Samir Vora is the Chief Marketing Officer at VerSe Innovation. He is responsible for leading all marketing operations including brand, ATL communication, corporate communication, performance marketing and social media across VerSe’s brands – Josh, Dailyhunt, PublicVibe. With over 20 years of experience across industries such as finance, media, and technology, Samir specializes in marketing, sales, and market development. Prior to joining VerSe Innovation, Samir was the Vice President for Star Sports where he was instrumental in launching regional sports channels across India. Under Samir’s leadership, Star Sports witnessed the highest ever ratings for Hero ISL.

Priya Jhavar is an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Mumbai & Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. After graduating with English literature, she went on to pursue a post-graduate diploma in Film Direction at the FTII. With 2 decades of experience as Producer, Editor and Director, she is currently Senior Creative Director at Applause Entertainment. At Applause she has worked on shows like - Avrodh: The Siege Within (book adaptation), Scam 1992 and 2003 (Book adaptations, Mithya (format adaptation) and is currently working on adapting Gandhi from the two books of Mr Ramachadra Guha.

With over 12 years of experience in the content space, panning over branded content, advertising, feature films, scripted and unscripted series, as well as documentaries, Mrinalini has donned many hats. Starting out with creative development at BanijayAsia, putting together originals as well as international adaptations in the scripted space, she soon elevated to producing shows while handling the business. From identifying the right formats to bring to India to attaching the best fitting talent and also putting the original slate across languages and markets, it has been quite an experience. She continues to bring diverse stories to the market in tandem with the ever evolving market dynamics in the entertainment landscape.

Richa Singh leads the Natural Diamond Council in India and the Middle East. She has a proven track record of over 24 years in marketing and general management spanning advertising, branding, category building of beauty and luxury products. An entrepreneur at heart, she has a passion for developing brands from scratch. She began the NDC journey in India around 2017, creating an aspirational dream around natural diamonds for consumers. She has been awarded the ET Inspiring Women’s Awards 2021 as the ‘Visionary in the Luxury Sector’ and named in the Luxebook Top 100 Most Powerful Leaders of 2022.

Akila Jayaraman is a cross functional leader with 17yrs+ experience spanning from consulting and software to media and advertising. Prior to joining JioAds, Akila held key leadership positions at large media agencies like GroupM and Cheil, managing integrated digital and offline media mandates for some of the world’s biggest brands like Google, Samsung and more. An authority in digital marketing, she spearheaded the mobile app marketing proposition and led integrated media strategy, planning and client servicing for key clients in the market. Her unique expertise in app marketing, complemented by a depth of knowledge in Digital, Mobile and Consumer Research makes Akila a trusted partner for senior business leaders. Akila is also a regular contributor to the industry through authorship, speaking at conferences, and being on industry award juries. In 2019, Akila was part of Impact magazine’s 40 Under Forty list. An avid mobile technology, startup, and product evangelist, Akila is passionate about new business and market development across the digital value chain. Outside of work, she is an aspiring percussionist and holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Pune.

Sam is  the head of the completely Indian owned Madison World, which offers services in 11 specialized functions in Advertising, Media, Business Analytics, Out-of-Home, PR, Retail, Rural, Activation, Entertainment and Sports. Over the past 34 years, Madison has grown to become  India's largest Indian owned Communications company employing about 1,100 Communication experts,  serving around 500 Advertisers. Madison Media is  the largest Independent Media Agency by share and 5th largest Independent Media Agency  by size in the World, according to RECMA. Sam is "India's Most Influential Media Person" for 11 years as per ET Brand Equity.

Gaurav is a seasoned consumer marketing business leader with 25+ years of experience in building brands and businesses across India and South Asia. As the Head of Agency Business for Meta in India, and previously as the media director for Unilever in South Asia, Gaurav has deep expertise in both traditional and digital media. As part of his role at Meta, Gaurav partners with key partners and agencies to build and strengthen the ecosystem for digital advertising in the country. He also works on partnering with and educating the ecosystem on key trends, including short-form video and the explosive growth in Reels.

Geet is a sales professional who always puts his clients first, practicing “build the relationship before the business”. He has held leadership roles in companies like SAP, Oracle, Experian and Gracenote, and now manages APAC & India for Comscore. Having made several pivots in his career, he has been successfully leveraged changes in technology, business models and client behaviors over the past 30 years.

Krishna Menon is currently the Chief Operating Officer at QYOU Media India, India’s youngest and fastest-growing entertainment network. In his present role, Krishna maintains control of diverse business operations and is directly responsible for distribution, branding, influencer marketing, digital sales, and operations. Having been a part of the team at QYOU Media since its inception in India, Krishna strategized to increase the channel’s reach and tap rural markets thus moving beyond metros and making the channel increasingly popular.

Prabhvir Sahmey (Prabh) is currently a Senior Director at Samsung Ads. His remit is to setup the Samsung Ads business in India by pioneering the arena of Connected TV. Prior to Samsung, Prabh pioneered Programmatic Advertising at Google, Search advertising at GroupM and e-education with Tata Interactive Systems. A journey spanning over 15+ years. From starting a small Bulletin Board System (pre visual internet era) to transforming services as a web developer, content writer, graphic designer and a project manager; the last few years were invested with a leading market transforming teams and product in getting digital marketing initiatives holistically right.

