Jury

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Ajay Gahlaut



Chief Creative Officer & Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India

Ajay Gahlaut is one of the Indian industry’s finest creative talents, currently serving as Chief Creative Officer and Managing Director, Publicis Worldwide India. Ajay joined Publicis from Ogilvy where he was Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy North and Deputy CCO, Ogilvy India. Prior to Ogilvy, Ajay had stints with McCann, Saatchi & Saatchi, among others. With over 25 years of experience, Gahlaut has worked on world-renowned brands such as Pernod Ricard, BMW, KFC, Taco Bell, Dabur, Perfetti Van Melle, Mother Dairy, Pizza Hut, Sprite, Best Foods, HT Mint, Philips, among others.

• 

Arun Iyer



Founding Partner, Spring Marketing Capital

Arun had an interesting journey. He started working while still in college. He did a brief stint in sales at Otis elevators. He always knew he wanted something to do with writing whether in advertising or journalism. He enrolled himself in the ad and marketing course at KC, and took up a job with a small agency, Multiprint advertising. He used to wrap up work and then go to college. He moved to an agency called By Design, from there to TBWA and then a little over six months at CNBC-TV18, working on in house ads for shows. He then moved to Lintas. From there, he founded Spring Capital Marketing.

• 

Ashish Chakravarty



Executive Director & Head - Creative , McCann Worldgroup India

Ashish Chakravarty is recognised as one of the top Creative Directors in India, is ranked among the top 50 ECDs in the world, and moved to McCann Worldgroup India from his role as Chief Creative Officer of WPP’s Contract. In his previous stint at McCann India, he worked closely with Prasoon Joshi and helped to build McCann Delhi into one of Delhi’s leading agencies. A multi-award winner at both national and international shows, Ashish frequently represents India on jury panels.

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Bobby Pawar



Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, Havas Group India

Bobby Pawar is a 2-time copywriter of the year. He’s among the most awarded creatives from India. He was Campaign Asia’s Creative Person of the Year (2011) for India and South Asia. And is consistently ranked amongst the most influential and creative people in India. Prior to joining Havas Group, he spent five and half years at Publicis. His mandate was to turn the agency. Well, during his stint Publicis created some of the country’s most talked about and effective campaigns. And he helped grow the agency’s fortunes Significantly. Before this he was the Chief Creative Officer at JWT, where he made a marked difference in the agency’s creative product. Bobby also spent four and half years as the CCO of DDB Mudra Group. There he was tasked with raising the creative bar across many disciplines; digital, experiential and media. As a result, he transformed the group into one of the hottest shops in the country. Plus, Bobby worked for seven years in the United States. He had long stints at Ogilvy, New York and BBDO, Chicago, where he ran accounts with ad budgets over three hundred million dollars. One of his films done in the States ran on the Superbowl, was featured in the MoMA and nominated for an Emmy. And he started working on digital while it was still nascent. His digital campaigns have won a Webby.

• 

Emmanuel Upputuru



Chief Creative Officer, Cheil India

When Emmanuel started his career, there were convent educated copywriters who would write in Queen’s English with a chip on their shoulders. He survived them. Then the market gave birth to copywriters from the cow belt who wrote, with many more chips on their shoulders, in the language of the masses, Hindi. He not only survived them, but also lead agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy and Publicis to global fame. In 2003-2004 he was ranked India’s #1 creative according to Campaign Brief Asia. Today as digitisation is disrupting every industry, it looks like we have entered an era that is programmed for people who can provide solutions with the language of ideas. He uses technology as a medium and calls Data as his boss. Looks like Emmanuel was built for these times. He is currently leading a large, fully integrated team at Cheil India as their CCO. He won numerous Cannes Lions (including a Gold), One Show pencils, D&AD, Adfest, London International, Kyoorius Elephants, and God knows how many Abbies at India’s local show Goafest. He won Saatchi India’s first ever Cannes Lion, won Publicis India’s first ever Cannes Lion and won Ogilvy Delhi’s first ever Cannes Gold Lion. Cheil’s first Effie Gold. Emmanuel judged awards shows like Adfest, London international, and is a regular jury member at Goafest. In 2018 Emmanuel, representing his start-up ITSA, addressed a packed hall at Adfest, Pattaya.

