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Ajay Kelkar, COO, Hansa Customer Equity.
ajay.kelkar@cequitysolutions.com

Ajay Kelkar is the Chief Operating Officer of Hansa Cequity, our IT-enabled customer experience management company.

Ajay was previously the Head of Marketing at Shopper's Stop and HDFC Bank. He has a combined business experience of over 19 years across Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo, Shopper's Stop, and HDFC Bank

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Ajit Shah, President - North, New Delhi
ajitshah@rksbbdo.com

Ajit is an MBA from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Ajit has been in the advertising industry for the last 25 years. He has been the Managing Director of Everest Saatchi & Saatchi from 1991-2002 before joining R K SWAMY BBDO in 2004 He has serviced major FMCG clients such as Proctor & Gamble, Parle Biscuits, Frooti, Pan Parag, Dabur, Godfrey Phillips, etc He has also handled major international brands such as Honda, SONY, Panasonic, Yamaha, Dulux & Castrol .
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Jaylaxmi Kumar, Sr. Partner, Bangalore
Jaylaxmi.Kumar@rksbbdo.com

Passion for branding building with 16 years of experience in strategic brand management and communication for leading brands like Asian Paints, Central lifestyle retail brand, Mattel toys, Allen Solly, Hindustan Unilever brands like Brooke Bond, Bru, Annapurna, Dove, Hamam , Singer International, ABN Amro Bank, Promise, Odomos & more

Exposure to diverse industries, work environments, cross functions with hands-on experience across functions like PR, activation, media planning, research , social media, consumer database management, creative development , agency management , project management , budgeting, annual marketing calendar & others helps me to gain as well as provide a holistic view on the demands of businesses

Having worked on brands that are market leaders or challengers I have gained the ability to conceptualise brand building initiatives, develop marketing and business plans from strategy to execution keeping in mind the desired results

Life revolves around work and family and I love it this way. Goa, travel, blogs, fashion, reading, surfing through magazines & spending time with kids helps me unwind and ensure my sanity
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N Arun Kumar, Sr Partner, Bangalore
arunkumar@rksbbdo.com

He has been instrumental in starting HR Direction within R K SWAMY BBDO in 2002. He represents a vast repository of knowledge on attitudes and behavioral patterns of employees in various industries. Arun has been involved in numerous internal communication and employee engagement programs conceptualized and executed to arrest attrition in organizations.

An M. Tech in Industrial Engineering, Arun has over 23 years of professional experience in Marketing, Advertising and HR communication.He has conducted many workshops on mapping cultural identity of organizations
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Ashok Das, Managing Director, Hansa Research
ashok.das@hansaresearch.com

Ashok Das holds the mantle of Managing Director of Hansa Research India and HansalGCR Custom Research USA, splitting his time between the U.S. and India.

He has helped the Group to emerge as one of the fastest growing Market Research operations, spanning the U.S. and India, with over 250 employees. Widely known as an original thinker, he considers himself a market researcher by soul.

An IIT/IIM graduate, Ashok's background includes 14 years at ORG-MARG Research in India, where he served as the President, Customized and Media Research. He has created a number of groundbreaking studies, including INTAM (Indian National Television Audience Measurement), the IRS (Indian Readership Survey) and the HPI (Household Potential Index), a new consumer classification system that has been welcomed as the superior way of classifying Indian consumers.
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Chintamani Rao, President, R K SWAMY Media Group
chinta.rao@mediadirectionindia.com

In a 36 years in advertising and media, he has worked with major global advertising agency networks including Lintas (now Lowe), Ogilvy & Mather and McCann, and in news broadcasting.

Before he moved into news broadcasting Mr Rao was President, Integrated Communications at McCann Worldgroup with responsibility for media (Universal McCann), CRM (MRM Partners) and healthcare (McCann Healthcare).

As CEO of India TV he oversaw the channel's growth from a fledgling to a challenging the market leader; then at Times Global Broadcasting the growth of Times NOW to clear market leadership, and the launch of ET NOW. He retired from The Times Group as Vice Chairman of Times Global Broadcasting and advisor to Times Private Treaties, and returned to advertising to lead Media Direction.

His blog Take it from me comments on issues in marketing and media.
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K L Venkat, Chief Financial Officer
venkat.kl@rksbbdo.com

Mr K L Venkat is a Chartered Accountant with rich experience of 33 years in the Service Industry, especially in the field of Advertising. Joined the group in the year 1977 and has held many senior positions and is currently the Chief Financial Officer of R K SWAMY HANSA group. He has participated in many seminars and conferences both in Asia Pacific Network and as well as in the USA and has won wide appreciation and recognition in the Network.

