Advisory Category: Advisory Board 2023

Kushal Sanghvi is every bit the Media Evangelist. A penchant for advertising, media and communications drove him to this industry where he has thrived since the last 22 years.

A large part of his innings has been with media companies and digital/ tech. He sees New Media as an integral part of brand expansion. Globally and across Asia his roles with iconic companies such as Reliance Group, Fremantle Media, Havas Media, The Times of India Group has led to unparalleled intelligence in Media thereby creating marketing success stories for those brands and has been pivotal to scale business and operations for those companies. Someone who has been part of various start up teams and then gone ahead to make them successful ventures in terms of people, it’s clients, defining processes and of course scaling and running those businesses.

At his capacity as Managing Director, South Asia at Havas Digital which he founded in India and went ahead to have teams across the region, he also led the company for its social media across a global committee that was headquartered at Paris and its earliest times also started out Mobext the mobile advertising solutions agency under Havas too.

He has essayed roles in Print, Television, OOH, Content and the invention of interactive television in India for the pioneering show ‘Indian Idol’ for Sony Television in the country. Having worked with over 400 brands in his career till now he always willing to learn more and that’s what keeps him going daily. Has also been involved with the Govt of India too and helped them in various facets of marketing, brand and technology.

Being a creative thinker with a passion for creating products, content, platforms and solutions his most poignant creation being the inception of Rediff.com as a founder member, a tipping point in his career graph.

In his role at the Reliance ADA Group he leads all digital transformation across all Reliance group companies working closely with the CXO’s and has incorporated a digital marketing services company for the Group.

An MBA from NMIMS, he loves playing mentor and terms people management as a stepping stone to achieve targets and has been an active guest lecturer in leading institutes across India: the various IIM’s, IIT’s, NMIMS, SP Jain, JBIMS, ISME, MET, Rizvi, Wellingkar, MICA, ISB, Indira Institute, Somaiya, Nirma Institute, XLRI, FMS, Symbiosis to name a few. He has done his doctorate in consumer behaviour with regards to the impact of the various roles of media and communication triggers. He has also been part of platforms like Teach for India and in his spare time also teaches at various NGO’s, slums and villages across the country as he believes that education is a two way process and a country like India that has its largest population in its youth and also in smaller cities needs to all be trained and envisioned for a better India.

He is receipent of over 50 awards locally and internationally in the domain of advertising, marketing, media, content, digital marketing and technology and has been voted by various tabloids, publications, media like Exchange4media, Afaqs, Campaign, World Brand Congress as being among the top 10 digital marketers in the country for many years now. Afaqs has featured him as among the top 50 newsmakers in media in 2014 and 2015.

Kushal is a regular speaker at various media and marketing events and platforms such as FICCI, IAMAI, Ad Club, Afaqs, E4M,TFMA, NASSCOM, MIPCOM, Campaign, Adobe, ICOM Global, CII in India and globally to name a few where he loves to champion the cause of media and garner new talent into this industry. Recently in 2014 was one of the only 2 Indians to speak at Websummit, Ireland which is the largest digital marketing festivals in the world that attracts over 70,000 people. Has also spoken regularly at the largest mobile marketing platform at World Mobile Congress at Barcelona in 2014, 2015, and 2016 which has over 1,00,000 people attend in and he was one of the few Indian’s to speak there. He has been part of the jury for various marketing, media, content, television, advertising awards in the last over 8 years. He is also on the board of some leading international marketing and media associations like CEBIT, TFMA, Ad Tech, ICOM Global, GIIFFA, DMAI to name a few. He has also been involved in mentoring various start-ups especially in the mobile, ad-tech, data- analytics, social-media, e-commerce, gaming, media space and has also invested into some of the same ventures too.