• 

Garima Khandelwal



Chief Creative Officer, Mullen Lintas

Garima Khandelwal is Chief Creative Officer at Mullen Lintas. She kicked-off her career in advertising with Ogilvy Delhi approximately 18 years ago. She moved to Mullen Lintas in 2015, and her former role as Executive Creative Director gave her an opportunity to influence the creative direction for some of India’s most celebrated brands. As a founding member of Team Mullen Lintas, she is responsible for the agency’s marquee work such as – Motilal Oswal (Equity experts), Tata Tea (Alarm bajne se pehle Jaago Re), MTV Beats, Bajaj Avenger, PharmEasy and Too Yumm. Before moving to Mullen Lintas, she worked with Lowe Lintas where she lent her creative expertise to a diverse set of clients across categories. Some of the clients that she has been associated with include Suzlon PALS, Tata Tea (Kala Teeka), Axe (Boat Party), Liva, etc. She has also worked for Leagas Delaney, on the Skoda account for the European market, based out of Prague.

• 

Gigi Lee



Chief Creative Officer, TBWA\Group Malaysia

EAT. DESIGN. SLEEP. REPEAT. Gigi’s career started with a “You had me at Helvetica” moment. Since then, she has impacted brands like Tiger Beer, Guinness, Kraft, Nestle, P&G, Toyota, Lexus, Colgate, Campbell’s, KFC, Telcos, Television networks, and more. Her first 3 years as ECD was anything but regular. It was uppercase bold.
Honours include: Best of Show and Agency of the Year at the local Kancils. World’s 12th best ECD according to The Big Won. One of Asia’s Top 10 Creatives according to Adobo Magazine. Colours at ANDYs, ADC, Adfest, Cannes, Clio, D&AD, LIAA, NYFest, and One Show. Work in Germany’s M&K Museum’s permanent collection, and more. Peers said she “Rocked well”. At TBWA\Malaysia, she has been tasked to raise the group’s creative profile. Of course, it takes a strong team to make arial difference, and she is glad to be part of one. Other than that, she loves burying her face in a good book antiqua.

• 

Joji Jacob



Co-Founder & Creative Partner, BLKJ

Joji Jacob is the co-founder of independent agency BLKJ. The three-year old agency counts StarHub, Scoot, Great Eastern, the Economic Development Board of Singapore, and the Ministry of Communications and Information amongst its 19 clients. The 80-strong agency was declared Creative Agency of the Year at both the Singapore Creative Circle Awards and the Hall of Fame Awards in 2018. Before founding BLKJ, Joji was the Group Executive Creative Director of DDB and oversaw an integrated creative department of 140 creative directors, copywriters, art directors, digital designers, and technologists. Under his watch, DDB Group Singapore became the most awarded Singaporean agency at almost every award show including Cannes. DDB Group was also Agency of the Year at the Marketing Awards, the Singapore Hall of Fame Awards and by Campaign Magazine. Joji himself has been named Singapore’s Most Influential Creative Director by the Institute of Advertising Singapore and South East Asia’s Creative Person of the Year by Campaign two years in a row. He was the Chairman of Award School in 2012 and chaired the Singapore Creative Circle Awards in 2013. He was also the Cannes Jury President for Print and Publishing in 2016.

