Ajay Kakar started his career at Ogilvy and stayed on for a remarkable 14+ years. Moving through various roles, his last portfolio was a dual role as executive director and head of the agency’s financial practice division as well as president and country head of Ogilvy PR. In 2005 Kakar joined Reliance Capital, as head - Branding. In 2008, he joined the Aditya Birla Group as chief marketing officer of their financial services businesses. Frequently a jury member across award festivals, Kakar has also been appointed as the chairperson of the Effie 2011 Committee.
Ravi Kiran moved out of Starcom MediaVest Group last year, after over 12 years there. Along with three partners, he announced the establishment of ‘Friends of Ambition’, arguably the nation’s first growth advisory company focused on businesses in Tier II and III towns, a geography the company calls Middle India. He has also turned an angel investor, as a member of Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels. At Starcom, Kiran was chief executive officer, South East and South Asia, and emerging market leader - Specialist Solutions. Prior to joining Starcom, Kiran was with Lintas India. Kiran has also been on various award juries including the Media Lions jury at Cannes in 2010.
Meenakshi Menon (Madhvani) formed Spatial Access, a media audit company, in October 2003. Prior to this she had stints with several advertising, media and marketing firms which included Lintas and Zee. During her time with the Aegis Group, she set up Carat India, said to be the first media independent in the country. Menon (Madhvani) was appointed the first Indian judge on the media jury at Cannes in 2003. Outside of the media business, Menon dedicates her time to Vanashakti, an NGO for environmental conservation, of which she is one of the three founders.
Twenty years in positions across brand consulting, advertising and design management, Razdan has been navigating brands and businesses. Spending his formative years at Contact and HTA(JWT), he moved to Leo Burnett. Setting up Cheil Communications in India and then as president, Idiom Design. He has worked across brands like Pepsi,Nestle, Coca-Cola portfolio and Samsung, and set up Interbrand, a global brand consulting company, in India.
Suman Srivastava began his career at Lintas In 1987, and in 1994, he was part of the team that started SSC&B Lintas. In 1996, he moved to Euro RSCG India and was part of the team that started operations in India. He was promoted to chief executive officer in June 2006. During that time he was also appointed chief strategy officer for Euro RSCG Asia Pacific. In 2011, Srivastava left Euro to start Marketing Unplugged, described as a marketing innovation company, and considers getting his first pay cheque from there as his proudest memory (from Campaign India A List 2011). He calls himself “advertising man, strategist, author, marathon runner, teacher, social worker, sports fan, creative bartender and now an entrepreneur”.
Sanjay Tripathy began his career with GCMMF in 1992 after securing a management degree from IRMA. From GCMMF, he moved to PepsiCo (where he worked on Frito Lay), and from there onwards to stints at Mattel and Reliance Infocomm. He joined HDFC Life in 2004. Under his leadership, HDFC Life launched its ‘Sar Utha ke Jiyo’ campaign which has received many accolades including being rated as one of India’s 60 glorious advertising moments after independence by a B2C magazine. Asked what he would do on a sabbatical, Tripathy said, “Travel and see the world. Maybe also study again - this time in Harvard or LBS” (from Campaign India A List 2011).