THE HIGH-FLYERS
IMPACT is back with the second edition of its 40 Under Forty list, which recognises extraordinary achievers under the age of 40 years across the Indian Media, Marketing and Advertising industry. The property, instituted last year, aims to recognise people who stand out from the crowd - young talent stepping up to shoulder greater responsibility, in senior management roles and even heading organisations; entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s making an impact across the ecosystem and agency professionals who have been singled out for superlative work. (Standing): Udhay Sodhi, formerly of Sony Pictures Networks India, Nawal Ahuja of exchange4media Group, Rana Barua of Havas Media, Janardan Pandey of Nett Value Media, Sharad Puri of JW Marriott Mumbai THE JURY PROCESS We had a fantastic set of jury members, and the process was very transparent. We went through a rigorous process to choose 40 out of 85 entries presented to us. I must say the entries were fabulous. We have such a huge talent pool in our country, that too young people in their 20s and early 30s… this gives us a lot of hope. It was very difficult to choose the 40 out of 85 because everyone was good in his or her own field of work. They had proved themselves, and had contributed to the growth of their organization, to society as well as found new ways of looking at business. Overall, leading the jury was a great experience. It was a tough job for the jury, because the entire list that we had to choose from had very bright guys, high achievers in their own space. For finally getting the entire list down to 40, we should get a pat on our back! Overall, it was a very good mix of marketers, start-up founders, agency leads, creative guys... and that’s why the job was difficult. At one point, we thought why don’t we make it 80 under 40!
We came across a lot of exciting entries from digital, creative, media professionals, and some great marketers who had been nominated. Overall, we saw some really fabulous work with regard to how brands have connected to consumers across various platforms. We came across good brand stories, and how people had led businesses to create huge impact in a short period of time. So, it was really a great experience.
What really impressed me was the outstanding quality of entries this year. It made the jury’s job tough because we had to select top 40 out of a shortlist of 85. A lot of discussions happened, but we easily arrived at a unanimous decision on the top 40. One among the nominees was 23 years old, and it’s amazing to see such young talent out there doing a fabulous job.
The best thing about judging ‘40 under 40’ or awards like these is the exciting bit that how as a country we have become so much younger. Such young people are taking on strong leadership roles across categories. The shortlist was absolutely fabulous. It was extremely difficult to come to the top 40 because all of them deserve a name. Finally, we are very happy with the list we have come up with.
It’s not an easy task to be on the list. It’s an achievement for the ones who have been selected to be on IMPACT’s 40 Under Forty list. They are a very capable set of people, who have done some great work. The jury comprised a very mature group of people. We all argued, we challenged points of view, everybody was very vocal… but the best part was it was never personal. There were very good nominees. In fact, it was nice to see the amount of talent that’s there at a really young age in the marketing ecosystem. It was nice to see what kind of work people are doing in the agencies and in companies. Some very creative work is happening, also some very innovative work. Kudos to IMPACT for putting all of that together to create this list of 40 very talented people in the industry.
Being on the jury was a very exciting experience. When I first saw the 85+ shortlist presented to us, my first thought was how are we going to whittle this down to 40?! All the 85 were strong contestants, and they had achieved so much even though they were below 40 in age. Fortunately, we had a very cohesive jury. The whole process went very smooth, and almost all the 40 were a unanimous choice.