Apart from his company related work, he had also contributed solutions to Advertising industry related problems through Advertising Agencies Association of India in his own humble way, whenever Ad industry was confronted with problems regarding Tax legislations and Regulatory matters affecting the Indian Advertising Industry. He is also a member in the sub-committee of the Joint body Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the AAAI.
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Lata Ramaseshan, General Manager, Hansa InfoSource, Chennai
lata.ramaseshan@rksbbdo.com

Post Graduate in English Literature and a Masters in Business Administration

Working with the R K SWAMY| HANSA Group for twenty years specializing in business, economic and social research

Worked in all phases of secondary research work from research proposal to design, data collection, analysis and presentation to the client

Expertise lies in gleaning critical insights from available body of research and literature, analysing large volumes of data and presenting credible and integrated research reports by sifting through quantitative and qualitative data and research work.

Has worked with clients, Euromonitor, HCL, IIT Madras, Visa, Raymond, DeVry, P L Shipping and Logistics Ltd and Indian Council of Child Welfare, Tamil Nadu
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Pranvir S. Mann, Partner, Delhi
p.mann@rksbbdo.com

Mann did his post graduation in English from Delhi University. During his over two decade long career, he has worked on local, national, multinational brands such as Reliance, Samsung, Nestle, Dabur, Hindustan Motors, Dulux, Air India, Suzuki to name a handful.
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S Narasimhan, Sr Partner, Mumbai
narasimhan.s@rksbbdo.com

Working with R K SWAMY BBDO for more than 16 years. A career spanning an entire spectrum of global/MNC brands and product categories. He has handled brands like Apple Computer, Citibank Cards, Diners Club, TATA Indicom, Red Label Tea, Taj Mahal Tea, Wipro and Wrigley's Chewing Gum and many more.

His other interests are Writing, Presentation Techniques, Marathon Running, Formula 1 and Football

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Neeraj Sangani, Sr Partner, R K SWAMY Interactive, Mumbai
neeraj.sangani@rksbbdo.com

  • A post graduate from Narsee Monjee College, has more than 17 years of Advertising experience - Has been with R K SWAMY BBDO for 10 years.
  • Has honed his leadership skills in Account Management on categories like - Automobiles, Telecom, Financial Services, FMCG, Consumer Electronics, Liquor and Hospitality.
  • A blend of Account Planning and Account Management skills enables him to drive a fairly diverse portfolio of businesses including the Interactive Division.
  • Some of the key businesses he has worked on at R K SWAMY BBDO include Mercedes-Benz, P&G - Gillette, Viedocon, Tata Indicom Mobile, Videocon and Financial Technologies - MCX Stock Exchange.

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Rajesh Sanyal, Principal Consultant, Kolkata
rajesh.sanyal@rksbbdo.com

Rajesh is a B.Sc (Molecular Biology, Zoology and Botany) from Calcutta University in 1990 and holds an Hons. in Systems Management from NIIT, Calcutta in (1990)

He has 20+ years of experience in varied FMCG and consumer brands like Dettol, Maggi, Nescafe, Hercules Cycles, Exide, Berger, Vodafone, Fiama and Vivel. Started the career with the client side to later move into the agency side of the business with a brief stint in entrepreneurship.
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Sangeetha N, President (West) & Executive Creative Director
sangeetha.n@rksbbdo.com

Sangeetha works as head of Creative and Management of the Mumbai operation of R K SWAMY BBDO. She has been with the Agency for 23 years.

She has been quietly working behind the scenes, creating iconic advertising for major brands and companies. Her work covers a gamut of clients including Raymond ‘The Complete Man', Visa Power, LIC ‘Why go anywhere else', Hawkins ‘The Joy of cooking', Mercedes Benz ‘The future of the automobile', Shriram Transport ‘Musafir ho yaaron' and others.

Sangeetha holds an MBA, and is a Visharad (Master's degree equivalent) in Indian Classical Music, from Allahabad Music University that she received at the age of 14! She has also trained extensively in different forms of dance.

