jury 2022

Sharif D Rangnekar is a critically acclaimed author, Festival Director of the Rainbow Lit Fest – Queer & Inclusive, and frontman of the Indie band, Friends of Linger. An out gay man and advocate for LGBTQI+ rights, his memoir, Straight To Normal – My Life As A Gay Man, released in January 2019, went on to become a bestseller and reference point for the community and others.

A believer that communications through discussions, talks, art, literature and music, are key to influencing change, Sharif brings together close to three decades of experience in the fields of journalism, research, PR and reputation management, in all he does. He currently consults in the area of curation and workplace inclusion, and is an advisor to the Global PR Trust focused on social development and is part of FICCI’s Task Force for India’s Representation at the Dubai Expo. 

Abhinandan has over 23 years of multi-industry experience in industry-leading brands – namely Hilton, Adidas, Bharti Airtel amongst several others. He is adept in developing communications strategies with results-driven execution that contributes to the overall business goals and enhanced reputation.
Abhinandan is a collaborative team player with strong instincts to identify opportunities across business functions that could be strategically amplified with communications. He has a keen eye to embrace productive change that is beneficial to professional and personal growth and wellbeing.
Equipped with a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), from a premier institute, Abhinandan began his career in Sales and Marketing and made a shift to PR. He developed his repertoire in communications through a mix of consultancy and corporate mandates and various comms assignments.

Amandeep is a professional with over 14 years of experience in planning and directing public outreach campaigns to promulgate corporate reputation.
She helps start-ups in brand building, undertaking strategic marketing tie-ups and creating compelling messaging for media outreach. She has represented companies like MobiKwik, Policybazaar, Paisabazaar, Docprime, Radico Khaitan, Max Life Insurance, National Stock Exchange, Bajaj Capital, Reebok and Haier.
She is passionate about using the power of communication and new-age tools to shape brand reputation and deliver superlative brand narrative through her storytelling skills.

Anuradha is a highly experienced communications professional with expertise in corporate communication, media management, executive communication, brand communication and crisis management. Her extensive experience in both large Indian and multinational companies along with experience working with consultancies have helped develop a specific acumen for strategic communications for the differentiated audience.
Anuradha has worked in diverse industries including Logistics and Supply Chain, FMCG, Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Beverage Alcohol, Real Estate, IT/ITeS services, Retail and Agribusiness.

Boby Kurian is Director of Communications at SoftBank India. As a communications strategist, he works at the intersection of technology investing and the entrepreneurial economy, in his current role. In an earlier stint at Adfactors PR, he was a part of the strategic communications leadership working on crisis communications and C-suite advisory on curating the information war chest.He spent 23 years in business journalism across some of India’s most influential newsrooms. Boby was one of the first journalists in India who brought private capital and start-up action into mainstream news cycles.

He reported and later advised on media narratives around some of the significant corporate events, honing skill sets and connections that help in navigating volatile and ambiguous situations. He is currently focused on understanding how geo-economic factors shape a de-globalised world.

Jatin Aggarwal is the head of Public Affairs & Communications for Renault India and is a Member of the Management Committee of India. In this role, Jatin is tasked with spearheading the Communications division, both external and internal communications, public affairs and the CSR initiatives of Renault India.
Jatin comes with extensive experience in the communications business and has more than 18 years of experience in crafting the communication campaigns for some of India’s blue chip companies including the Tata Group, the Mahindra Group and ICICI Bank. He has worked with both large conglomerates as well as start-ups, and has worked with Public Relations consultancies as well as with leading corporate houses. This rich experience has given him a holistic perspective of Public Relations and Communications.
Prior to joining Renault, he led the Corporate Communications vertical at the Essar Group and headed communications for the company’s corporate programmes, special events, public announcements and key projects.

Kerman helps PMI to enhance its global reputation with a wide variety of stakeholders. Kerman leads marketing and communications for PMI. He is responsible for customer development. Kerman provides strategic counsel to the CEO, members of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) and members of the global staff — helping them to tell the evolving PMI story and what the organisation delivers to its stakeholders around the world.

Kerman is a customer-centric and purpose-driven brand, communications and marketing leader. He has a strong track record of making a difference through building brands, reputation, engagement, and bolstering demand to drive desired action and outcome. Kerman is a strong advocate of agile, digital, and data-driven marketing and communications to engage dynamic stakeholders.

Before joining PMI, Kerman worked with large, global, matrixed technology and IT consulting companies, including Symantec, Persistent Systems, and ARC Document Solutions. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications for Nihilent, NTT Group Company- a leading IT consulting and services company.

