Abhishek is Chief Executive Officer of Hill + Knowlton Strategies India, overseeing H+K's growing business and introducing new offerings from the global network including behavioural science communications model, SMARTERTM and communications training academy, Knowledge+ and Content + Publishing. He also focuses on providing strategic counsel for clients and serves as senior advisor to c-suite across India.

With almost two decades of experience in the communications field, Abhishek has led many roles during his career that have added value to clients, built and protected reputation of companies and developed creative engagement strategies that make a difference. In his quest to learn and grow, apart from agency experience where he served as a trusted advisor to some of the leading Indian and global companies, Abhishek also had his own entrepreneurial venture that specialised in integrated marketing communications and design and internal communications.

In the past, Abhishek has also managed Public Affairs and Communications for American Express in India and South Asia Region. He led the communication strategy for their global corporate payments and travel business. He was also responsible for driving employee value proposition, corporate social responsibility and policy communications and was an India representative of the knowledge committee at AMCHAM on CSR.

Abhishek is a theatre-enthusiast, a cricketer and an avid reader.

National President of the Public Relations Society of India for past 16 years and Ex. Board Member, International Public Relations Association and first Asian to be the Secretary of the Global Alliance of Public Relations and Communications Management - a consortium of 65 national Public Relations organizations. Ex. General Manager I/C (Corporate Communications Administration, Welfare & CSR ) with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

A Post Graduate in Law and Public Administration and the first Indian to achieve Doctorate in Public Relations. 37 years experience in mass communication as a Cartoonist, Feature Writer, Radio/TV newsreader and a Public Relations practitioner.

Valuable experience in the Fortune Global 500 company Indian Oil Corporation, in the area of Public Relations, branding, event Management, Advertising, Publicity, Image Building, Internal & External communication,Administration,security , estate , Ministry coordination, CSR and Community Welfare.

Recipient of the Indira Super Achiever Award 2006 presented by Indira Group of Institutes, Pune, Indira Gandhi IFJA Award-2006 presented by Indian farm journalist Association, New Delhi, Rajiv Gandhi Award for Human Excellence - 2002, Indian Express Award for Public Awareness Advertising; Rashtriya Gaurav Award 1997, Institute of Marketing & Management Award for Excellence as Advertising and PR Manager-Award for the 'PR man of the year' in 1998; Press & Public Relations Association Award for PR Research-1990; Hind Gaurav Award 1999; PR Voice Award as PR Man of the Year-1998; Asian Achievers Award-2011 and Bharat Nirman Award-2011 and 2018.

Uttrakhand State Council for Science and Technology, Dehradun decorated Dr Pathak for outstanding contribution in the field of Science Communication on 28th February,2020.

India Association Congress organised at Le Meridian Gurugram having 300 Associations as active participants honored Dr Ajit Pathak withn "Most Inspiring Leader Award" recognising his contributions to the Public Relations Society of India,International Public Relations Association and the Global Alliance of Public Relations and Communication Management.

Actively associated with the Chief Information Commissioner and CIC in showcasing RTI to the public at large and the media as the Media Advisor, Central Information Commission. Unique work of explaining RTI through cartooning.Recently published book on RTI,"Right to Information:Realities and Perception.

Meaningful association with academic activities and education of PR and communcation. Member of the IIMC committee and the governing council of Makhanlal Chaturvedi University,Bhopal. Programme Director for high profile top management training programmes of SCOPE.

Honoured by Amity University as the Honorary Professor in Jan,2018.

A Poet, Radio and TV News Reader and Cartoonist for a number of premier News Papers and Magazines.

The head honcho of Communicate India, Founder and CEO, Akshaara Lalwani has built from scratch, a 120 people strong full-service brand strategy firm in just a decade of being in action. Starting off at 23, today Lalwani is a force to reckon in the industry, as she heads strategies and helms communications for global blue-chip companies, newborn startups and promising unicorns.