• 

Josy Paul



Chairman, BBDO India

Josy started BBDO India from the backseat of his car in 2008. In 2016, he was named Creative Agency Head of The Year by the IAA (Indian Advertising Association). Campaign Magazine awarded him 'Creative Person of the Year for India and South Asia' in 2012 and 2015. He is ranked among the 10 most influential people in Indian advertising - according to the nationwide survey conducted by The Economic Times. He is among the most awarded creative people in India. In 2015, he and his team won the inaugural Glass Lion Grand Prix at Cannes – for Whisper ‘Touch The Pickle’. They also won the Glass Lion Gold for Ariel ‘Share The load’ - in 2015 and 2016. They’ve also won the prestigious White Pencil at the D&AD Social Impact awards. Josy and his team have also won the Grand Prix at AdFest, Spikes Asia, and APAC Effies and in Indian award shows. Josy and his partner Ajai Jhala pioneered the idea of brand movements with the belief that India needs more ‘acts not ads’. This led to highly recognised work like Gillette ‘Women Against Lazy Stubble’ and Aviva ‘Great Wall of education’ and Quaker ‘Mission To Make India Heart Healthy." Before starting BBDO India, Josy was the National Creative Director of JWT. Before which, in 2000, he set up an agency called 'David’ in India (as part of Ogilvy and WPP.) Josy Paul was born during an earthquake and has a permanent tremor. He lives by the mantra, "Think like the navy, deliver like the pirates."

• 

Malvika Mehra



Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu India

After successfully running her independent venture, Tomorrow Creative Lab, Malvika got the opportunity to have her cake and eat it too. In April 2019, Dentsu offered her the role of Chief Creative Officer, Dentsu India, along with the opportunity to play intrapreneur by launching her earlier venture as Dentsu India Tomorrow Lab, the agency’s new Design and Innovation unit. In a career spanning more than 2 decades, Malvika has successfully partnered with clients in building famous brands across agencies like Ogilvy and Grey, her independent venture Tomorrow and now Dentsu India. This has earned her a place among India’s ‘50 Most Influential People in Media, Marketing and Advertising’ (Economic Times - Brand Equity Agency Reckoner 2019) and the & Top 20 Creative Directors in India’ in the past. Malvika has been a juror at Cannes thrice (for print, film and most recently for design in 2019). And in the past, has served on other juries including Clio, Spikes Asia and Kyoorius (in association with One Show). She is a highly awarded creative herself, being a two-time Cannes Gold Lion and D&AD pencil winner.

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Pallavi Chakravarti



Executive Creative Director, Taproot Dentsu

For over 15 years now, Pallavi Chakravarti has worked on a list of clients that include global players such as Facebook, Uber, P&G, Unilever, General Mills, Pepsi, American Tourister and Airtel as well as local giants like Times of India, Marico, ITC, Aditya Birla Capital, Parle Products, Star Sports and Eureka Forbes Limited. She is currently the Executive Creative Director of Taproot Dentsu, having worked at Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT and Grey previously. From creative shows like Cannes Lions, The One Show, Adfest Asia Pacific, Spikes Asia and the Abbys at Goafest to effectiveness awards like Effies and Appies, her work has been recognised everywhere. She is, in fact, an under-40 with well over 40 metals to her credit. She was also the recipient of the Best Ad Screenplay plaque at the prestigious 2015 Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival. The past 7 years have seen her serve as a jury member for several shows, including Cannes Lions, Dubai Lynx, New York Festival, Global Awards and the Abbys at Goafest, across categories like Film, Outdoor, Direct, Radio and Integrated Advertising. Psychology, theatre and music make her tick, both on the job and off it.

• 

Parixit Bhattacharya



Managing Partner - Creative, TBWA\India

Parixit loves creating utilities and experiences that help brands be of more use to people. He has been fortunate to learn from the best in the industry and in the process been part of and led a body of work that includes creating India’s first women’s self-defence device, putting twelve thousand first aiders on a tab on mobile, building the world’s first social media answering machine, letting people play golf only with their mind, challenging the internet to keep a man in his underwear for twenty four hours, turning Snapchat into a helpline, converting skinny alleys into cricket pitches, making cars b-boy and play tag, creating a hoax organisation to help people with their home loans, the world’s first eye language, and lately, a print tool kit to help parents turn into counsellors amongst others. His work has won gold and grand prix across award shows throughout his career including the coveted Black Elephant at Kyoorius Awards multiple times. His work has taken him from Bombay to Singapore to Dubai to Singapore and back to Bombay. He wakes thankful every day and goes to bed wide eyed with all the things possible today in advertising. He works with TBWA\ India as Managing Partner – Creative.

