The Future is Here
IMPACT Marketing 40 Under 40, 2023, honoured the best marketing professionals at an event in Mumbai. The glittering evening saw eminent leaders, and industry experts gather to celebrate the remarkable achievements of the future faces of the marketing industry. THE JURY A marketing professional with 12 years of diverse work experience in retail and automobile sectors, Ajay Maurya led P&L, product management, marketing communication, digital marketing, new product development, merchandising and supply chain management at Titan company (2013-till date). He spearheaded India’s iconic youth brand, Fastrack, comprising a portfolio of 1100cr+ casual watches and wearables, and anchored the annual marketing calendar with a budget of 60cr+ across Digital, Performance, TV, and OOH media platforms. Last year, he led the brand to a 51% growth by generating tremendous excitement among target consumers and demand through differentiated product launches. Maurya was featured in the top 1% of high performance talent pools of Titan as part of ‘Emerging Leaders Program’ Growth & Profitability. A passionate marketer with a strong growth mindset, Bahl looks for new avenues to unlock growth through disruptive strategies. She believes in building a strong brand purpose and not just brand equity, keeping consumers at the heart of everything she does. She has had the privilege of working for iconic brands like Horlicks, Boost, Dabur (portfolio), Red & White, Kurkure, Cheetos, Lay’s, Uncle Chipps in India. She is currently working on the potato chips portfolio for entire AMESA. Bahl has delivered the highest growth on large packs and highest consumption growth in the last 5 years, and is responsible for fortifying brand equity significantly. She was the winner of Best Connected Content Strategy, PEPSICO AMESA, 2021. Akhil Meshram is a Senior Director at P&G, who led the Feminine Care business for the brand in the Indian Sub-continent. Under his leadership, the feminine care business witnessed acceleration in top-line and bottom-line growth. With leading sanitary napkin brand, Whisper, Meshram drove the category growth strategy via meaningful innovation that accelerates category adoption. During his tenure, Whisper continued to challenge taboos around menstruation at a grass-root level with the help of its flagship Whisper Health and Hygiene School Programme, impacting almost 5.5cr girls to date. He was part of the team that brought home Cannes Lions and India’s first Grand Prix in Sustainable Development Goals in 2022 for the campaign, ‘The Missing Chapter.’ A curious Digital-first marketer with experience in India, APAC, and the US markets, Arya manages large scale projects and teams. Passionate about ideas and people, he has worked at IIFL, Piramal’s, Google, Future Group, and Tata, before joining Equentis. Currently at Equentis, he is responsible for steering growth towards a Fintech Unicorn. As the CMO of IIFL, Arya drove 500cr revenue from 5 million customers, and at Piramal’s, he was heading the Digital, Media, and PR. At Google, he led the business book of more than $120mn for CPG & FBR. Anand Taparia has been leading innovation across all categories, services and business models for Colgate Palmolive India Ltd. Prior to this, he was the Associate MD - Commercial P&L leader for four categories at Colgate Palmolive India Ltd. (2019-2021). He has played a significant role in the Strategic Global and Regional Marketing Leadership positions across Colgate Palmolive Asia Pacific and the USA (2015-2018). He drove a 1000+cr category to growth after 5 years of sluggish performance, leading the foray for brand Palmolive into the facial cleansing category with 9 products, and a 360 degree IMC campaign focused on ‘self-love’ with 150+ stunning assets. He is also responsible for the creation of Colgate Palmolive India’s first D2C business focused on oral care devices, hitting 20 million+ in sales within the first 5 months. Anshuman Wanchu has 14 years of rich experience in business and brand building. With a total of 7 years in marketing, and 5 years in commercial roles at L’Oreal, he has worked across brands and businesses in its different life stages. Notably, he led the turnaround of the hair care business on L’Oreal Paris as Category Marketing Manager, helping the brand become profitable for the first time since its launch in India in 2018. His most notable work was leading the micromarketing campaign on Garnier Color in Uttar Pradesh. Working with a local media house, the brand activated Garnier Color