Lalwani started Communicate India as a PR company but transformed it into a 360 communications firm offering services in marketing, PR, digital, advertising. This agency's strong track record and CEO's hands-on attitude earned an impressive client portfolio including Hersheys, Cipla, Gaana, Reliance Jewels, World Bank, Waaree Energies, University of South Wales to name a few.

International market entries to India, raising funding, tackling crisis, branding and rebranding, pivoting and advising on business plans, Lalwani has established herself as a trusted business partner moving beyond the role of a communications advisor.

Present across marquee industries, Akshaara has expertly made inroads to Healthcare and Pharma, Renewable Energies, Finance, Education, FMCG, Entertainment, Technology, Tourism, Hospitality F&B and Lifestyle industries to name a few. Interestingly Akshaara was named by veteran Public Relations professional, Amit Prabhu in MXM India as 'one who would change the media landscape in India'.

Growing by 100%, year on year, Akshaara has developed new business verticals and leveraged technology, integrated services seamlessly and created one-of-a-kind campaigns. A drone pizza delivery, a food truck with Indian sweets for a housing society, creating a category for Soya Milk in the country of cow milk lovers - no task has seemed impossible for Akshaara and the team driven by her fearless, powerful yet strategic personality.

Akshaara has been the recipient of various awards and accolades such as, PRmoment 30 Under 30 award, 21 Young Guns - India's New Age Entrepreneur, IMPACT's top 50 influential Women, Social Samosa Super Women, 2019 and Exchange4media PR and Corporate Communications awards 40 under 40', 2020

Communicate India ranked among the 'Most Promising PR Agencie' 'in Silicon India's list of 2018. Akshaara has been a speaker at several high-profile events including AIESEC's Stakeholder's Dinner, TiE and leading media institutes such as ISDI, Mumbai University and EMDI, to name a few. She has served as a jury member at management events at colleges across Mumbai including the prestigious Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics.

Akshaara believes "Learning is constant". Akshaara has completed her degree in Digital Marketing from Oxford University and has been accepted by Cambridge University for Masters in Entrepreneurship.In an industry where few home-grown Indian PR agencies exist, to be spearheading one is no mean feat. A proud leader, Akshaara considers herself a modern-day David in the world of media Goliaths.

Based in Mumbai, Ashmita is the General Manager, Corporate Communications at Tata Motors. She comes with over 15 years of experience across industries such as Consultancy, Automotive, Banking and Financial and Entertainment.

In her current role, Ashmita is responsible for External Communications for the Passenger Vehicle Business and Internal Communications for Tata Motors. She is leading the team to support Business plans, Reputation and Crisis Management. She actively works with the business and leadership teams to strategies and plan communication across platforms/ mediums. She advices on product PR and strives towards developing media into strong influencers for Tata Motors. Ashmita also works closely with various support functions like HR, CSR & Sustainability, to drive corporate narratives.

Ashmita has played a leading role in streamlining the internal communication practice at Tata Motors. Her additional responsibilities also include guiding the plant teams and working with subsidiary companies, for a well-integrated Communications impact across all locations.

She holds a Post Graduate Degree in PR & Events and comes with Bachelor's degree in Management from the University of Mumbai.

Anil Wanvari, is the founder, CEO and editor in chief of the Indiantelevision.com group. He has spent more than 37 years in the media industry and is considered India's foremost analyst, consultant and catalyst for the media sector.

The Indiantelevision.com group which he has set up has a mission to educate, engage, entertain and enrich the audiences it serves in the various verticals.

It achieves this through the various B2B portals the group runs: indiantelevision.com (for the cable, satellite, OTT, production, advertising, marketing, media industries), tellychakkar.com (TV show and actor news for TV fans), AnimationXpress.com (for the VFX, comics, gaming, and animation segments) and radionandmusic.com (for the FM radio, digital music and music industry).

