Board Member Category: Speaker 2022
Vishal Parekh
Vignesh Narayanan
Vignesh heads the Ads business for Airtel and comes with extensive advertising experience having led business roles in Europe & Asia for 17+ years. His expertise in the digital ecosystem stems from his experience in eCommerce companies like Lazada, Zalora, Snapdeal, Reebonz and with core Adtech technology companies like Mediamath helping him to create the right product-market fit across Adtech & Martech.
Pankaj Sharma
Pankaj Sharma heads MGID’s operations in India, as the CEO and Director he is responsible for developing business strategies and plans for the market while ensuring their alignment with short-term and long-term objectives of the company.
He has been a part of the media industry for over a decade and has worked across Digital, Radio and Print and Advertising verticals. His areas of expertise include Digital Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media, Programmatic, Influencer Marketing, Content Marketing, and Native Advertising.
He is a marketeer, strategic thinker, a persistently analytical individual with a holistic view of the industry. Over the years, Pankaj has built and implemented successful media campaigns, strategies, and created valuable media propositions for various brands. He has also been a part of several award winning Content Marketing Campaigns which were recognized at Campaign India’s Digital Crest Awards, DOD Award, World Marketing Summit and many more.
Pankaj was featured in the fourth edition of Agency Reporter’s 40 under 40 list for being one the most disruptive minds in the field of advertising. He is a regular contributor for trade publications and has also been a jury member for several award programs. He is a passionate marathon runner and he also likes to pursue riding to get away from the madness of the city.
Medhavi Singh
Medhavi Singh is the Country Head for Criteo India. She is responsible for driving growth and strategic partnerships while strengthening Criteo’s new and existing partnership with advertisers and agencies in India.
Prior to Criteo, Medhavi started her journey with Google where she worked across three different markets – US, UK and India, and across 3 different verticals – Travel, E-commerce and FMCG. She then joined Criteo where she has worked for over 6 years starting off as an Account strategist, quickly rising to Head of Large Customers Business and now leading the India business.
Kedar Gavane
Saurabh Khattar
In his current role, he will be building strong partnerships with clients, agencies, and publishers and helping them solve their pressing business challenges with the use of cutting-edge IAS technology solutions. He’s leading IAS’s India expansion efforts as part of a larger global initiative taking place within IAS.
Saurabh brings 9+ years of experience in business development, sales strategies, closing deals and creating market strategies and programs to scale businesses, Previously Saurabh was working with Taboola as Director Sales & Media Partnerships and has supported leading brands & agencies/ fortune 500 companies with digital advertising and content strategies in India & APAC region.
Dr. RS Sharma
Dr Ram Sewak Sharma is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Authority (under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) that implements Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), two flagship health missions of the Government of India. He is also the Chairman of Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 and a member of the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19.
Dr Sharma is a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS 1978 (Rtd.) Jharkhand cadre). Before his appointment as the CEO of National Health Authority from February 1, 2021, he served as the Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from August 2015 to September 2020. Prior to this assignment, he served as the Secretary of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India) and as the Chief Secretary to the State Government of Jharkhand (India).
Dr Sharma was founding Director General and Mission Director of UIDAI and was a part of leadership team that built and launched Aadhaar, the world’s largest Digital Identity Platform. He has captured the experience of building Aadhaar in his recently published book, ‘Making of Aadhar: World’s largest Identity Platform’.
Dr Sharma has a deep interest on using technology for governance and has led a number of e-Governance projects at both the National and the State level. He has been responsible for implementing a number of projects relating to ICT infrastructure, process reengineering and service delivery through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) models.His contributions in this area have been recognized both in India and abroad.
Dr Sharma is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), where he earned a Master’s in Mathematics, and of the University of Allahabad, where he completed his Bachelor’s in Science. While on leave from the Government of India, he earned a Master’s in Computer Science from University of California, Riverside in 2002, and subsequently a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D).
Mitch Waters
As SVP of SouthEast Asia, India, Australia and New Zealand, Mitch manages all aspects of the company’s strategy, operations and people management in the region, based out of Singapore. He brings comprehensive experience across sales, strategy and innovation in the media and advertising industries to this role.
Mitch has been a high profile advocate of programmatic advertising and industry transformation, particularly in Australia. He is a regular commentator with AdNews, The Drum, and other media.
He was promoted to SVP, having previously led The Trade Desk in Australia and New Zealand, where he drove significant advances in revenue and market share. Mitch was also at the forefront of The Trade Desk’s efforts to drive collaborative innovation with advertising agencies through APIs.
Prior to The Trade Desk, Mitch led AOL International in Australia, where he launched the group’s platforms on the local market. He also held senior sales roles within various digital divisions of News Corp in Australia.
In addition to his role at The Trade Desk, Mitch sits on a number of high-profile industry councils, including the IAB Australia Video Council and IAB Australia Executive Technology Council. He also volunteers his time to mentor the next generation of media executives.
Mitch graduated from Macquarie University with a Bachelor degree in Commerce and Economics.