vans across 6400 locations. He was awarded ‘Best Consumer Activation’ across L’Oreal group worldwide at Beauty Fast Forward. Anushree Tainwala has been associated with Samsonite South Asia since 2012, and manages a plethora of brands under the Samsonite portfolio. Starting with investment banking at Merrill Lynch in London, she has had a remarkably global and diverse set of experiences. She went on to work with Samsonite in Hong Kong, and later moved to India to head Samsonite’s retail division. She has been instrumental in getting the company to focus on sustainable growth, and has been working on the launch of new brands in India that have been globally acquired by Samsonite. Under her guidance, the women travel category was recognised, and the Parisian travel brand Lipault was brought to Indian shores. An accomplished brand strategist, Arnav Sharma joined Tech Mahindra as the Global Head Brand Marketing in 2020. Since then, he has been leading the successful launch of several strategic multi-million dollar global partnerships, including Mahindra Racing, Wall Street Journal, WEF, FIDE Chess Olympiad, and Jacksonville Jaguars. Under his leadership, Tech Mahindra’s brand value has risen by 15% to US$3.5 billion, making it one of the fastest-growing brands in the Brand Finance IT Services 25 2023 ranking. Since his association with Tech Mahindra, its brand value saw an increase by approximately 66%. Sharma was selected for Mahindra Accelerated Leadership Track in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School. Deepak Sinha drives growth for Bira 91 through strategic market expansion, partnerships, and the best global practices. He spearheaded the brand’s expansion into the US in 2017, and today, Bira 91 is present in 18 countries. Sinha has built an 18-year-strong track record in the alco-bev brand development, marketing, and sales, having worked with Pernod Ricard, MillerCoors, and had even launched a tequila for the lead singer of Third Eye Blind. He co-founded the BottleCo alcohol retail shopping experience, conceptualized the brand, designed the consumer experience, and secured over $1.5 million in initial funding to launch the concept in the US. His experience has been critical in the success of Bira 91 in India and beyond. Deepti Karthik is a sales and marketing expert with 14+years of working experience with companies ranging from behemoths like Unilever to early-age start-ups such as DaMENSCH. Karthik started her career in FMCG at Wipro and transitioned to e-commerce with Snapdeal, before working with Nokia to re-launch it in India in 2017. At DaMENSCH, she ensured a 20% awareness of the brand in the cluttered apparel category, and helped 3x growth to get the brand to a 100cr ARR milestone. Under her leadership, the brand collaborated with Vikrant Massey on a one-of-a-kind 500 day collection, which led to 38 k to 76 k+ growth in social. A passionate marketing professional with 17+ years of experience in Strategic Planning, Business Analysis, Brand Communication, Digital Strategy, and Innovation, Batra is currently strategizing brand campaigns, evaluating marketing budgets, and setting up Digital channels. Prior to this, she was the National Marketing Manager for McCormick India. Batra launched multiple new products in FMCG, and also launched an affordable festival gifting range for Diwali, a premium gifting range in retail (restaurants), resulting in a 20% growth in the gifting range. She was the recipient of the Star Thrower award for delivering the Bharti project at McCormick India with 18% - 24% growth in 2018, 2019, and 2020. With over 14 years of work experience in consumer marketing and brand building, Chadha has been instrumental in the launch and growth of large global consumer tech brands in India. From eBay to Amazon to Spotify, she has been at the centre of imagining, designing and leading the charge to make these global brands locally exciting. She was amongst the first 50 employees at Amazon India who helped launch the platform in the country. In the last 1 year, she has grown Spotify’s listener base by over 100%. Today the Spotify app can be easily spotted in the hands of your cab driver, as well as your fellow corporate colleagues, and this democratisation of access is the brainchild of Chadha’s growth strategy for the brand. Indrajit Ghosh was the Founder and CEO of OMG Digital, a full-fledged creative agency that was eventually acquired. He later moved on to Viacom 18 where he helped grow different network channels, and later joined Rebel Foods as Associate Vice