The Indiantelevision.com group engages with the industry through the various conferences it runs: Indian Digital Operators Summit (IDOS), VidNET, News Television Summit, The Content Hub. The group executes market engagement activities for industry clients - both online and offline through road shows and events. The entertainment part comes in through the India's oldest television awards The Indian Telly Awards which Anil initiated way back in 2000. Additionally, the group also organizes The News Television Awards.

Anil has been Paris-based Reed Midem's India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh representative for some of the world's largest audiovisual content trade exhibitions - MIPTV, MIPCOM, MIPFormats, MIPDoc, MIPCancun,Midem and MIPChina. He represents the world's No 1 property market for the same markets, as well as Reed Exhibitions Asia Television Forum, Singapore.

Atul spearheads the marketing activities of the Wadhwani Foundation globally. His career has been replete with launching and managing leading FMCG brands like Airtel, Royal Challenge, Matiz, TATA Indicom, Videocon, Sansui and Kenwood, and he has 25+ years of experience across leading organizations like Bharti Airtel, TATA Teleservices, Shaw Wallace, Videocon, Bennett & Coleman, Biocon, and Daewoo Motors.

Atul is an avid columnist in leading publications and has been extensively awarded for marketing initiatives over the years. He has honed his marketing and managerial skills from Wharton Business School - University of Pennsylvania, Marcus Evans - London, Indian School of Business (ISB)-Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Management -Bangalore (IIMB) and Tata Management Training Centre - Pune (TMTC).

A communication professional with over 25 years of experience, Deepa started her career as a stringer with a pink paper in Kolkata while she was doing her Masters in English.

As a Communicator, she has worked in a range of industries in leadership positions. Her sectoral experience spans infrastructure, consumer electronics, hospitality, aviation, telecom, Consumer Healthcare and FMCG, where she has worked in leadership positions with a range of companies including The Park, SpiceJet, Airtel, GSK and now HUL. At HUL she is leading communications & sustainability for Nutrition and advocacy for the F&R business.

During her career, in addition to communication, she has also worked on Online Reputation Management, Advocacy, CSR / sustainability, Culture building and large scale change management for industry defining M&As.

A postgraduate in English, she loves to write, read, travel and cook. She is married with a son.

Her purpose in life is to "open doors" to new ideas, new connections, and new learning.

Image Guru isn't an obvious tag for Dilip Cherian. Iconoclast or Maverick, describes him just as well, say those who follow him. He spends his time steering Perfect Relations on a daily and active basis, on 6 days of the week. On the 7th day, he tries to rest...

Most recently he's become Advisor on the Investment Committees of two young HNIs. He looks at the possibility that the Unicorns they're searching to invest in have compelling stories that PEs look for.

Storytelling is a passion for Dilip. He was India's first business anchor when Doordarshan was the only TV channel. He also steered India's first business magazine when that genre was barely known. Stories move him & he loves the chance to fine-tune them. The core of Image Management is the art of dressing up a real-life story, he insists.

But his story began as a Babu, doing projections for an Economics Dept of the Govt. In between he's spawned a Design lab with IITians, run a restaurant and even been an Agony Uncle for schoolchildren in a newspaper devoted to them.

Today as an Independent Board member on several Cos & a full time leader of his own team, Cherian walks his talk & makes Image Management a science that harnesses Big Data & AI, to be more effective and sustainable.

Ishita Grover, currently heading Corporate Communications of OnePlus India and she has extensive experience in the Consumer Tech industry

Ishteyaque leads the Corporate Affairs practice for the Godrej Group across its group companies globally. His charter include the policy advocacy, management of industry associations, partnership with the govts. He is responsible for the convergence and alignment of the entire external affairs practices for the group. With a career spanning over two decades, Ishteyaque has had the opportunity to work across a diverse set of industries both in India and abroad through stints in organizations such as Coca-Cola India and South West Asia, Cargill, HCL and Essar Group.

As one of India's leading practitioners of external/ public/ corporate affairs, Ishteyaque is passionate about evidence and science based policy advocacy and is a strong advocate for deploying business solutions to address societal challenges. He is often described as someone with a capitalist's mind and an activist's heart!