• 

Rahul Mathew



National Creative Director, DDB Mudra Group

A creative stalwart with close to two decades of experience, Rahul Mathew has built many renowned brands and has won multiple awards along the way. A new age creative thinker to the very core, he is equally adept at traditional, non-traditional and digital media. Rahul joined DDB Mudra in 2014 as the Creative Head. Since then, he worked towards innovating the agency’s product consistently and creating celebrated work for the agency's diverse client roster including brands like Volkswagen, Big Bazaar, Johnson and Johnson, Godrej, and Diageo amongst others. During his earlier stints with other leading national and international agencies, Rahul added prestigious brands like Airtel, Cathay Pacific, Coca Cola, Colgate, Parachute and Tata Motors to his portfolio. He is an appreciated writer and has a known track record of guiding his teams to achieve creative and business objectives.

• 

Raj Kamble



Founder & Chief Creative Officer, Famous Innovations

Raj Kamble is a graduate of the Sir JJ School of Applied Art. He started his career at Enterprise Nexus/Lowe, Mumbai, where he went on to win half a dozen Clio Awards and three D&AD Silver Pencils in his formative years. He then moved to Lowe Howard Spink, London, where he worked on brands such as Stella Artois, Unilever, Nestle and Saab. After 2 years in London, he took up a new role as Creative Director at Lowe New York. His winning streak continued as he bagged One Show Gold and a Gold Lion at Cannes for his work for Stella Artois, Gillette and Light of Life Foundation. In 2010, he was hired by BBDO New York. His work titled ‘World’s Biggest Shave’ was talked about in the Financial Times, CNBC and the New York Times. After more than a decade in the business, Raj moved back to his hometown, as the Managing Partner for BBH India where he handled accounts like Vaseline, Diageo, World Gold Council and Google Chrome, etc. He is now Founder and Chief Creative Officer at Famous Innovations. In 5 years since its inception, Famous has created some iconic innovations for several Indian and Global brands, is a three-time winner of South Asia Independent Agency of the Year by Campaign India and was listed among the World’s Leading Independent Agencies in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Raj has cumulatively won more than 150 global awards including at Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD, the Clio Award, the Andy Awards, ADFEST and Art Directors Club. He has been part of the jury at Cannes, One Show, Adfest, etc. He has given lectures at institutes such as the Kellogg Institute of Management and Columbia University. He also runs Miami Ad School in India. Most recently, he has been elected to the Board of Governors at IIM-Kozhikode.

• 

Ritu Sharda



Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India (North)

Ritu has 19 years of experience across a wide range of brands and categories including Mirinda, 7 Up, McDonald’s, Samsung, Maggi, Dabur, Zandu, MasterCard, Coca Cola, HP, Microsoft, Wrigley’s, Quaker Oats, SC Johnson and HBO, to name a few. Ritu has won numerous accolades at Cannes, The One Show, The Andy’s, LIA , The Work and Adfest. She has been on the jury of Cannes Cyber Lion (2017) and Adfest Asia Pacific (2018). She was a speaker at the Global 3% Conference (2018). She has received huge recognition for celebrated campaigns like #ReleaseThePressure on Mirinda and #StandByToughMoms for SC Johnson. Currently she is Chief Creative Officer – Ogilvy India (North).

• 

Russell Barrett



Managing Partner & Chief Creative Officer, BBH India

As Chief Creative Officer and Managing Partner of BBH India, Russell has led the team, over the last ten years, to create highly awarded & acclaimed campaigns for brands like Google Chrome, Uber, Audi, UNIQLO, Skoda, Tinder, BookMyShow, CRY, Johnnie Walker, Vaseline and Axe to name a few. Armed with 24 years in advertising, Russell has won almost every advertising-related creative award in India and most international ones including Gold Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, Andys, Spikes, D&ADs and London International Awards. He has previously been on the Cannes Lions Films jury and several other international juries over the years.

