Josy Paul - Chairman & Chief Creative Officer - BBDO India
Abhijit Avasthi - Executive Creative Director, South Asia - Ogilvy & Mather
A metallurgist by formal education, Abhijit got into advertising after a mixed bag of experiences that included working in a steel plant, manufacturing textile dyes, exporting playing cards and match-boxes from India, and trading in saris.
Bobby Pawar - Chief Creative Officer - Mudra Communications
Bobby Pawar is the Chief Creative Officer of Mudra Communications. He returned to India after seven years in The States where he worked with Ogilvy, New York and BBDO, Chicago.
He has won over two hundred awards and is a two time Copywriter of the year (1998, 2000). He has created some untraditional and iconic work for Wrigley's, At&t, Kodak, American Express, Lifesavers, British Airways, Jim Beam Brands, United Way, etc.
Nikhil Rao - Group Creative Director - Lowe
Before tripping into advertising Nikhil worked with Asian Paints (in the Payroll Dept.) for about eight months and quit just before he got sacked. He then decided to give writing a shot and the only job he could get was at a place called Creative Point where he wrote for greeting cards.
Began advertising at Grey Worldwide (then Trikaya Grey) in 1994. Worked in Grey’s Calcutta, Colombo, Mauritius and Mumbai offices.Has been at Saatchi & Saatchi since 2002. Where he has been a Creative Director in the Mumbai office since 2004.
Has been winning awards at Indian shows from his first year in the business. And later at Cannes & Young Guns.His team at Saatchi have consistently won metal and finalists at Cannes, Clio, One Show Asia acific Adfest, D&AD & Young Guns.His other interests include football, philately and judging award shows.
Manish Bhatt - Vice President & Executive Creative Director - Contract Advertising
Manish started his career as a site engineer at Gujarat State Fertilizer Corporation plant after a Diploma in Civil Engineering. But he soon got bored with, in his own words, machines, boilers and chimneys and decided to enter the world of advertising. On completion of his Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from M. S. University Baroda, he
joined Contract - New Delhi in1995.
Major Brands handled: Airtel, tata sky, Coca-cola, Saffola, Radio Mirchi, NDTV.
Tista Sen - Executive Creative Director & V.P. - JWT
Tista started her career with Whitelight and learnt how to mop studio floors, what not to order for lunch, why film people hate agency types and a whole lot about shooting advertising commercials. After assisting on over 60 commercials she started as a writer in Lintas, where she worked on Johnson and Johnson, Fair and lovely, Pepsodent, Cadbury’s and Oberoi hotels to name a few.
Brijesh Jacob - Exceutive Creative Director - Grey India
After meandering through life trying to sell anything from Carrier aircons to his soul, this 31-year-old Calcutta-born and bred Malayalee decided to settle for advertising. The pay wasn’t good but then, anything to ensure that you never had to step out in to the merciless Calcutta sun. And by this time, boosting the circulation of The Statesman did not have the same kind of charm.
A few years, agencies and a PG in Mass Comm later coupled with a shift to Mumbai, he finds himself responsible for the creative product of Grey Mumbai.
From age 11, Raj Kurup was possessed with the idea of starting his own country. Twenty years on, he realized his dream. In the summer of 2007, he set up Creativeland Asia, which he calls a ‘creative empire’.
Siddhartha Bindra started out in 1997 in SSC&B Lintas after escaping from a Pharmaceutical company. 11 years, 4 agencies and many drinks later, he sometimes wishes he had met someone who had guided him better.
Vikram Gaikwad - Partner & Executive Creative Director - Creativeland Asia
An Indian Language Font Designer par excellence according to Microsoft, an Emerging Young Indian 2007 according to The Week magazine, a Charmer according to Agency Women, Outstanding according to old professors at J.J., Style Guru according to Rajnikant, Brit according to humourists.
Ravi Kiran - CEO - South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group.
Ravi Kiran is the Chief Executive Officer for South Asia of Starcom MediaVest Group, one of the largest marketing communication networks in the world and in India.
Yesudas spent over 15 years in the field of Media. His last assignment was with Initiative. He joined Initiative, India in August 1995 and served the company in various capacities before being chosen to launch Insight, a media agency from the group,
Joined Ogilvy and Mather in 1993 and set up their Outdoor Advertising Division - Ogilvy Landscapes. This unit is today the finest in the Asia Pacific region, not just in terms of size and profitability but expertise as wel.
Punitha heads MADISON MEDIA, one of the largest media planning and buying agencies as the Group CEO. She started her career as a media executive with O&M, in the hope that this media posting would give her a back-door-entry into her dream career in "account planning and client servicing".