We had a very impressive list of nominees. I thought at first that selecting 40 people would be an easy task but it wasn’t! Real deep conversations happened and with a lot of difficulty, the list was finalized. Looking at the profile of the contestants, I am really happy that this industry has got so much of talent and so many young people are doing different things and doing so well. Bhaskar Ramesh, Age: 39 | Director – FMCG, Technology, Auto, Media & Entertainment, Google India Driving ad spends on Digital Bhaskar Ramesh heads FMCG, Technology, Automotive, Media & Entertainment industries for Google India. In this role, he has been leading high performance teams that do consultative selling by strategically partnering large mass market companies and brands, driving business results through Digital. He specializes in advising CXOs on marketing in a digital world and how to transform their business in an increasingly Digital-first India. Having been with Google India for seven years, he has successfully contributed to the growth of ad-spends on YouTube and is responsible for driving revenue and product strategy in the fastest growing online video ads market. He is also an avid public speaker evangelizing Digital and Video at multiple industry forums. The Big Hits: Abhishek Desai,Age: 36 | Associate Director, Marketing Operations, Indian Sub-Continent, Procter & Gamble Leader of billion-dollar brands Abhishek Desai is an end-to-end business leader with global, regional and local experience of leading iconic billion-dollar brands like Gillette, Oral-B, Tide, Head & Shoulders, Downy, Pampers, Duracell, among others. Abhishek is responsible for country marketing operations for P&G India and has a multi-functional team of 25 managers and an indirect organization of 7,000 people reporting to him. He is part of the India leadership team shaping the strategies, goals and resourcing across categories. He is a strong advocate for transparency in the media industry and for brands being a ‘force for good and force for growth’ as is evident from the socially responsible campaigns by P&G. The Big Hits: Akila Jayaraman,Age: 37 | Senior Account Director, Essence India Software meets media, advertising Over a 15-year career, Akila Jayaraman has built a rare skillset that spans from consulting and software to media and advertising. She is considered an authority in mobile marketing and leads the integrated media mandate (offline and online) for the third largest advertiser in India - Google. Her unique expertise in app marketing, complemented by a depth of knowledge in Digital, Mobile and Consumer Research makes Akila an upcoming industry leader to watch out for. Managing a team of 25 members, she leads media strategy and planning for Google’s entire portfolio of over 15 brands in India. Akila is also a regular contributor to the industry through authorship, speaking at conferences, and being on industry award juries. The Big Hits: Abhishek Rege, Age: 40 | CEO, Endemol Shine India Content producer par excellence Abhishek Rege is the CEO of Endemol Shine India, part of the world’s largest independent production company that produces content across screens, languages and genres in TV, Films and the Digital space. Prior to his current role, as the COO of Endemol Shine India, he led the company’s business (now valued at Rs 300 cr) in TV & Films. Abhishek has played a crucial role in driving Endemol Shine India’s growth by identifying and growing key market segments like the regional business. His global exposure includes an association with Viacom 18 at New Jersey in the USA, as Director of Business Operations, where he helped to set up the business operations for the Americas. The Big Hits: Amaresh Godbole, Age: 37 | CEO, Digitas India A dynamic digital leader At 36, Amaresh Godbole, CEO, Digitas India already has several noteworthy achievements to his credit – taking on the challenge in 2009 of transforming Digitas into the digital behemoth that it is today, along the way going on to receive multiple promotions, from Managing Director at 32 – making him Publicis Groupe India’s youngest P&L leader, to CEO of the agency at 35, leading a 450-strong team with multiple large client wins and a healthy growth pipeline. He was also responsible for setting up a Data Centre of Excellence which now powers data-led thinking for all Publicis Communications agencies and has directly resulted in several key client wins. The Big Hits: Amish Devgan, Age: 38 | Managing Editor, News18 Hindi Channels TV18’s fearless face Amish is not just a popular face on television but has all the necessary skills to manage multiple teams under him. With close to two decades of journalistic experience, he has become a household name among the Hindi news audience with his inimitable style. Known for his fearless journalism and undaunted attitude while leading some of the biggest exposes, Amish is a prime example of an impactful, inspiring leader under the age of 40. He is the Managing Editor of News18 Uttar Pradesh/ Uttarakhand, News18 Madhya Pradesh/ Chhattisgarh and News18 Rajasthan. He currently hosts India’s top Hindi debate shows Aar Paar on News18 India and Takkar on CNBC Awaaz. The Big Hits: Amit Tiwari, Age: 39 | Vice President, Marketing, Havells India All for digital transformation Amit Tiwari is a marketing professional with a solid experience of 18 years working with some of the most talented teams. During this period, he has built and expanded multi-million dollar businesses for leading global and Indian brands such as Havells, Philips, Hero Honda, Nestle, Perfetti, and ITC. He is a thought leader in the digital realm with a keen interest in automation, data analytics, IoT, AI, and a strong advocate of digital transformation. He has a proven track record of enabling brand transformation through digitization of consumer decision journey. He currently manages an annual budget of over $60 million. The Big Hits: Anant Goenka, Age: 33 | Executive Director, Indian Express Group Credibility in a click-bait era At a time of click-bait, loud and unreliable news, Anant Goenka is credited with successfully growing Indian Express Group’s brand of courageous journalism to a younger, digitally-enabled readership. Its investigative journalism, from Panama Papers and WhatsApp lynchings to empty engineering colleges has set off policy changes and shaped public discourse. Today, not only is the Indian Express Group one of India’s largest and most credible newspaper groups, it is also India’s second largest and amongst the world’s largest digital news media groups reaching well over 148 million unique users a month, in six languages across the world. Anant’s address at the Gateway of India on the 10th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, his timely pieces on drugs in Punjab, the India-Pakistan border parade and on the future of media in a polarised climate have been widely shared. The Big Hits: ASHWIN SURESH, ADITI SHRIVASTAVA, ANIRUDH PANDITA, Age: 35, 35 & 35 | Founders, Pocket Aces Pocket Aces is a multi-format, digital entertainment company focused on mobile video, making highly engaging content for the millennial audience via its socially-distributed channels, FilterCopy (short videos), Dice Media (multi-episode web series), and Gobble (food videos) as well as a direct-to-consumer platform: Loco (live and interactive game show app). Major investors in Pocket Aces include Sequoia Capital, North Base Media, 3one4 Capital and the co-founders of India’s largest IT services firm, Infosys. Ashwin Suresh is the founder of Pocket Aces. He was earlier the Creative Head at Junglee Pictures, Times of India Group’s film studio, which he set up in 2013. Before that, he was a Creative Executive at Reliance Entertainment, where he produced a variety of Hindi feature films. Before entering the Indian entertainment industry, Ashwin worked at Citigroup and StepStone Global in New York, first in investment banking and subsequently in private equity investing. He is an amateur musician and loves to play sports in his spare time. He calls Dubai (where he grew up), New York (where he met his wife) and Mumbai (where he currently resides) home. Prior to founding Pocket Aces, Anirudh Pandita was at Valo Group LLC, a value-oriented hedge fund based in Philadelphia. Prior to that, he worked in investment banking and private equity investing at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Istithmar World Capital in New York, London, and Dubai. Anirudh is a huge Liverpool FC fan, a massive cricket buff, and a film fanatic. He loves playing poker, reading history and discussing politics in his spare time. Prior to Pocket Aces, Aditi Shrivastava set up the Intellecap Impact Investment Network, an angel network investing in for-profit businesses, dedicated to creating a positive social impact across India and East Africa. She currently advises them on strategy and growth. She also serves on the Board of Jibu, an affordable clean drinking water enterprise in East Africa. Aditi is passionate about problem-solving, dance, travel, and making the world a more equitable place. The Big Hits: Geetika Chadha, Age: 36 | Senior Director, Content+, Mindshare Creator of compelling content Geetika Chadha leads the charge when it comes to driving content for brands like PepsiCo, Volvo, Grofers, Facebook and many more at Mindshare. While the industry was still trying to wrap its head around the ever-expanding content ecosystem, Geetika had already graduated to the practice of creating stories that can solve business challenges for brands. She specializes in creating stories with powerful consumer insights, through the use of compelling story-telling techniques and crafting stories that can solve business problems for brands. The Big Hits: Karan Kumar Gupta, age: 32 | Managing Director, Zirca Digital Solutions and Aidem Ventures The multi-skilled entrepreneur Karan Kumar Gupta is the Managing Director of two independent media companies, Zirca Digital Solutions and Aidem Ventures. Young and ambitious, he comes from a first-generation entrepreneurial family that continues to disrupt