President, Brand Communication in 2018. He has been managing the branding ecosystem for Faasos, Behrouz Biryani, OvenStory, Firangi Bake, Mandarin Oak, Sweet Truth, while also helping build other various upcoming Rebel brands. He currently supervises branding efforts through design and content, while also growing the company’s social media community. Ghosh ensures constant conversations across all markets, and is responsible for empowering direct to consumer channels such as apps and platforms through content marketing and UX/UI efforts. Janani Kandaswamy has 12+ years of experience in Automobile, Telecom and FMCG. She is currently heading Category and Digital Commerce for ITC’s stationery division, leading a team of 3 brands and 2 digital marketing managers. She is managing the brand portfolio of Classmate & Paperkraft notebooks, diaries and journals, leading their digitisation efforts. Kandaswamy heads the notebooks portfolio for ITC, and is accountable for the P&L of four brands. She has achieved more than 70% growth in topline with 120% jump in profitability, driving premiumisation by 15% through innovative products like Origami DIY and Augmented Reality based scan-able notebooks. She led the Digital transformation of the business by scaling up the D2C platform clasmateshop.com 5X times, achieving 12+crs of annual GMV. Jaya Jamrani is responsible for delivering profitable growth through purpose-driven Marketing, Digital Transformation, and Influencer Advocacy. She led Castrol to win many prestigious awards, including a hat-trick at the Asia Pacific Effies. Castrol Super mechanic, a platform to create recognition for this community, and Castrol CRB Truckaasana, a health campaign for truckers, are two of her campaigns that have not only created brand value, but also impacted millions of lives. As the market opened post COVID, Jamrani spearheaded three different campaigns for the bikes, cars and trucks category, keeping the brand at the helm in all 3 segments. She has helped in the expansion of the Castrol Auto network workshops nationally, signing a 60 MN USD deal with Ki mobility (my TV). Kanika Nevatia currently heads the brand marketing at ixigo where she is responsible for driving the overall brand awareness and positioning of the company. She oversees functions across the marketing domain, including P&L, growth-hacking, branding, media planning and communications. Nevatia started her career as a content writer at ixigo, and over the years moved to product communications. She now handles high-impact Digital and Outdoor campaigns for the brand. Under her leadership, the brand saw end-to-end execution of its biggest 360 degree celebrity brand campaign with Jackie Shroff and Suniel Shetty called #NikalLo. She leads a team that manages end-to-end social media, brand marketing, public relations, corporate communication, brand alliances and product UI/UX communication. Karthik Yathindra has over a decade’s experience in Sales, Retail, Product, Marketing and Business Management, across consumer brands in the fashion and lifestyle space. At Jockey, he is in-charge of Marketing, Product Design and Development, Product Portfolio Management, Supply Chain Management, Production Planning and Control, Consumer Analytics and Loyalty, and Visual Merchandising for all verticals. He is responsible for brand health, product performance and business growth of Jockey in India, SAARC and Middle East markets. Post COVID, he led the strategy for the business in a volatile market, and optimized the product portfolio to transform the brand from being innerwear heavy to lifestyle apparel. Mohua Das Gupta has spent close to a decade in the e-commerce industry, with the last 2 years heading the marketing function for TATA CLiQ Luxury. The objective was to build the largest luxury e-commerce destination for India, spearheading marketing strategy, brand development, performance marketing, CRM and category marketing to deliver a 100% growth YOY. She has extensive experience in all aspects of marketing – strategy, execution, differentiated customer experience, and delivering business impact. Under her leadership, the brand took to market its brand ethos of ‘slow commerce,’ and delivered campaigns like ‘Discover Luxe Life’ and ‘Timeless Gifts for Timeless Relationships’. During her tenure with Myntra, the brand won the Gold ABBYs for disruptive work on Anouk (Bold is Beautiful campaign), among others. Mustufa Arsiwalla is a Consumer Marketer and Brand Strategist with 17+ years of experience in leading brand building and