• 

Sukesh Nayak



Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India

Sukesh Nayak joined Ogilvy in 2000 and has grown to become one of the most respected, most sought-after creative partners at Ogilvy. In 2020, he was elevated to the post of Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy India. His ability to tell compelling stories is evident across his body of work on Cadbury, Asian Paints, Tata Sky, Bajaj, Tata Salt, Hamam, Star Sports, HotStar, Google, Tata Motors, Castrol, ITC, JSW Steel, Shan Masala, Amazon, Fortune Oil, Economist, Axis Bank, Pantaloons, UNEP, Bandhan Bank, Indian Railways, Mattel, Fox Crime, MTDC, Wildstone, IAPA- Adoption Awareness and the ICC Cricket World Cup. He was one of the few people from India, listed in Campaign Asia's 40 Under 40 in 2015. Cadbury Unity Bar, Hamam Waterproof Sarees, Castrol TruckAsana, Cadbury Purple Heart #HeartTheHate, UNEP Masaba #IWillWearOutPlastic, FeviCall, Seagram’s The Legacy Project, DNA Fights Rape are few examples that he defines as the way forward for engaging storytelling. Over the years, he has won over 300 national and international awards, including accolades at Effies, AMEs, Kyoorius, Adfest, Spikes, D&AD, One Show, London International Awards and Cannes. The one he treasures most, however, is the phone call that he received from his father after the Google Reunion digital film went viral. Sukesh is quintessential Ogilvy – all heart and full of passion for great work.

• 

Swati Bhattacharya



Chief Creative Officer, FCBUlka

Twenty-four years ago, Swati Bhattacharya started her career in advertising. A young woman driven by hunger and excitement, she made her mark very quickly. Today, she is the Chief Creative Officer of FCBUlka.Swati Bhattacharya is a humanist. Her work finds wonder and awe in the joys and beauty of human existence, its challenges and its tragedies. It draws from human culture and the life stance that brands can only find relevance if they inspire hope and enrich the lives of people. While she stays married to advertising, she periodically makes short films. Her films have travelled the festival circuits from Vancouver film festival to Miami shorts. She has won the Best Short Film title at the Kolkata International Short Film Festival and the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke for the Best Screenplay for her film ‘double shift’. Her writings have been published in diverse media ranging from national newspapers to on-line content sites. Swati is impassioned by talent and believes in the development of it, by building a culture that invests in bringing out the true potential in people. For her, ‘being good’ is not enough. Being brave and real is her philosophy, at work and away from it. Swati was recently ranked in the Top 10 Most Influential People in Indian Advertising by ET Brand Equity Agency Reckoner 2019. She was not only in the top 10 list but also the only woman creative leader to feature in the Top Ten! Being amongst the only 2 women from India to feature in Campaign Asia Women to Watch 2019! ET Now ‘Stars of the Industry’ Awards 2019 honoured her with the Creative Professional of the Year award. She was the Jury chair at LIA 2019 and was honoured at Cannes Lions as the first Indian ambassador for 'See It Be It', two years in a row! Under her leadership, FCB Ulka marked their golden hattrick by winning India’s only gold at the prestigious International award shows- Cannes, Clio and LIA!