Madhavi Behl leads the communications function for Firstsource Solutions Limited and is responsible for developing the external and internal communications strategy for the organisation.
She has 18 years of experience working across consultancies and corporates, building brand narratives and corporate reputation management programmes – be it for BFSI, Telecom Consumer, Beauty, or the Business Process Management sector.
She started her career with GenesisBCW working on brands like Vodafone, Pepsi, Ford and Temasek, before moving to the corporate side and working for diverse organisations like Rediffusion Y&R, Reliance Capital, Standard Chartered Bank and L’Oréal.

Murali Sashidharan is currently working with two-wheeler EV manufacturer Ather Energy as Director, Public Relations and Government Relations. Murali has more than two decades of experience in PR and Marketing and has worked across several verticals such as mobility, fintech, sports, CSR and films & television with leading organisations such as Ola, Sony Pictures, Adfactors, Ogilvy PR.
He also had his own sports marketing company – Adrenna Communications.
Prior to Ather, he was with Ola where he managed the communications strategy for their Mobility and Electric businesses.

Neeraj is a financial journalist turned communications professional, and, for the last few years, a reputation evangelist. Currently, he’s with the Bajaj Group where as Group President & Chief Communications Officer he is responsible for the Group’s Brand Reputation. Neeraj is a Columbia Business School alumni and holds an LLB degree from Mumbai University. He sees himself as a life-long student of Corporate Reputation. It’s that quest that took him to Columbia Business School five years back, and soon thereafter to law school.
In a career spanning nearly twenty-six years, Neeraj has straddled multiple roles, 15 years of them at leadership positions at Reliance, HDFC Bank, Bharti Group and Bajaj Group spearheading their Communications, Advocacy, and Reputation building efforts. He headed both Corporate Communication and Corporate Affairs at Bharti Airtel, which he joined after a fulfilling 14 years at HDFC Bank that saw it grow into an iconic brand.

Partha Ghosh is Vice President & Head of Corporate Communications & CSR at Samsung Southwest Asia. With an experience of over 26 years in the media and communications industry, he is responsible for promoting and protecting the brand and the corporate reputation of Samsung in India and Southwest Asia.
Partha began his journalism career with the Living Media – India Today Group in New Delhi as a Sub-Editor for its erstwhile IT magazine Computers Today. He then joined the Delhi bureau of The Telegraph newspaper as a Business Reporter. From The Telegraph he moved to Hindu Business Line and thereafter to Business Standard, where he continued to serve as a Special Correspondent, writing on business, policies, and companies.
In 2004, Mr. Ghosh was selected for the prestigious British Chevening Scholarship to study journalism at the University of Westminster. He was attached to the London HQ of the prestigious Financial Times, where he wrote and even broke several news stories.
He has won several awards such as Samsung Global Employee of the Year, Samsung’s Global Newsroom Award for Best Innovation, Chairman’s Award at Times Group, and E4M Top 100 Influential Game Changer Award in 2019 and 2021. He was most recently conferred with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Institute of Mass Communication Alumni Association.

Piyal has close to two decades of brand and corporate communications experience across top Asian markets including India, China, Malaysia, and Singapore. She currently leads external communications for IPM India (Philip Morris International). Having worked across multiple sectors such as FMCG, Technology, Corporate & Start-Up, Piyal’s expertise lies in driving high-impact integrated measurable campaigns in service of thought leadership, advocacy/policy agenda, brand loyalty/preference building, content creation, smart partnerships, and issues & crisis communications.
Through the years, Piyal has been instrumental in launching brands like IndiGo and OPPO in India. Launching new business categories for PepsiCo India, Hewlett Packard & Intel, Piyal has also worked closely on award-winning campaigns with brands such as Microsoft, Diageo, PepsiCo, Yum! Restaurants (KFC/Pizza Hut/Taco Bell), Mars Chocolates, Cargill, General Electric, Uber, BookMyShow, MakeMyTrip, Huawei, Fitbit, NGC & FOX Traveller, Danone, Dolby, Logitech, Senheiser amongst others. Previously, she led the Consumer Technology vertical for Genesis BCW, managing a varied portfolio of some of the biggest technology brands in the country. In addition to this, she was also heading the “Step Up” – a unique offering focused on start-ups in India. Piyal takes a keen interest in mentoring the next-gen of Communications professionals.