In his spare time Kushal loves to read, write, paint and sculpt, dabble in cooking, watch movies, travel and explore the world, meet new people and explore new cultures, hike, listen to all sorts of world and Indian music. He loves all that’s tech and is often always the first to try new technology, gadgets and more. He is a car freak and loves to drive, often dabbles in a game of badminton and tries to keep fit with being in nature and doing his walks or a good swim.

Deepak Gupta is Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Bombay Shaving company .Prior to BSC, he has 10+ year reach experience with Colgate-Palmolive wherein he lead the strategic efforts across Sales, Marketing and Supply Chain. He brings with him experience of working with the world’s most penetrated brand with 3.5+ billion daily active users. Gupta also spent more than two years In China and headed sales operations and strategy for entire Mainland China there and witnessed the tremendous mushrooming of brands which launched online and quickly scaled offline. Deepak is IIT-Bombay alumnus with key expertise in Sales& strategy, Analytics and people science. He loves reading and travelling with eye for history .

“Vishal Chinchankar is a senior leader with 22+ years of experience in domestic and International markets managing marketing & sales, He’s the Chief Digital Officer at Madison Media & in past has worked with Group M, Reliance ADA Group Mediaturf, etc.

High energy, inclusive people leader with proven success in marketing services and business development for multi-million-dollar digital advertising organizations. Exceled in dynamic, demanding and matrix environments & Also an active speaker in Digital Marketing events like Ad-tech, Nasscom, IAMAI, E4M, & B-schools”.

Based in New Delhi, Dhar leads CNN International Commercial’s dynamic advertising sales business for the South Asia region while working closely with senior client and agency stakeholders and CNN International’s global leadership team. His remit includes employing business intelligence and delivering tailor-made cross-platform solutions for brands in the South Asia region. He is also responsible for developing the overall business strategy to maximize potential revenues from the region and aid the team in further raising the profile of CNN International.

The CNN International Ad sales business in South Asia has grown exponentially under Dhar’s leadership and as the global brand partnerships lead in the region, he has spearheaded pioneering initiatives for brands to communicate in the international context with their audiences at scale. Specifically, for India – which is a priority market for CNNIC – Dhar has structured and grown partnerships by leveraging propriety solutions including Bespoke Partnered Content and Native campaigns with key clients and categories across the country.

Dhar has a rich experience of over 19 years in the media and entertainment industry spanning across broadcast, digital, radio and print media. Prior to joining CNN, Dhar has held leadership roles at BBC Worldwide, Viacom Brand Solutions and the Bennet Coleman Group. He holds a degree in Economics from Delhi University and studied Marketing at the Times School of Marketing. Aside from his passion for flying and love for dogs, Abhijeet is an avid biker a golfer and enjoys playing the piano and drums.

As a digital marketer Vishal Jacob has witnessed the roller-coaster ride of India’s digital marketing transformation journey from up close and personal – from the dotcom burst in the early 2000’s to the current age of data driven marketing. The purpose has remained the same – enabling brands to establish a deep connection with the consumer – yet the means whether through Search, Social, Mobile, Programmatic etc. have dramatically evolved and are continuing to do so at a frenetic pace.

Vishal considers himself fortunate to have worked with some of the best clients and the best talent in all aspects of digital marketing across India and parts of South East Asia. Vishal has led and assisted clients across industries (Auto, FMCG, Telco, Media & Retail) in their digital transformation journey hinging it on creating a connected ecosystem of paid, owned & earned properties. The result has been a purposeful digital media strategy that drives business outcomes.

During his previous roles he has been instrumental in helping a small 8-member team grow into a 100-member team and become one of India’s finest and most successful digital agencies. Their work has been recognized and awarded in multiple global forums such as the Festival of Media, M&M Global, World Media Awards & WPPED Crème.

Vishal is also a published Author and a certified coach from ICF with further specialization in transactional analysis and NLP, Vishal continues to nurture and coach talent to prep them for leadership roles.In his current role Vishal continues to drive this transformation with a focus rooted deeply in nurturing talent and enhancing digital product capabilities.