marketing campaigns across diverse categories like Foods, Personal care, and OTC with brands such as Frooti, Ferrero Rocher, Kinder Joy, and The Laughing Cow. He has worked on some iconic award-winning campaigns, and in his current role, leads the company’s marketing function, including portfolio and positive brand strategy, activation, integrated communication, and innovation. When the brand launched The Laughing Cow brand around 4 years ago, it had almost no awareness in India. But his efforts helped in anchoring the brand in consumer’s mind. He has led a strong brand partnership with Mad Over Donuts, Kidzania and Hamleys, and has helped build e-comm sales at a growth rate of +208%. With 10+ years of experience in marketing, and a proven track record of driving successful campaigns and achieving outstanding results, Pawan Gurnani is experienced in brand management, digital marketing, and customer engagement. His innovative approach to marketing has earned him numerous accolades and awards, including the Golden Peacock award. Gurnani is known to have used Digital Marketing’s best practices and automation at scale to acquire new customers digitally and cross-sell to existing customers, and has helped in increasing engagement rate by 20%. He has also improved open rate (30% vs. industry average of 15%), and higher click-thru-rates with communication and content strategizing. Under his leadership, the Reduced Cost Per Click in paid campaigns was seen at 60% through keyword bid optimization, aggressive retargeting and competitive bidding. Poulomi Roy is an experienced professional with 16+ years of experience in marketing and communication, advertising, strategic planning, and key account management. As a Chief Marketing Officer at RSH Global, she has been instrumental in changing the audience perception towards beauty standards. She is currently responsible for drafting strategies for revenue generation and business growth, managing marketing operations and strategizing communication for the flagship brand Joy Personal Care. Roy has spearheaded various purpose-driven marketing campaigns, which have empowered Transgender, Sex Workers, and Acid Attack Saviours. A strategic move to talk about gender equality was via partnering with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as associate sponsors for the IPL Season 15 in 2022. Over the years, Roy has received several prestigious accolades for her exceptional leadership skills. As a marketing professional with 12+ years of experience, Karpe has worked with European, American and Asian organisations, handling communications, brand, products, and segment marketing. He has been instrumental in expanding its business and marketing footprint for AkzoNobel, 3M, and Nippon Paint in India, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. In a cluttered space Crompton has reached visibility and now dominates the space, with Karpe transforming 1600+ Retail outlets in a record time of 90 days, the highest amongst competitors in the industry. In the last two years, his initiative has brought innovation to business by establishing a new marketing footprint through well-researched initiatives. Prashant Sukhwani started his marketing career as an intern with Colgate Palmolive in North India. Post MBA, he joined ITC as a Management Trainee in Guwahati, and after 4 years, he moved to Bunge, a Fortune 500 company. He joined Burger King India as Associate Vice President, and in 2022, got promoted as Vice President of Marketing. For Burger King, FY23 started with the award winning #MemePremierLeague, wherein after every IPL match, the brand put out memes, and ran a meme UGC contest. The campaign garnered a total reach of 152mn, with 51mn Engagement Rate. Under his leadership, the brand also pulled off the viral ‘Burger King Pranks Hrithik Roshan’ Campaign that genuinely intrigued people and brands equally. It prompted organic brand collaborations and chatter on social media, getting 350mn engagement. Priyanka Arora has over 15 years of work experience in Finance, Business Strategy, and various facets of Marketing. She moved to McKinsey, which allowed her to deep dive into real business problems in the insurance industry. Subsequently, she set up Customer Insights & Market Intelligence Capability at Airtel. Currently, she is heading the Bancassurance Channel Marketing with Max Life Insurance. Under her guidance, the brand witnessed Max Life’s SWAG Launch in Axis, a 360 degree Integrated Marketing Campaign impacting sales and conversions for business on-ground