Prateek Chatterjee is a senior communications leader with over 25 years of experience across diverse industries including – Education, IT, Real Estate & Hospitality. Prateek is currently the Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications & Marketing at NIIT Limited, a global talent development corporation. Over the years, Prateek has developed a keen insight on the way brands communicate with their stakeholders, backed by deep expertise in Reputation Management, Corporate Marketing & PR, Social Media outreach, Brand Ambassador Communication & Brand management.
He is a regular speaker on emerging trends in communications at forums like ET Brand Equity Communications Summit, HT Brand Leadership and IIMC. Jury member at marquee industry meets like SABRE, IPRCCA, DMA Asia, Prateek has been featured twice in the annual Exchange4Media power list of Top100 influential game-changers, 2019 & 2020.
Prateek is a member of ASSOCHAM Branding and Marketing Council and has been the co-chair of the Skill Development Council at CII Delhi.

Preeti Binoy has over two decades of diverse experience in communications, media and public relations working across Indian and international PR consultancies as well as Corporations. She has had exposure to the consumer and healthcare sector with companies such as Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health India, TATA Group, Claris Life Sciences, L’Oreal and Amul to name a few. In her current role, she partners with the company’s senior leadership team and works towards enhancing the company’s reputation, implementing its social impact and sustainability agenda, partnering with statutory bodies and driving employee engagement through internal and executive communications.
Apart from being featured in Reputation Today’s list of 40 Young Turks in communications for 2020, she has also been recognised by White Page International and featured in the 50 Best Corporate Communications Leaders of 2021. Her passion for Inclusion & Diversity has been instrumental in her being a council member at the India Diversity Forum and also with the WICCI PR and Digital Marketing Council in India.
She is also a mentor to teens at The World Teen Parliament that trains teens in future skills, problem-solving, policymaking, global governance, participatory decision making and inclusive tech.

Rajalakshi Azariah heads corporate brand and communications at Diageo India. She is an experienced communications professional with a demonstrated history of working across industries.
Having worked on both the consultancy and corporate side of the business, she is skilled in strategic & corporate communications, storytelling, crisis communications, media relations and digital marketing.

Sanaj Natarajan is a Corporate Communications and Business Communications professional with in-depth experience in stakeholder management and leadership communications. He has worked in sectors such as Manufacturing, Information Technology Services and is currently with the Rail Transportation industry.

In his career spanning over 16 years, he has built a reputation around weaving some of the most engaging stories through Public Relations in the toughest of environments. He has also been instrumental in building investor relations functions, handling mergers and harmonising campaigns within organisations and leading large corporate events, and supporting high-profile events in India and abroad.

In his current role, he is part of the Leadership Team at Wabtec and is leading the strategic communications efforts for the company in South Asia.

Sukanya Chakraborty is a communication and marketing leader with close to 23 years of experience in global IT services, outsourcing, property consulting, interactive media, and community start-up companies. Currently, Sukanya is working as Senior VP & Head of Corporate Communications & CSR at VFS Global, the world’s largest outsourcing partner for governments worldwide for visa, consular, and passport services.
Previously having worked with organisations like Knight Frank, Capgemini, and Tata Consultancy Services, Sukanya has been instrumental in driving communication and marketing agendas for B2B and B2C audiences leveraging expertise in 360 degree integrated campaigns, media relations, crisis communications, digital and social media, lead generation and sales enablement, employee communications and CSR.

Swetank is a passionate thought leader working in the area of communication, people and customers. He is a part of the core business strategy team of Future Group, India’s leading retail and consumer products company. In his functional capacity, he leads communications and HR for the group. In over 17 years of professional experience, as a thought leader, Swetank believes in challenging set norms, creating his own path, and setting trends that are followed by others. He believes in the power of human interactions, transparent communication, and building agile organisations, based on values. Driven by passion, positivity & data, Swetank has always worked with an entrepreneurial zeal in all his roles.

Apart from work, Swetank is a pilot by hobby and practices boxing to keep fit. Working in the area of happiness and mental health is his passion.

Vidisha Chatterjee is the Director of Communications for WhatsApp in India.
She has had an interesting and varied career in media. Starting with Star TV India, she went on to grow the advertising sales business with BBC World and ESPN-Star Sports in the satellite television industry in the country. She was then the National Programming Head for India Today’s FM Radio Network. She has worked as a Managing Partner with Genesis BCW leading their Technology and Consumer verticals and as GM-Client Operations and Strategies at H+K Strategies.
Prior to joining WhatsApp, Vidisha was Head of Communications – India at Colgate-Palmolive.