the status quo and promote change. He applies his leadership acumen to foster innovation in his multiple businesses, strategically diversifying across media and real estate. He has continued the trend of strategic foresight by growing Zirca’s programmatic and search portfolios over the last two years; this has led to profitability from new streams of business within the digital sphere. The Big Hits: Ferzad Palia, Age: 40 | Head-Youth, Music and English Entertainment, Viacom18 Viacom18’s serial entrepreneur Ferzad Palia embodies the entrepreneurial culture of Viacom18 and was the youngest executive to be inducted amongst the leadership team at Viacom18. At the age of 28, he was spearheading the English Entertainment division of the network. Elevated to Business Head & GM of Vh1 in 2010, he turned around its fortune by growing the brand on linear and non-linear platforms including live entertainment. Ferzad was then entrusted with conceiving and spearheading Viacom18’s entry into the English General Entertainment genre. Under Ferzad’s leadership, Comedy Central and Colors Infinity command over 50% share of English entertainment viewing in India. In early 2016, Ferzad’s portfolio was expanded to include the network’s Youth & Music business, and he has enhanced it by ramping up original content creation on MTV through refreshing youth-oriented shows across linear and on-demand platforms. The Big Hits: Anushree Tainwala, Age: 33 | Executive Director, Marketing, Samsonite South Asia The versatile marketer Anushree Tainwala has been instrumental in getting the company to focus on sustainable growth. She has been working on the launch of new brands in India that have been globally acquired by Samsonite - to plan how the brand and products will fit into the Indian market and to work on localising the brand to cater to the varied tastes and needs of the Indian consumer. Under her guidance, the women’s travel category was recognized and the Parisian travel brand Lipault was brought to Indian shores. The Big Hits: Gaurav Mehta, Age: 39 | Chief Marketing Officer, GirnarSoft The new-age auto marketer The Big Hits: Karan Bedi, Age: 33 | CEO, MX Player Game-changer of the OTT space Karan Bedi is a key opinion-maker in India’s media-tech ecosystem. As the India CEO of MX Player, one of the world’s largest entertainment apps, he leads a team that has as impact on over 100m DAUs and over 275m MAUs worldwide. In India, MX Player is the first screen for over 75m DAUs and 175m MAUs, a depth of distribution that is unrivalled and has changed the viewing patterns of millions. MX Player sees its streaming user-base increasing multifold every month. Karan oversees all aspects of the business, including product, technology, content, sales, marketing and operations. The Big Hits: Gopa Kumar, Age: 39 | COO, Isobar India Leader of digital transformation Gopa Kumar is at the forefront of the agency’s success stories over the last year in India. As of this year, the agency has played a notable role in the sector by touching almost every consumer category, ranging from automobile to telecom, travel to electronics, entertainment to home furnishings, and publishing to apparel. Gopa also leads the Social and Consumer Insights & Data Analytics initiative for Isobar India. He started the Branded Content Practice for Isobar India in 2019. The Big Hits: Jaskaran Kapany, Age: 40 | Head-Marketing, Paytm At the forefront of Paytm’s rise Jaskaran Singh Kapany heads Marketing at a mobile commerce brand which has over 400 million users. He has been responsible for making Paytm one of the most trusted household names in India. Since 2015, he has been instrumental in spearheading Paytm’s overall brand strategy, planning and implementation, while closing multi-million dollar deals like BCCI India Cricket and IPL to take Paytm to the masses as part of a structured marketing strategy. Jaskaran’s efforts have been instrumental in Paytm’s exponential growth across multiple business categories. Prior to Paytm, as Vice President, Marketing & E-Commerce, ICICI Prudential, he spearheaded all brand-building initiatives and was responsible for the company’s successful marketing and business efforts over the years. He also managed the company’s e-commerce business. The Big Hits: Kranti Gada, Age: 39 | COO, Shemaroo Entertainment Limited Strategic business leader As COO of Shemaroo Entertainment Limited, Kranti heads the revenue function of the company and leads its strategic business initiatives. She is also responsible for controlling diverse business operations and oversees functioning of key verticals like digital media, domestic and international business. Kranti joined Shemaroo in 2006 after a successful stint in marketing at PepsiCo. Under her leadership, Shemaroo has successfully set up the mobile business in India, became one of the early adopters of YouTube for monetization of its content, and adopted the digital outlook and incubated the company’s expansion into the Direct to Home (DTH) segment. The Big Hits: Rohit Raj, Varun Duggirala & Pooja