Instagram: @Bhattacharyaswati

Twitter: @Techyswati

• 

Tista Sen



Regional Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson

Tista started her career with Whitelight Productions, India’s leading ad film production company. After assisting on over a hundred commercials, she joined Lowe Lintas and worked on brands like Johnson & Johnson, Cadbury’s and Unilever. Building her portfolio on multinational and global brands she did a stint at Ogilvy and worked on the best loved campaigns in the country. In 2001 she joined J Walter Thompson and in 18 years she has been involved with some of the largest brands in India and some of the most memorable and well-loved advertising campaigns. Her current portfolio includes Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, ITC, Godrej, Hershey India, Mutual Funds of India and many others. She has been ranked among the 20 most creative people in Asia, and worked on campaigns that have won numerous metals including Cannes, Clio, D&AD, LIA and Spikes Asia. Recent wins include Gold, Silver, Bronze, Finalist at AdFest; Gold, Merit awards at One Show; Gold, Finalist at Cannes, Gold at Clio; Grand Prix, Gold, Silver at Spikes Asia. Over the years she has sat on the Jury of several advertising festivals in India and abroad, including Cannes, Clio, D&AD, Brand Equity, Kyoorius, Young Lions, Abby’s and LIA. She is currently Regional Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson, South Asia and believes her leadership includes mentoring young women creative leaders and helping shape their careers. In 2019, she was invited to be part of the Glass Jury at Cannes Lions, and also on the TV/Cinema/Online Jury at the London International Awards. This year has begun with her on the film jury of the New York Festival. Along with local jewels. Passionate about gender diversity she is a founding member of The Collective, an initiative solely created for women in Indian advertising, media and the design industry with an objective of fighting sexual harassment and discrimination at the workplace. Tista is a student of English Literature and life. She has been published by the New York Times in their regular column “Modern Love”; and hopes to write her own feature film one day. Having worked on global brands she believes an idea and insight can cut across geographies and connect with culture. Her ability to simplify things and find a human connection is what makes her approach to communication relevant and meaningful.

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Vidya Manmohan



Executive Creative Director, Grey Group Dubai

Alongside her Grey team, where she is the ECD, Vidya is the recipient of international awards for work that challenged perceptions, reshaped mentalities and brought a nuanced, rich approach on the Middle Eastern society, while helping brands have a distinct voice and enjoy prosperity. Vidya has explored all kinds of creative expressions, from copy to art direction, even though it meant leaving medical school to pursue advertising. Her work reflects the pop culture she is living in, through the awards won in Design, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Activation or Creativity for Good. Vidya is a common presence in the judging panels of international creativity festivals, and she is a true believer in the principle “Learning by sharing knowledge”. In 2019 she was nominated to be a part of the esteemed Cannes Lions Design Jury.

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Wes Phelan



Creative Director, Goodby Silverstein & Partners

Wes Phelan is a South African Creative Director currently working in San Francisco at Goodby Silverstein & Partners. Before this Wes worked at Johannes Leonardo across a number of the agency's accounts, most notably on Adidas Originals and TripAdvisor. His work on these brands resulted in significant business growth and impact as well as a successful international awards tally with multiple Cannes Lions, including the first Grand Prix awarded in the new Music Entertainment category in 2017 for the Adidas 'Original is never finished' campaign. In Adweek’s “2017 top 100”, Wes was recognized as one of the top 22 creative directors “who is completely reimagining what’s possible”. Wes has been featured in the Cannes Game Changers book and exhibition, celebrating 60 years of advertising that has transformed the landscape of the creative industries. Phelan has an intense passion for film and has directed several commercials, short films, and music videos. Prior to joining Johannes Leonardo, his provocative ideas and talent saw him quickly rise to be one of South Africa's youngest creative directors at WPP company, MetropolitanRepublic in Johannesburg. Despite the number of local and international accolades across virtually every industry award show, Wes is foremost committed to winning hearts, rather than trophies. He is continuously striving to connect the audience with the brand in a unique and memorable way.

• 

Eric Cruz



ECD, Innovation & Design, Sid Lee USA

Eric Cruz is a multi-award-winning creative leader, director, designer and educator who brings with him over 19 years of industry experience. He is a ‘hybrid creative’ who fuses design, film, moving images, digital media, music, art and technology, to bring a unique perspective to storytelling in the connected age. With a broad international experience, Eric has held various leadership positions in agencies across Asia, Europe and the US, developing a creative model for the agency of the future. To mentor the next generation of talent and ignite creative dialogue, Eric regularly delivers lectures and has taught Design, Advertising and Moving Media at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Temple University in Tokyo, and The One Academy in Kuala Lumpur. His work has been recognized by Tokyo ADC, Cannes Lions, ADC NY, ONE Show, D&AD, Spikes, AdFest, AdStars, The Webbys, The FWA, CSS Design Awards and the Japan Media Arts Festival.