like never before. It was an industry-first where a TV reporting format was taken into a BTL activation resulting in High Reach (20 lac potential l customers, 40,000 sellers), and Impact on both human capital and business numbers (Rs 300 cr in just 90 days). Roshan Kunder has been with Bioderma for over 2+ years, and has a holistic experience in marketing and product strategizing. He has been instrumental in leading the strategic marketing direction, and building awareness for the company’s unique scientific approach - Ecobiology. Under his leadership, Bioderma has successfully unlocked growth opportunities for its skin biology proposition in core markets of India. Kunder has a diverse experience across sales and marketing, and has worked on building various iconic brands across the retail sector in the past. He has helped in the growth of Bioderma’s e-commerce, whose contribution grew from 12% to 50%, and has helped in the successful launch of multiple new products. He has helped the brand reach from 5M to 28M through architected influencer strategy. Sahil Sethi joined P&G in 2011 and has since grown in the company across various leadership roles. During his stint, Sahil led iconic brands like Vicks, Head & Shoulders, Pantene, and Olay, across multiple geographies including India, Australia, China, Korea, and Southeast Asia. Under his leadership, Vicks has been the key growth driver for P&G India and continues to grow penetration and market share. Sethi’s team led the work on creating regional campaigns for Vicks Rubs, leveraging local state-level insights to cater to consumers better. This localised communication strategy has resulted in 8% higher growth in these states versus the rest of India. Sethi introduced 2 new celeb faces, Ranveer Singh and Samantha Prabhu for Vicks 2-in-1 Roll-on Inhaler, to drive relevance and appeal in diverse regions. Having been with Policybazaar for more than 8 years, Samir Sethi has driven a number of brand campaigns, with a special focus on Term & Health Insurance. As a result, 83% of the transactions on the platform were through consumers who came to the platform directly or through direct online brand search. The two key campaigns driven by him in the last one year are ‘Mr. Policybazaar – Insurance Ka Superhero’ campaign featuring Akshay Kumar, and ‘Ghor Paap,’ featuring Pankaj Tripathi. The first campaign became the launch vehicle for Policybazaar’s 30 minute claim assistance promise. It won several awards at the e4m Primetime Awards, 2023. The second campaign highlighted the importance and urgency of buying term insurance, using the right amount of humour. This too won multiple awards, including the ‘Best TV Ad’ at the e4m Primetime Awards, and Indian Marketing Awards 2023. Sampurna Rakshit joined the Titan Company as a management trainee straight out of B School, and has been working across multiple roles since then. She has done extensive sales stints for Fastrack and Sonata across West Bengal and Odisha, and was later appointed as the Brand Manager of Sonata watches. One of her biggest achievements during this time was that she drove a 20% CAGR for the brand across 4 years in a heavily saturated and stagnant market. In her current role, she has been instrumental in driving an 8x growth in top line and a 10x growth in bottom line for the brand in 2 years’ time. Some of her biggest initiatives have redefined the brand’s media strategy to go Digital-first with a lot of work being done on SEO, Digital Media, Social Media and Influencers. Samyukta Iyer is known for winning India’s first-ever silver at Cannes Young Lions, and is one of the few brand builders to have re-written brand keys (Unilever 2010) – Vaseline’s 150 years post, and Lakme’s 30 years post. Iyer has successfully rebranded Kaya after 18 years of the brand’s existence with purpose and legacy at the heart that led to the crafting of an authentic, inclusive, Digital-first, Gen Z forward collaborative brand narrative. She has led brave campaigns like ‘Beauty in Safety’ for World Transgender Day (created, written, directed and VO by the community), and brought real change across the diaspora of Kaya. Today, the brand boasts a 36% growth in reach, 122% rise in engagement, and 45% mix contribution from new customers. Sneha Beriwal comes with 17 years of rich experience across a range of industries. As CMO at VAHDAM India she is driving the company’s brand success. Prior to VAHDAM, Beriwal had worked as Joint VP at the Aditya Birla Group, Nestle, Dabur, Westmill Foods, and Novartis. At VAHDAM, Beriwal successfully addressed the problem of low brand awareness, by focusing on several key initiatives. Additionally, the product range was expanded into a new category, organic spices, with celebrity chef Vikas Khanna. VADHAM launched its first-ever global brand campaign on International Turmeric Day, in the presence of 50+ elite press members at the launch event in New York City. 200+ creators joined the celebration online, and the brand activation took place across 3 continents. Beriwal has won the e4m Health Marcom Awards 2021 for the campaign ‘ABHI Karo.’ Sonia Ravindran is the Category Head, Hair Care, L’Oréal Professionnel, who leads the growth, consumer acquisition, and market leadership agenda for the brand. Over the last year, she contributed immensely towards leading the Hair Care category for L’Oréal Professionnel to a position of dominance. Ravindran has led the conceptualization of award-winning campaigns such as the ‘Le Wedding Edit’ with top hair, makeup, and fashion experts, to make hair an integral part of the bridal conversation. She has also led the brand’s biggest launch, ‘Scalp Advanced’ with an innovative ‘Scalp Beauty Verse’ activation, India’s first Beauty Tech event bringing together 400 top influencers and hairdressers. Ravindran is a recipient of the ISB Torch Bearer award for consistent demonstration of leadership. Sooraj Balakrishnan is currently the Head of Marketing at Acer, overseeing the India, Bangladesh and Bhutan markets. In his current role, he drives brand preference, customer acquisitions, product marketing, and strategic alliance, and also leads all GTM marketing efforts for the brand across online and offline channels. Balakrishnan has been leading the transition into an omni-channel experience for customers. Under his leadership, Acer has seen over 20% business increase in the consumer segment while ensuring faster opex realisation for partners. Acer’s Vero product line has garnered industry recognition in bringing sustainability to PCs by helping consumers and enterprise reduce carbon footprint and e-waste. With Balakrishnan at the helm, Acer has won several awards such as the Maddies award and the IMA awards. Sudhanshu Tripathi is an accomplished marketing professional with extensive experience across diverse industries. He has demonstrated a passion for working at the forefront of technology and human impact, and has led financial PR for two IPOs. He is an expert in ESG, having developed strategies for businesses, integrating ESG in all communication, and attracting over $250 million in investments. At Quick Heal, he has been able to turn around the D2C business from 34% de-growth to 6% growth YoY. He has established Quick Heal as a global cyber-security B2C brand through 360-degree campaign including partnering with KBC, Sony. Under his guidance, Quick Heal has been launched in the US, Canada, Australia, and in the Middle East. Tripathi was recognized by Adobe India as one of the Top 100 Digital leaders. Udit Malhotra has over 13 years of experience in Integrated Marketing, Digital Marketing, Marketing Automation, Digital Transformation, Social Media Marketing, Content Strategy, Online Reputation, and Crisis Management. Malhotra has work experience with both small and large businesses as well as multinational organisations, delivering effective and award-winning solutions for Fortune 500 brands like MG Motor India, Ford Motor Company, American Express, among others. At MG Motor India, Malhotra is working as the Head of Marketing, handling the next-gen MG Hector, and the advanced MG Gloster. He is also involved in all EV portfolio of the brand, and led MG NFT – India’s First Automotive Brand to launch its own NFT Collection. He was the recipient of the E4M - Pitch CMO Award 2022. Utsav Malhotra currently spearheads the marketing charter for India’s largest Smartwatch brand – Noise. He has managed to build India’s largest bootstrapped D2C business on the back of frugal marketing. His strong understanding of the D2C industry and his ability to be an agent of change has enabled him to deliver 30x growth. Furthermore, his ability to stay abreast of the ever-changing and unpredictable market dynamics has been a game changer for a dynamic and spirited brand like Noise. Under his leadership, Noise saw some award winning campaigns with actor Taapsee Pannu, and cricketer Rishabh Pant. Malhotra’s business acumen led to the company seeing highest ROAS in category for performance marketing. Vijay Kumar Pampana interned with L&T and Sankara Nethralaya during his undergrad