Jauhari, Age: 37, 36, 34 | Creative Chief and Co-founder, Content Chief and Co-founder, CEO, The Glitch The new-age brand builders Founded in 2009, The Glitch was initially started to develop video properties that exploited the power of the Internet, and quickly grew to marry technology and strategy to the world of story-telling. Headed by Rohit Raj and Varun Duggirala, the duo employed their strong video backgrounds and quirks gained from their stints at Channel [V] and MTV respectively to tell brand stories effectively. The Glitch steadily grew to become a full service creative agency by offering the entire gamut of creative services led by Pooja Jauhari, who was brought on board as CEO along with a team of over 200 people. Pooja, whose career includes stints at JWT, Unilever and Worldwide Media, has entrenched herself in every function of The Glitch. Over the years, these leaders have created an agency that has worked with the likes of Netflix, ICICI Bank, Lakme, Cornetto, Tresemme, Whisper, Pears, Tinder, Discovery Kids, GSK, Abbott, Star, TLC India, Lakme Salon and more, firmly establishing themselves as a result-driven agency. The testament of their success lies in the growth of The Glitch in the past 10 years. The Big Hits: Faye D’Souza, Age: 38 | Former Executive Editor, Mirror Now Voice of the Indian Citizen Faye D’Souza has been the youngest woman editor of a news channel in India. She has broken through the world of loud TV news debates, with a different style of news reporting and created a new genre of television news that focuses on citizens and not politics. As the former host of Mirror Now’s flagship show, The Urban Debate, Faye took up key issues like women’s rights, children’s safety, lower commodity prices, citizen rights and social justice. Even after having moved on from Mirror Now, Faye continues to use her immense social media presence to create awareness about critical issues affecting citizens across the country. The Big Hits: Mihir Karkare, Age: 33 | Co-founder & EVP, Mirum India The young entrepreneur Mihir Karkare believes that the greatest contribution to his clients is the tangible impact on their business that Mirum’s effort is able to bring. He was recognized in IMPACT’s 30 Under 30 list in 2015 and much of his work has been recognized at various national and international platforms. Despite hailing from a technology background, he has a natural talent to view a business or communication problem from the end consumer’s point of view. He co-founded Social Wavelength that was acquired by WPP in 2014 and integrated into the Group’s Mirum network of digital agencies. In his role, Mihir has provided leadership to the digital mandates of several large brands over the course of the last decade. These include Star, Intel Developer Network, Idea Cellular, Franklin Templeton, KFC and several others. The Big Hits: Rajiv Dingra, Age: 34 | Founder and CEO, WATConsult A futuristic entrepreneur Creativity and growth are what Rajiv Dingra is most passionate about. He has launched four specialized verticals including e-commercify (e-commerce consulting arm), InnoWAT (Innovation Lab), SocialCRM247 (Social Media command center) and Recogn (Digital Research wing) which enables WATConsult to service specialised needs for clients. He not only survived the 2008 Lehmann brothers crash which pretty much put a pause on all marketing spends, but also scaled up his agency during very competitive times between 2012 and 2015, before it was acquired by Dentsu Aegis Network. During 2017 and 2018, when the global advertising world was in turmoil, WATConsult grew from 285 people to 400 people, with a 60% growth in net revenue and a 54% growth in bottomline. The Big Hits: Kunal Kishore Sinha, Age: 39 | Founder-Director, Value 360 Communications The enterprising PR specialist Kunal Kishore Sinha is an accomplished strategic communications professional and business leader whose entrepreneurial spirit resulted in building a fast-growing PR consultancy in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Under his leadership, Value 360 Communications has had an average run of 22% revenue growth year-on-year for the past 10 years and 400% revenue growth in the last four years. The company’s client portfolio includes brands like Olx, Paytm, Urbanclap, goibibo.com, Lufthansa Airlines, Oriflame, Mindtree, ASUS, MG Motor India, Cleartrip, Lego, Transsion Holdings and many others. Under his leadership, the organisation has had a lot of big wins and retained 70% of its clients. The company, valued at Rs 20 crore, has won several accolades in local and global PR platforms. The Big Hits: Mayank Jain, Age: 40 | CEO, Hindi News Cluster, News18 Network, TV18 Broadcast Ltd The all-rounder from TV18 For someone whose favourite cricketer is Kapil Dev, there is little wonder that Mayank has made his mark in the corporate world as an all-rounder. In a career spanning nearly 16 years, he has held diverse roles in sales, marketing, corporate strategy, and P&L management. From being the youngest product head at Samsung where he ran