After completing his engineering from IIT Delhi and his MBA from IIM Calcutta, Shailesh started a career in an industry he was, and continues to be, deeply passionate about: the Indian media & entertainment industry. After nine years in the industry in various marketing, content, business and strategy roles, he turned entrepreneur in 2008, when he co-founded Ormax Media, a company that has pioneered the usage of insights to help Indian media companies take financially-sound and consumer-centric business decisions. Over 24 years, Shailesh has built a deep understanding of the industry, which he channelises into building compelling business solutions at Ormax Media. He is an avid writer, having written more than 500 articles and columns on the Indian media landscape over the years. Shailesh enjoys quizzing, following sports and keeping himself updated on various topics of public interest, ranging from politics to technology.

Soumya has been a key member of the SVF Team to launch hoichoi, which has become one of the Top 10 Entertainment OTT Platforms in India today. He started out as a Digital Lead and was soon leading Operations for hoichoi. After heading the Business & Strategy in India, Bangladesh and other international territories in Strategic Partnerships, User Acquisition & Retention, Content, Marketing and other Revenue verticals. He is at present the Chief Operating Officer for hoichoi India and Bangladesh and has also very recently taken over the reins as the Originals Head as well.

Currently the VP for supply partnerships at JioAds, Sandeep leads supply across industries like E-commerce, OTT, News, Gaming and Ad-tech. In his previous role he was Head of India for Outbrain, where he was responsible for advancing the market penetration of the entire range of Outbrain’s product portfolio, managing both the Publisher and Advertiser sides of the business. He has launched 2 Adtech platforms Zemanta and Outbrain into the Indian market. A seasoned digital leader in the publishing and media industry, Balani has more than 19 years of experience as a senior leader, having previously spent over seven years at Outbrain and nearly five years at Komli Media.

Siddharth Hirwe is the Head of Scripted Development for BBC Studios in India where he leads all content and strategic development activities across Scripted Productions. He has been with BBC Studios India for the last seven years and has been integral in the commissioning of over fifteen series across all linear and streaming clients. With over 12 years of cumulative experience in the industry, Siddharth has previously been associated with channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and VH1.

Vaibhav Modi is a producer-writer-creator with 2 decades of experience across businesses in the media sector. His career has been marked by key stints in leadership roles with media giants including Star India, Endemol Shine, Viacom 18 and Sony Entertainment Television.

Rajni Daswani plays a key role at SoCheers, from guiding the teams to craft impactful campaigns for the agency's wide array of cross-industry brands to building the company's market share in a cluttered industry. She is also responsible for shaping a creative, positive work culture through hiring, training and employee engagement while augmenting the SoCheers' brand through effective communication strategies. Rajni’s strength lies in harnessing the several nuances of digital to deliver a unique storytelling experience to the audiences while generating visibly positive business results for the clients. She carved a niche for herself in a much more competitive industry through her intrapreneurial spirit and a firm vision of establishing SoCheers as a leading agency on the global stage.

Gunjan Khetan is a marketing veteran with nearly two decades of industry experience in business strategy and brand building. Currently serving as Marketing Director with the global confectionery major Perfetti Van Melle, Gunjan leads the growth and marketing of the company’s portfolio of Indian and International brands such as Center fresh, Center fruit, Mentos, Alpenliebe, Alpenliebe Juzt Jelly, Happydent, Chupa Chups to name a few. He spearheads the cross-functional team responsible for media and digital, category growth strategy, brand strategy, agency relationships and marketing capabilities. Prior to joining Perfetti, Gunjan has served as Vice President Marketing, Health (Self Care), USA working on key vitamin brands Movefree, Megared, Airborne, Digestive Advantage, while supporting new launches like Bodiome and Vitalmins. He has also worked on international brands like Dettol, Harpic, Veet, Movefree, Megared as well as local brands like Complan, Glucon-D, Airborne.

Varun is MiQ's Head of Revenue and Growth in India and the SAARC region. He helps MiQ build meaningful relationships with advertisers to boost revenue and grow the MiQ brand. With a proven track record in establishing digital businesses and improving operational efficiency, he has taken many digital media solutions to market and has a keen interest in teaching and mentoring, entrepreneurship, and monitoring industry trends. In a career spanning 16 years, he gained exposure, expertise in business development, marketing, media management, content distribution, revenue planning, business strategy, partnerships, mentoring, and training. He also had the opportunity to be associated with esteemed organisations including Republic TV, Appier, Vserv Digital Services, The Economist, Microsoft Advertising, afaqs.com, and Naukri.com. Varun has been recognized as a Top Digital Marketing Leader at the World Leadership Congress in 2022 and has participated in industry events like CMO Asia Global Digital Congress 2022, Pubmatic Envision 2021, IIT Bombay, Techfest 2020, Digital Enterprise Summit 2019 etc.

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