Ishteyaque is the Immediate Past President Public Affairs Forum of India and has served on the Advisory Board of AIESEC India and the Board of Management of TERI School of Advanced Studies. He has been a jury at the Cannes Lions the Festival of Creativity.

He did his masters from the Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Aligarh Muslim University. Ishteyaque is also an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.

With a flair for words, Ishteyaque prefers poetry and anecdotes as the perfect medium for storytelling.

Kaacon Sethi is Chief Marketing Officer at Dainik Bhaskar Group responsible for Brand, Marketing & Communications.

Kaacon has close to 25 years of experience in media and entertainment - television media marketing & sales, channel management , branded content & solutions, movies & event production , television content production and media planning & buying. Earlier Kaacon has worked with companies like JWT, Grey, Sony Entertainment Television, K Sera Sera Productions, MediaSys Solutions (as an entrepreneur) and the IPG Media Group.

She is passionate about people and performance, the role of Media and Entertainment in the marketing mix and believes in leveraging the power of traditional and digital media for brand success. In addition, she champions a strong focus on customer delight and relationships.

Kaacon had also designed the Media, Entertainment and Sports Marketing course at SP Jain Institute of Marketing & Research and had taught the same as Honorary Visiting Professor. She continues to teach and speak as a way of giving back to the marketing and media community. She prefers to do her voluntary work with charitable institutions privately.

On the personal front, she is passionate about history, museums and historical sites, travel, cinema, music, art, poetry and simple cooking.

Ketan Kulkarni is CMO and Head - Business Development at Blue Dart, South Asia's premier express air and integrated transportation distribution and logistics company and part of Deutsche Post DHL group. Ketan has a rich and varied experience of over 26 years across industries as diverse as FMCG, Advertising, Alcoholic Beverages and Travel goods.

He joined Blue Dart in December 2006, and is responsible for new business development, product innovations, process improvement, customer activation and loyalty, market research, strategic intelligence, public relations, corporate communications and sustainability. He was also earlier entrusted with the role of Senior Advisor and Head - First Choice, the quality and excellence program at Blue Dart. A certified master black-belt, he is involved in leading & guiding change, organizational strategy, development and transformation.

A thoroughbred marketing professional with expertise in Sales Management and Advertising, Ketan has tremendous insights into national, regional and global market trends and evolving scenarios. Brand architecture, market research, retail management, buyer behaviour, environment scanning & customer strategy development are also his areas of core competence.

An experienced sales professional, prior to Blue Dart, he has successfully led goal oriented national sales teams. He has been involved in running sales coaching & training, incentive programs, portfolio management, trade channels & distribution set-up and strategizing & operating Key Account Management structures. As part of the national sales leadership responsibility, he has had the opportunity to travel extensively across the nation and has virtually been to every state and its interiors, enabling him to gain tremendous insight and knowledge of the Indian market-place and its consumers.

In 2008, Blue Dart's silver anniversary year, he gave further impetus and traction to the company's aggressive growth plans. Apart from leading various strategic initiatives, he has led the One-Retail programme in Blue Dart thereby developing a strong foothold in the retail landscape in enhancing customer value proposition. Ketan is a leader who believes that value and innovations can lead to a profitable organization especially in the fast paced 'express' sphere.

Ketan is in the advisory council of the CMO Asia Council and has received numerous awards across forums in the areas of Marketing, Branding and Corporate Social Responsibility. He holds the jury position at the BSE - Corporate Responsibility Awards, the SIFE Enactus Panel and the Asia HR Congress.