a P&L at the age of 26 years, to heading global marketing for a software applications business at British Telecom, to helping pioneer key account management at Star; Mayank’s career journey has taken him across leading corporations in Media, Tech and Telecom. He has recently taken up reins as the CEO - Hindi news cluster at Network18, where his focus is on accelerating viewership and revenue growth at the rapidly growing news network. The Big Hits: Lara Balsara Vajifdar, Age: 38 | Executive Director, Madison World Leading by example Lara Balsara believes in leading through example. She has played a key role at Madison over the last 15 years and is responsible for several organizational development initiatives. Today, Madison World is a diversified communications group, with a billing of about Rs 40 billion. It has 24 units across 11 specialized functional areas in Advertising, Media, Digital, Business Analytics, OOH, Events, Activations, PR, Retail, Entertainment, and Sports; employing about 1,000 communication professionals across cities in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Bangladesh. Lara also oversees marketing, business development, HR and Legal for Madison World corporate as well as various Madison units. As a mother of two young children, Lara is able to effectively balance her two roles at home and work and champions the cause of women at the workplace. The Big Hits: Lara Balsara has to her credit a few key strategic moves: Sriparna Tikekar, Age: 32 | Co-Founder & Chief Content Officer, ScoopWhoop Media Driver of influential youth brands Sriparna Tikekar helps ScoopWhoop reach over 30 million young Indians monthly across three digital publications ScoopWhoop.com, Vagabomb.com and ScoopWhoop Hindi. In the last six years, ScoopWhoop has grown to be the largest and the most recognizable new-media company and one of the most influential youth culture brands in India. Under her leadership, ScoopWhoop today attracts 30m unique visitors, 250m video views and over 400m content engagements across social and owned platforms monthly. So far, ScoopWhoop has raised $8m from Kalaari Capital and Bharti-Softbank, making it one of the very few media companies in India that the market is ready to back. The Big Hits: Nandini Singh Divan, Age: 39 | Business Head, Star Bharat A category-builder Nandini Singh Divan has been associated with Star India since 2005, with experience across consumer insights, content strategy, frontline sales, leading partnerships with clients and studios, and running a P&L for brands within the Star India portfolio. Having joined Star India as a Senior Manager, Research and Consumer Insights, Nandini took on the role of Business Head for Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Bharat in March 2018. Prior to Star India, Nandini was a Planning Manager at MindShare, a WPP group company, where she managed brands like Clinic Plus, and Pepsi. The Big Hits: Raghavendra Hunsur, Age: 34 | Business Head, Zee Kannada, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited Whizkid of Kannada TV Raghavendra Hunsur is the Business Head of Zee Kannada. He has been associated with various Kannada GECs in the past. He has developed the unique ability to craft shows that have won the hearts of Kannada TV audiences across genres. Raghavendra has been with Zee Kannada for over five years now and has been influential in nurturing the growth of the channel. He became the Business Head at the age of 30, making him the youngest in the TV industry to have earned this title. He has conceptualized popular non-fiction shows such as ‘Weekend With Ramesh’, ‘Drama Juniors’, ‘Sa Re Ga Ma Pa’ (Senior and Junior) in Kannada and ‘Hemmeya Kannadiga’. The Big Hits: Sandeep Anand, Age: 39 | CMO, Zomato Driver of the Zomato growth story Sandeep has successfully led many campaigns key to Zomato’s growth, and is responsible for the food delivery marketing initiatives at Zomato. He has been instrumental in introducing Zomato to the real India that lies beyond Tier I and Tier II cities in India. With over 15 years of experience in building brands and delivering results across emerging and developed markets, Sandeep has managed an exhaustive portfolio of brands and categories that deal with diverse sets of consumers both demographically and psychographically. Prior to Zomato, Sandeep worked with GSK Consumer Healthcare India, establishing long term growth strategy for the brand’s most consumer-facing products - Horlicks and Eno. He has also worked with Reckitt Benckiser India for their beauty vertical (Veet & Clearasil) and the healthcare vertical (Disprin & Strepsils). He began his career with Ranbaxy, after graduating from MDI, Gurgaon. The Big Hits: Pallav Jain, Sarfaraz Khimani, Age: 37, 37 | Co-CEOs, Performics India Partners in a digital revolution Pallav Jain and Sarfaraz Khimani are the co-CEOs of Performics India, a performance marketing agency founded in 2003 and acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2013. Tthe duo led the integration of Convonix with Starcom MediaVest Group