 4 years, Social Wavelength has made rapid strides, and has acquired leadership position in the industry, with an impressive client portfolio and a large and strong team of personnel, managing various client accounts. Social Wavelength counts amongst its clients, some of the top companies and brands like GE, Intel, HUL, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Idea Cellular, Franklin Templeton, Genpact, Apollo Hospitals, Tata Housing, Reliance Communications, IndusInd Bank, Dalmia Cements, India Infoline, etc.

Prior to Social Wavelength, from 1997-2007, Sanjay co-founded and ran one of the earliest e-commerce ventures from India, called Homeindia.com. Homeindia was selling ethnic Indian products like fashion, jewelry, handicrafts etc. to customers all over the world. It was a pure B2C model, and Homeindia.com was transacting online credit card transactions way back since 1998! Homeindia was iconic in its time, and was recognized among other things, as “india’s Most Useful Website” and “India’ Most Reliable Online Shop”.

After divesting his stake in Homeindia.com in 2007, Sanjay went on to be the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Compare Infobase Ltd. Compare Infobase was one of the largest pure-play Internet content businesses, based out of Delhi, and employing more than 1000 persons at that time. Sanjay had the responsibility of managing operations for the company that owned portals like MapsOfWorld.com, MapsOfIndia.com, IndiaEdu.com, DGreetings.com and many many more.

Being a pioneer in new businesses, first in the Internet and E-commerce space, and now in Social Media, Sanjay has been a regular invitee as speaker, panelist and guest faculty at scores of events and conferences, in India as well as outside India.
Sanjay has spoken on diverse subjects like Social Media Basics, Social Media Marketing, Integrating Social Media into Business, Challenges of Social Media Planning, Online Retailing in India, as well as on subjects around Entrepreneurship and Brand Building.

Sanjay is also a mentor to many budding entrepreneurs, and is associated with mentoring activities with TiE, Mentor Edge Network (IIM, Ahmedabad), India Angel Network and others.

Sanjay has had extensive media coverage, and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of print, television and web media platforms, over the years, again on the variety of subjects, including Internet, E-commerce and Social Media.

Roma Balwani

Roma Balwani was elevated recently as Chief Group Communications Officer at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., one of India’s leading business houses. In 2013 she was felicitated and received the Strategic Communication Leadership Award at the Corporate Affairs Forum, Mumbai. She has recently been included in the eminent Jury for the SABRE Awards, India. In 2013 the Mahindra Group, under her leadership, bagged the Champion of Champions Award from Public Relations Council of India (PRCI).In 2012, she was included in Global Influence 100, a listing of the 100 Most Important In-House Communicators in the world, brought out by the renowned Holmes Global Report for the second year in a row.

She was also the first Indian PR professional to receive the prestigious SABRE Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement 2012, in the inaugural year of this global award being instituted for individuals who have demostrated a stellar performance in their role during the year.In a career spanning over 30 years, Roma has served as Sr. Vice President at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd and VP and Head of Communications at Aptech.

An Economics graduate with post-graduation in Marketing from the University of Mumbai,Roma has been instrumental in communicating the Group’s transformation into a global powerhouse. Roma was also the only Indian in-house corporate communicator to be invited to speak at the prestigious ‘Communication on Top’ forum which follows the World Economic Forum in Davos. Roma is also a member of the PR Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI). She has successfully completed two prestigious global leadership programmes. The first was conducted by the Michigan Ross School of Business, while the second was the Mahindra Universe programme for senior managers at the Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Roma is a Member of the global advisory Committee of World Communication Forum (WCF) at Davos, Switzerland.Roma is on the advisory board of the Promise Foundation.

Madan Bahal

Madan Bahal