days, before starting his professional career with P&G, Singapore as Senior Brand Manager in 2012. Today, Pampana leads a 1000cr business as the head of marketing & research teams, delivering strong top-line, bottom-line, and share growth leading 11 brands of PGHL. He has pioneered innovative marketing plans for Healthcare Professionals for P&G Healthcare in India, which have been replicated globally. He has also developed award-winning campaigns like ‘Feel Life’ for Neurobion, ‘Let Her Break Free’ for Livogen, and has led industry leading campaigns like ‘Na Na Anemia Bus Yatra,’ initiative aimed at driving awareness and early diagnosis of Iron Deficiency. Under his leadership, the brand won Gold at Cannes for Vicks ‘Touch of Care’ campaign. Vineet Sharma is a consumer-driven marketer with 13 years of global business and brand management experience in India, South Asia, South East Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. He has led multiple global brands with reputed CPG majors like ITC Limited, Dabur International, Unilever, AB InBev India, and created integrated multi-channel marketing strategies to accelerate growth. He was responsible for the launch of the first ever Beyond Beer innovation for Budweiser in India- Budweiser Magnum Whiskey, and the Budweiser Beats Energy Drink. Sharma spearheaded the biggest Budweiser campaign ever in India- FIFA World Cup 2022. Under his leadership, the brand won the Best Cause Marketing Campaign (Silver) for the ‘Budweiser Stronger Together’ Campaign at the Goafest (ABBYs Awards). Having joined the Aditya Birla Group as a Management Trainee straight out of campus, and subsequently during his stint at the Titan Company Ltd., Vipin Nair was given the responsibility of a bevy of retail operations roles. Post a mid-career switch into marketing, he has been at the forefront of successful marketing growth stories of brands such as CaratLane and Malabar Gold & Diamonds. In his latest stint at Malabar, he has transformed the jewellery brand’s image from that of a traditional South Indian jeweller to a brand of national repute, harbouring global ambitions. As a strategic marketer, he has no qualms accepting that he optimizes his marketing campaigns for reach and impact over creativity. Nair himself was nominated by the Aditya Birla Group for 34th AIMA National Competition for Young Managers – 2008. Yogen Parikh has demonstrated exemplary success in the building materials industry. For over 16+ years, Parikh has been managing brands and teams, while delivering marketing and advertising strategies that broke new ground across industry verticals such as tiles, pipes, adhesives, faucets, sanitary ware, and now paints and coating, among others. Over the past 11+ years, he has built an extensive, efficient marketing and communications team at Astral Pipes. Parikh envisions the media and entertainment industry bringing benefits to Astral, so the brand has associated with an upcoming Hindi movie Dunki. In line with Astral Group’s focus on empowering and enabling India’s sports community, he intends to deepen brand involvement and contribution with Pro-Kabbadi and multiple IPL teams. Zeenah Vilcassim’s career began as an economist in 2009. Her interests in combining data and creativity to accelerate business growth, pushed her to become a Management Consultant at Ernst and Young, and today she leads growth for Bacardi as the Marketing Director in India. She joined Bacardi six years ago as the Global Brand Director of DEWAR’S, and during her tenure the brand had the highest growth in over a decade. Leading with passion and agility, she works across functions to identify and engage consumer passion points. She led flagship properties like BACARDÍ NH7 Weekender, BREEZER Vivid Shuffle, and Casa BACARDÍ Halloween. As a female leader in a male dominated industry, she was featured in Forbes: Women Running the Liquor World in 2019.
The inaugural edition of the list recognized leaders who are under 40 years of age, and have demonstrated exceptional skills, innovation, and leadership in the marketing field. It put the spotlight on individuals who have made a significant impact with their groundbreaking work, shaping the industry’s landscape.
The list saw a healthy representation of both men and women achievers from across sectors. There are 16 women, who’ve made it to the list, while the number of men is 24. The consumer goods sector saw the highest representation with a total of 8 winners, followed by FMCG and Digital-first business with 6 and 4 winners respectively.