in India post the acquisition. Over the past decade, the duo have worked with some of India’s largest corporate houses including Reliance Industries, Tata Group, Kotak Group, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and more recently with disruptive new age firms like Ola, Hotstar, Zoomcar and Republic TV on their digital media mandates. Over the past couple of years, the company has grown 3x in size with signature wins like HDFC Bank, Zee5, Livspace, Zoomcar and many more. Performics India, today, is amongst the top 5 markets for Performics globally in terms of revenue. Pallav and Sarfaraz are a part of the Publicis Media Executive Council in India responsible for charting the growth of the organization. They are also on the Performics Global Steering Committee, which is responsible for shaping the global product offering and narrative for Performics. The Big Hits: Ruchir Tiwari, Age: 39 | Cluster Head, Hindi Movie Business, ZEEL Hero of TV entertainment Under Ruchir Tiwari, the Zee Hindi Movie Cluster is the most dominant player in the category. Despite extremely challenging market conditions in the previous year, the cluster has grown to gain 28BPS market-share in FY 19-20 and gained a market-share of 36.2%. Ruchir’s vision has been driven by an aggressive content acquisition strategy which swept the market; in 2019 every blockbuster is with Zee Cinema. Keeping the emergence of OTT and TV as parallel content viewing platforms, Ruchir has changed the game of acquisition to benefit both platforms. The Big Hits: Rituparna Dasgupta, Age: 39 | Principal Partner, Strategy, Mindshare Fulcrum Driver of the ‘transformation’ agenda Rituparna Dasgupta, aka Ritu, has been the trailblazer of Mindshare’s ‘transformation’ agenda, and central to data-driven thought leadership and product initiatives, enabled by technology. She currently heads Strategy at Mindshare Fulcrum, the dedicated team for servicing FMCG giant, Hindustan Unilever. Her responsibilities include evangelising a data and digital culture within the ‘purple’ family in India. She leads all data, product, insights and analytics initiatives. Ritu has conceptualised and engineered novel products leveraging the power of data, analytics and technology. The Big Hits: Shashank Surana, Age: 32 | VP, New Product Development, DS Group Making sweeter business deals Shashank Surana’s contribution to the DS Group’s foray into the confectionery segment with mini gums Chingles in various flavours is noteworthy. He plays a key role in product development starting from the ideation, research, packaging and marketing of all new products. The most recent achievement has been the outstanding success of Pulse candy, in the hard-boiled candy segment. Shashank has capitalized on market opportunities through his functional proficiency in the areas of Brand Management, Business Development & Planning and Team Management. He has also played a significant role in expanding the confectionery product basket in the last few years with new flavours and the right marketing alliances and promotions. The Big Hits: Akshay Seth, Age: 34 | Group Creative Director, Ogilvy Mumbai An unstoppable creative force Akshay Seth has been lending a new voice to big brands such as Bournvita & Brooke Bond Red Label, previously defined by traditional TVCs. His work has not only given the agency’s clients results and awards but also been widely circulated globally and is often quoted as a reference by others. What sets him apart is his ability to pro-actively create opportunities for clients’ goals. This was seen in Bournvita where an idea suggested by him has now become an annual brand-disruption event. His skill to transition smoothly across all mediums and unwavering passion help him outshine others. Akshay currently helms creative responsibilities for marquee brands like Bournvita (India & Africa) and Red Label Tea (India, Pakistan, South East Asia). The Big Hits: Suchit Bansal, Age: 40 | Head of Business - Personal Care, Marico Limited A marketer who is going places Suchit Bansal, an IIM Indore alumnus and a 10-year veteran of PepsiCo Marketing, is now the Head of Personal Care and Grooming business at Marico. After a decade-long stint at PepsiCo where he worked on marquee brands like Pepsi, Lays, Slice and a global assignment on Mountain Dew; Suchit shifted focus to digital businesses and spent 4.5 years driving growth for travel e-commerce firm MakeMyTrip. He rose from being Director Marketing to Head of Business for the Corporate Travel arm of MakeMyTrip. In his third corporate assignment, Suchit is now responsible for driving Marico’s foray into the personal care business. A reader and a traveller at heart, Suchit reads one book every week and indulges in weekend getaways to explore new places whenever possible. The Big Hits: Sudhanshu Nagpal, Age: 36 | Associate Director- Marketing (Biscuits), Mondelez India A category builder As part of the country leadership team & Biscuit AMEA leadership, Sudhanshu was instrumental in defining business vision, culture, values and current and