Advisory Category: Advisory Board 2024
Dr. Kushal Sanghvi
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
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
“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”.
Tejas Apte
Deepak Oram
Gulshan Verma
Gulshan Verma is a digital media expert with a rich experience of over 16 years in the industry. Currently, Gulshan heads client and agency revenues at Hotstar, India’s leading premium streaming platform.
Prior to Hotstar, Gulshan was the Chief Revenue Officer at Times Internet Limited, where he was responsible for the entire revenue of the digital group across advertising, classified and transaction based businesses.
Gulshan has alo enjoyed successful stints as the General Manager, SEA and India at Outbrain, Chief Revenue Officer at Komli Media, Director of Sales Strategy for Yahoo! India, and Director of Product Marketing for Yahoo! Search Marketing in the United States. He has also worked in Europe, North America and Asia and for leading companies like Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Co and IMG.
His key specialties include P&L, Advertising, Strategy, Technology Sales, Digital Media, Marketing, Media, Product Marketing, Go-To-Market, M&A valuation, due diligence and post-merger integration, Pricing.
Academically, Gulshan has a MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a Masters in Political Economy and a BSc Economics from the London School of Economics, and holds two patents in search monetization.
Connect with him on Linkedin
AKASH DEEP BATRA
Akash Deep Batra is the Executive Director and Head of Marketing, Growth, Customer Experience and Analytics at DBS Bank. Akash leads a team of over 70 functional experts to drive marketing, consumer acquisition through digital and physical channels, portfolio growth through digital campaigns, consumer research & insights, consumer experience (including UI/UX), business analytics, and cognitive banking across the DBS India consumer banking business and brands.
Before DBS, Akash was Head of Brand Communication, Corporate Brand and Digital at Nestlé India. In his 7-year-long stint at Nestle, he was also the head of digital and eCommerce for the Asia Pacific Region. Akash has also worked at Infosys for over 9 years in various roles in business consulting, product management, and technology management functions.
Recognized as one of the Top 50 Marketers in 2021 by the BusinessWorld Magazine, Akash is a frequent speaker at various industry conferences and universities across the world and a commentator on trends & innovations in marketing & technology.
He is an engineer from Kurukshetra University and a management graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB).
SUNDER MADAAKSHIRA
SUMEET SINGH
Meet Sumeet Singh, the face of Marketing at Info Edge. She is credited for contributing in shaping Info Edge into one of the most successful dotcom companies in India, through the marketing function of brand building, corporate communications, digital media, and consumer research for Naukri.com, Naukrigulf.com, Jeevansathi, Shiksha.com, and 99acres.com.
In her years with Info Edge, Sumeet has been the architect of several effective campaigns including the high-recall ‘Hari Sadu’ ad for Naukri.com, the recent ‘Be Found’ campaign for Jeevansathi, amongst others. She has also been instrumental in driving over 150 alliances in association with leading publications across the country, paving ways for showcasing Info Edge as a dynamic brand.
She strongly believes in putting the customer first which is reflected in all her efforts of making InfoEdge a consumer focussed brand, as she says, “Our services relate with the people, making us a potential partner in their most important decisions; be it finding a job, getting married or settling down in a dream home.”
Sumeet has 19 years of experience in marketing, brand management and public relations. A management graduate from Pune University, she is a business strategist, speaker, and the Founder Executive Director of The Indus Entrepreneurs, Delhi. She has also served as the Executive Director of the Indian Venture Capital Association and served on the IT advisory councils of 6 states.
She started her career with NIIT Ltd.