The list was put together by a jury of most esteemed industry leaders, led by CVL Srinivas, Country Manager – India, WPP. Other eminent names on the jury were Nawal Ahuja, Co-founder, exchange4media; Lloyd Mathias, Angel Investor & Business Strategist; Aditi Mishra, CEO, Lodestar UM; Agnello Dias, ex- Creative Chairman, Dentsu India; Avik Chattopadhyay, Co-founder & Partner, Expereal India; Debraj Tripathy, Marketing Communication Consultant; Shefali Chhachhi, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Hearth Ventures; Ashok Lalla, Digital & Marketing Advisor; Sanjay Trehan, Digital & New Media Consultant; Jaskaran Singh Kapany, Advisor to Startups; Sanjay Tripathy, Strategy and Brand Consultant; Jacob Kuruvilla, Head of Marketing, Amazon Ads India; Satish Kadu, Founder & CEO, YOptima and Dippak Khurana, Co-Founder & CEO, Vserv.
These experts, with their deep knowledge and experience, had the challenging task of selecting the most deserving individuals among numerous outstanding nominees. The eminent jury members dedicated their time to ensure a fair and comprehensive evaluation process.
CVL Srinivas, Country Manager – India, WPP said, “On one hand, like all of the disciplines, marketing too is facing its share of challenges thanks to all the disruptions that are happening in this very complex world that we’re living in. But on the other hand, marketers have a wonderful opportunity today of redefining the agenda and driving transformation in their respective organizations. So, what we were looking for as a jury was those who had a body of work that was really driving change, assimilating all the complexities; we were looking for that one standout idea which we believe was unique in that particular sector and had elements of driving large scale transformation. It was a very enriching experience, I must say, to just go through all the entries and look at the amazing quality of work that’s happening across multiple sectors. Congratulations to the winners.”
Head of Marketing, Fastrack - A Titan Company
Marketing Manager, PepsiCo India
ex-Senior Director, P&G
Chief Marketing Officer, Equentis Wealth Advisory Services Private Ltd.
Marketing Director- Innovation, India, Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd.
General Manager, Marketing, Garnier, L’Oreal India
Executive Director, Marketing, Samsonite South Asia
Head - Global Brand Marketing, Tech Mahindra
Vice President – Marketing, Bira 91
Fractional CMO, Sleepyhead (ex-SVP - Marketing, Damensch)
Head of Marketing, Haldiram’s Snacks Pvt Ltd.
Head - Brand & Consumer Marketing, Spotify India
VP - Head of International Marketing, Rebel Foods
Senior Category Lead - Brand Marketing, ITC Limited
VP - Marketing, Castrol
Head of Brand Marketing, ixigo
Chief Marketing Officer, Jockey India, Page Industries Limited
Head of Marketing, Tata Cliq Luxury
Chief Marketing Officer, Britannia Bel Foods Private Ltd.
Assistant Vice President, DSP Mutual Funds
CMO, RSH Global
Senior Marketing Manager, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals Limited
Vice President – Marketing, Burger King India
Associate Vice President, Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
Head marketing & eCommerce, NAOS Skin Care India (Bioderma)
Senior Marketing Director, Category Leader Health Care, Indian Subcontinent, P&G
VP & Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar
Marketing Head, Mia by Tanishq, Titan Company Limited
Vice President and Head of Marketing, Kaya Limited
Global Chief Marketing Officer, VAHDAM India
Category Head, Hair Care, L’Oréal Professional, L’Oréal India
Head of Marketing, Acer India
Chief Marketing Officer, Quick Heal
Head of Marketing, MG Motors India Pvt. Ltd.
COO, Noise
Head of Marketing, Procter & Gamble Health
Vice President- Marketing & Trade Marketing, AB InBev India
Chief Marketing Officer, Malabar Gold & Diamonds
Assistant General Manager, Astral Pipes
Marketing Director, Bacardi India
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