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Gautam Reghunath



Chief Executive Officer, Dentsu Webchutney

Gautam is a homegrown leader at Webchutney having started out as a junior executive in the agency’s Mumbai office ten years ago. Over the last six years he has been helping build its Bangalore office – now, a 100 strong team that he built from the ground up. He was named the agency’s CEO in early 2020. The year 2019 saw Webchutney’s ascension to the top of India’s most awarded creative agencies list, topping the charts with 6 Lions at Cannes, 20 wins at Spikes Asia, 15 Elephants at Kyoorius, 40 Abbys at GoaFest and 8 Effies in a single year. The agency was also named India agency of the year at Spikes Asia, Digital, PR and Direct Agency of the year at the Abbys, India’s #1 digital agency by the the Economic Times & Brand Equity and also Campaign Asia’s digital agency of the year for India and South Asia.

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Kunal Jeswani



Chief Executive Officer, Ogilvy India

Kunal has spent over two decades in the communications business working with a range of clients, including Unilever, Mondelez, Vodafone, BMW and Pernod Ricard. He has also worked on the launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the BCCI; and led the South Asia Cricket Board’s bid for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Kunal has been with Ogilvy since 2005 and has worked across the company’s Advertising and Digital businesses. His previous role was Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy India, and he continues to be focused on growing Ogilvy’s digital footprint in India. Kunal’s passions, outside of work, include scuba diving and origami. He now also serves as a member of the Governing Council of his alma mater, MICA, Ahmedabad - one of India’s premier Marketing Communication Institutes.

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Melanie Clancy



Creative Directors, Creative X at Facebook

Melanie Clancy has been in the advertising industry for over 15 years. In that time, her ambition for bringing brands and people together on a global scale has brought her to three different markets (Toronto, Dubai, Singapore) where she has created not only award winning campaigns, but also platforms, products and services. Much of this work achieved ‘viral’ success, with one project even becoming part of the curriculum at several ad schools. Her work has won recognition at the Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, SXSW, and so on. Recent highlights include her work on World Under Water, which engaged the public about climate change on a global scale, and brought BBDO Singapore its first Webby. Mel is currently a creative director for Creative X at Facebook, dedicated to fearless creativity that redefines social.

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Nirmal Pulickal



Head of Creative Shop, Facebook India

Nirmal Pulickal is the Head of Creative Shop - Facebook in India. Nirmal leads a team of creative strategists and designers with a mission to create and collaborate on campaigns that will have an impact for the most relevant brands in India, using Facebook, Instagram and Messenger as their main platforms. He has a diverse background, having initially worked in advertising agencies, then ran his own shop, moved to Amazon to head their creative team in India and is currently with Facebook in a similar role.

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Umma Saini



Brand & Creative Lead, Google India

Umma's journey in advertising began right after college and over a decade later she is one of the most celebrated creatives in the world. She's been ranked No.1 Creative Director in India by Campaign Brief Asia. And No.10 in the world by the Big Won Report. Over the years, she has done stellar work for brands across diverse categories. Her robust metals tally includes multiple awards at Cannes, One Show, D&AD, ADFEST, Spikes, The New York Festival, Effies, Kyoorius and more. She is also a regular speaker and jury at various international forums like Cannes and Adfest. A believer of constant reinvention Umma has now joined Google India as their Brand Creative Lead. The astounding potential of technology amazes her every day. Umma is always curious, passionate about advertising backed with purpose, believes in the power of advertising to affect culture and create change

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Varun Duggirala



Co-Founder & Content Chief, The Glitch

Co-founder and Content Chief at The Glitch, one of India's leading new-age creative agencies, Varun Duggirala is one of the leading voices in modern advertising. Through his widely popular podcast 'Advertising is dead', Mr. Duggirala talks about the changes, developments and disruptions in the business of Advertising, media and entertainment . Having never worked in traditional advertising before starting The Glitch in 209, varun believes his stints at MTV and Channel V helped him understand the fabric of advertising, entertainment, content, and media from a new age lens minus the baggage of legacy. He calls himself the janitor who helps the team at glitch create impactful content and strategic creative for the brands they work with.