He was recently awarded the Responsible Business Leader of the Year 2017 by Responsible Business Awards, 'Greatest Marketing Influencer' Award 2017, 'Most Influential Marketing Leaders' Award at the World Marketing Congress, presented the 'Award for Retail Excellence - Retail Leadership Award' at Asia Retail Congress, conferred as the 'Marketing Professional of the Year' at the 10th Indy's awards, was recognised as one of '100 Most Impactful CSR Leaders - Global Listing' at World CSR Congress. He was also awarded the CISCO Sustainability Leadership Award at the India Sustainability Leadership Summit & Awards, Best CMO of the Year - by indiasgreatest.com - The Greatest Corporate Leaders of India. He has also won the 'Best Sustainability Leader' by Star of the Industry Awards at the 9th Indy's Awards for Excellence in Mass Communication, Marketing Communication, Public Relations, Advertising, Corporate Social Responsibility, 'Best CMO of the Year' by indiasgreatest.com - The Greatest Corporate Leaders Of India and is also the recipient of the 'Sustainability Leadership Award' by Global Sustainability Leadership Awards 2014, an 'Indira Super Achiever' and winner of 'Pride of Profession Award for Excellence in Marketing' to name a few.

Ketan likes to keep himself updated of the recent trends in business and advanced leadership, based on which he recently completed the Asia Pacific Business Leadership Program from the Australian School of Business. Corporate Sustainability & Living Responsibility are areas that appeal to Ketan's heart. He leads by example in greening the environment, conserving energy and working with children and youth from the marginalized sections of our society in order that they and our future generations are provided a better quality of life.

He holds a Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Mumbai University and an MBA in Marketing from Sydenham Institute (Mumbai). He enjoys reading books on game theory, scenario planning, world history & architecture.

As Sequoia's Head of Communications for India and Southeast Asia, Payal is responsible for helping the firm and its founders find the most compelling ways of sharing brand, product and community stories across mediums.

Payal is part of the founding team of Surge, Sequoia India's rapid-scale up program for early- stage companies, as well as Sequoia Spark, a community-focused initiative for women founders in the region.

She started her career with Ogilvy & Mather, moved into the corporate world with America Online - and was an early convert to the startup world as Flipkart's first communications lead. She also volunteers with ACT Grants, a movement by India's startup ecosystem focusing on systemic challenges around health, education, environment and women empowerment.

Payal has a Bachelors in English Literature from St. Xavier's College and a MS in Communication from Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

Piyali Reddy is Head - Corporate Communications at Axis Bank and is responsible for media, internal and external communications. She has an overall experience of 18 years spanning different industries.

Prior to Axis Bank, Piyali was with HDFC Life where she was leading pan India Communications, both internal and external including media. In IDFC, she led Brand and Communications for Mutual Fund, Securities and Private Equity. In her stint at EY (erstwhile Ernst & Young), she was responsible for Corporate Communications, Brand and Events for the Advisory service line. She also worked with Blue Dart Express Ltd., where she spearheaded Public Relations and Sustainability initiatives for the organization.

Piyali is an Economics (Hons.) from Calcutta University and an MBA in Marketing from The Institute for Technology and Management.

As Head-Communications, Amazon Prime Video, India, Sonia Huria is directly responsible for driving the PR narrative, while also leading communication and reputation management for the brand across the media spectrum.

With over 18 years of experience in the entertainment and the consumer space, in her previous role, Sonia led brand and corporate communications for Viacom18 across all its five lines of business - broadcast entertainment, filmed entertainment, digital entertainment, experiential entertainment and consumer products- as well as leading one of the industry's most decorated internal communication functions. Sonia started her professional career at Weber Shandwick and then moved to Genesis Burson Marsteller, two of the country's most reputed Public Relations agencies that helped her gain an understanding of the communication function.

As an industry thought leader, Sonia serves as a managing committee member at The Advertising Club. She has been featured on Impact Magazine's Top 50 Women Leaders in Advertising, Media & Marketing for 4 years in a row.

A seasoned communication professional with over two decades of experience in the field, she has worked some of the top names in the PR industry before moving to Star TV. She moved on to co-found Nucleus PR and is currently the Managing Partner at the firm. Under her leadership the firm has carved out a niche for itself in the industry and is today known for its fresh and unique approach towards building strong brand reputations. While she has multiple degrees to her name, she believes that learning in PR never stops.