future key organizational agenda. He changed the business growth trajectory and established biscuits as one of the lead growth engines for the India business as well as the APAC, Middle East & Africa (AMEA) biscuit business. After joining Mondelez India in January 2005 as a Management Trainee, Sudhanshu worked across sales, brand/category management, innovation and customer marketing functions in categories like Chocolates and Biscuits. The Big Hits: Sukhleen Aneja, Age: 36 | CMO, Marketing Director, Hygiene-Home, South Asia, Reckitt Benckiser PLC Driving marquee brands with finesse Sukhleen is a passionate sales and marketing professional with over 15 years of rich experience in leading diverse teams at top FMCG companies. Prior to her current role, she has successfully led diverse multi-cultural teams in both marketing ops and global innovations at Hindustan Unilever and L’Oréal Paris on marquee brands. In her current role, she is responsible for handling marketing operations for RB Hygiene Home portfolio across India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A passionate traveller, she drives multiple projects and diverse multi-cultural teams with equal élan. The Big Hits: Sumit Mathur, Age: 39 | Director-Marketing, Kellogg South Asia A marketer with great taste As the Director-Marketing for Kellogg South Asia and a member of the AMEA Commercial leadership team, Sumit Mathur has successfully led the foray into the breakfast cereal category in India and expanded Kellogg’s share in emerging wholesome snacking occasions with launch of Kellogg’s Chocos Fills. With his thought leadership, the organisation has defined a powerful brand purpose for Kellogg, pioneered culinary culture in its food design and built next generation digital marketing and analytics capability. The team under his leadership has received numerous accolades including #SingleasaPringle, the Valentine campaign which won Silver and Bronze at Goafest 2018. The Big Hits: Vikas Agarwal, Age: 39 | General Manager, OnePlus Architect of a success story Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus has spearheaded OnePlus’ India operations ever since the brand was launched in India. He joined OnePlus as its first employee and the General Manager for the India region in October 2014. His focused approach and strong execution helped OnePlus take on stronger brands like Apple and Samsung and forge market leadership for the brand in the premium segment in 2018, just three-and-a-half years after it began India operations. His core responsibilities continue to include optimal utilization of limited resources, nurturing relationships with strategic partners such as Amazon, Reliance, Croma and strengthening OnePlus’ global and premium brand positioning largely through word of mouth. The Big Hits: Vikram Pandey, Age: 37 | National Creative Director, Leo Burnett The non-conformist adman Vikram Pandey, better known as Spiky, has broken most codes of the advertising industry, including not jumping jobs. Spiky tells us that in an era where creative professionals change agencies like they are swiping on Tinder, he has remained faithful to Leo Burnett, 13 years and counting - growing from junior copy-writer to National Creative Director. Some of the most famous work from Leo Burnett is to be credited to him – these include Reliance Mobile’s Bol India Bol, KBC 2014, HDFC Life Ghungroo, Tata Capital’s Salaam Loans and Spotify’s launch campaign. He has constantly pushed the boundaries of technology, creativity and media for brands like Tata Capital and Spotify. The Big Hits:
(Sitting): Mahesh Shetty of Viacom18, Suresh Balarishna of The Hindu Group, MV Shreyams Kumar of Mathrubhumi, Megha Tata of Discovery Communications India and Basant Dhawan of Network18
A shortlist of 85 names along with comprehensive profiles of each person was presented to the jury. While deliberating on the various profiles, the members of the jury laid out certain criteria for evaluation such as – the person’s contribution to the role, the size of the business they handle, the impact of their work on the profession and the industry at large, and any other extraordinary achievements. After a day of discussion and deliberation, the jury arrived at the final list of IMPACT 40 Under Forty 2019.WHAT THE JURY HAD TO SAY
Joint Managing Director, Mathrubhumi (Jury Chair)
Head - Network Sales, Viacom18
CEO, English & Business News Cluster, Network18
Managing Director - S Asia,
Discovery Communications
CEO, Havas Group India
General Manager,
JW Marriott, Juhu
Former Business Head - Digital, Sony Pictures Networks India
Chief Revenue Officer, The Hindu Group
Founder-Director, Nett Value Media Pvt Ltd
Gaurav Mehta has in his portfolio leading consumer Internet brands like CarDekho, Gaadi, Zigwheels, BikeDekho, Oto.com (Indonesia) amongst others. In his previous stint, he was Chief Marketing Officer, South Asia for OLX, where he drove OLX to be among the most trusted and admired consumer Internet brands of the country.
in 2018
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