Tarunjeet is the founder of PRPOI (Public Relations Professionals of India) of 9000+ members - a platform dedicated to enhancing the knowledge levels of the PR industry and is also currently serving as the Vice President of PRBI - an elite global network of boutique PR firms.

Valerie says, "You never stop learning, the moment you say I have finished learning, you are dead!" One of the youngest CEO's of an Indian network agency, Valerie's efforts have led to shaping communication' professionals, which is almost half the talent that exists in the Indian PR industry today. As the Head of Weber Shandwick India, Valerie works closely with clients across the country to change traditional models of communication towards more integrated offerings with a focus on campaigns, creativity, and content. Under her leadership, the firm has won several awards for iconic campaigns at Cannes, PR Week, Mumbrella, Stevies and Sabre. It continues to be one of the most awarded firms in the country. Rated as the top 40 under 40 media professionals to watch out for in Asia Pacific by Campaign Asia, she was also ranked as the top 10 women in Indian PR by Reputation India. She was the Jury President at Spikes Asia 2015 and also served as a jury member for Cannes twice.

Valerie is a nominated member on the board of Path in India, a not for profit organization; and apart from being a guest speaker at various academic institutions, she also mentors students from the Vedica College for Women. Valerie has been recognized as a Creative Leader at the Campaign 360 Women Leading Change Awards.

She has also been named on Impact Magazine's '50 Most Influential Women in Indian Media, Marketing & Advertising List', and has been a TedX speaker. Valerie has been a national level athlete and is an accomplished pastry chef

A part of the core team that launched Spotify in India, Vasundhara has been at the brand for more than 2.5 years. She leads their communication strategy internally, and externally through brand, consumer, crisis, and corporate storytelling. She thoroughly enjoys content writing, stakeholder management, and going beyond the traditional realm of PR; currently, she's leading a campaign around women in audio at Spotify India.

Vasundhara has been in the comms industry for nearly 13 years now, and was heading PR for Intel in India before joining the audio streaming platform. She started her career at Genesis Burson-Marsteller, where she was for 7.5 years before taking a study break in 2014.

Vivek Malhotra, Group Chief Marketing Officer of India Today Group, leads the marketing, promos and strategic planning divisions across the print, television and digital properties of India's most respected and pioneering media entity.

He also serves as a Technical Committee member on BARC (TV Measurement), Tech Comm NBA (News Broadcast Corporation) and has served as a Tech Comm member on IRS (Indian Readership Survey)

Fervently engaged with Indian media's most dynamic brands at the INDIA TODAY Group, Vivek is responsible for creating multiple strategic campaigns and initiatives, and to keep them top of mind. He is entrusted to make the group stand apart as a marketing powerhouse trained to spot opportunities, mobilize resources and convert them into high impact customer conditioning experiences. Among the recent projects, he holds the Aaj Tak identity, Bihar Elections, Thelallantop.com, Spoof Campaigns, and INDIA TODAY digital subscriptions are really close to his heart.

Prasanna Kotian leads Visa's Corporate Communicationsteam across India & South Asia. He joined Visa in early 2017 to help reinforce Visa as India's leading digital payment network.

Prasanna joined Visa from Edelman, where he helpedcorporate clients including those the Tata group with their reputation management mandates. Prior to joining Edelman, he headed the Corporate Affairs function for South & South East Asia at Western Union Money Transfer. His responsibilities at Western Union included regulatory affairs and CSR outreach for the organization across the region.

Prasanna began his career as a Journalist with the Indian Express Group of Newspapers before moving on to join his first PR agency - leading the IT practice with Sampark Ketchum. He subsequently moved on to head Marketing &Communication roles in the corporate world, which saw him lead the marketing team at Essar Steel, followed by a stint at D-Link Corporation to lead the Marketing, Corporate Communications &the IR function.