Some highlights of her work:
  • Her continuous and long-standing contribution to key clients with consistent work on many brands has lead to extraordinary depth of understanding of the Clients' issues, and they hardly need to brief her or the Agency on their needs. Add to this strategic understanding and insight into consumer behaviour and she is able to produce work that offers the right solutions time after time. Work happens smoothly, with quick turnaround and minimal fuss.
  • On the creative front, she has produced a prolific amount of work for each client. She has personally scripted and produced over 100 TVCs (original work - the number excludes work she has supervised or helped others with), a quantum of work that will be matched by just a few creative people in the industry. As for print campaigns, and other BTL work, it is too numerous to count.
  • As President (W), she is responsible for R K SWAMY BBDO Mumbai P&L, and happily she has delivered on this front year on year. The Mumbai operation of the Agency has grown consistently year on year, through recessions and slowdowns.
  • She is a key member of the R K SWAMY HANSA Group national management structure and has played a huge role in enabling the Group to evolve on many fronts

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Sanjay Dev Jena, Sr Partner, Mumbai
sanjay.devjena@rksbbdo.com

Sanjay's role includes managing international projects and cultivating new business opportunities within the US and Europe. Sanjay has two decades of experience in the Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications space, spread out over three continents.

He started off his career with R K SWAMY BBDO in 1990, followed by a post in East Africa to establish offices for Saatchi & Saatchi. He later worked in the eastern Mediterranean with Greenpeace, where his position as Regional Communication Director included establishing communication functions in the area. His last position with BBDO Germany involved running Allianz Insurance's global campaign in 40 countries.

He holds an MBA in Marketing, and a Masters in English Literature.
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V S Rao, Partner, Hyderabad
rao.vs@rksbbdo.com

Rao, a management graduate, has over 25 years of experience in the advertising industry. Having started his career with MAA Bozell, Rao moved to R K SWAMY BBDO's Hyderabad office in 1993.

In the span of his career, Rao has played a key role in strategizing and brand building for a host of prestigious clients. Some of them include Wipro, Tata Indicom, Logica CMG, Kurlon, Continental Coffee, AP Dairy, Hyderabad Industries Limited, Microsoft, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Ramoji Group, Aparna Constructions, Bayer BioScience and GSS Infotech.
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Shailen Sohoni, Chief Operating Officer, Mumbai
shailen.sohoni@rksbbdo.com

Graduate in Hotel Managements and Arts with a Diploma in Marketing Management as well as an Advanced Marketing Certification from IMD, in Switzerland.

Over 30 years Marketing, Sales and Marcom experience in Hospitality, Packaged foods, Consumer durables.

With R K SWAMY BBDO for the last 8 years leading the fashion and financial practice managing brands like Raymond, VISA, State bank of India, Birla Sunlife among others.

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Shekar Swamy, Group CEO
shekar.swamy@rksbbdo.com

Shekar Swamy holds an MBA (FMS, Delhi) and an MS from Northwestern University.

He has been working with the Group for over two decades and has helped build the Group's business across a broad array of service offerings. Shekar's area of specialisation is in developing business, marketing and communication strategies for companies and brands. He works with a number of Indian and Multi-national companies, and has helped them launch, manage and grow their brands and businesses significantly. Some of these are Abbott Labs, Hawkins, ICI Dulux, Life Insurance Corporation, Mercedes Benz, O'General, P&G, Piaggio, Raymond, Sara Lee, State Bank of India, Visa, WIPRO and others.

Shekar's experience and interest in cross-border communications has led him, along with Prof. Don Schultz, to successfully develop a course on "Global Marketing Communication". Shekar and Don Schultz have been co-teaching this course to the Graduate students of Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University's Medill School for the past ten years. Given his contributions, Northwestern University inducted Shekar into the Alumni Hall of Achievement in 2002, a rare honour.

Shekar has also been actively involved in developing the professional standards of the advertising, media and marketing business in India. He is a co-founder and past Chairman of the not-for-profit Media Research Users Council, a body that has been at the forefront of organizing media research in that country.

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Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman & Managing Director
skswamy@rksbbdo.com

Mr Swamy is a B Tech (Chemical Engineer) and a MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute. He is the Immediate Past Chairman of Confederation of Asian Advertising Agency Associations. He was President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for three consecutive terms (2004-07) and continues to take an active interest in the Association as an Executive Committee Member.

He is also a Governing Council Member of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and is the Vice President of International Advertising Association (IC). He is a Past President of All India Management Association (2008-09). He is also the Past President of The Madras Chamber of Commerce & Industry (2008-10), Madras Management Association (2001-02) and the Advertising Club, Madras (1988-89).

Mr Swamy, as President, is actively involved in running the 200 bed, multi-discipline Hindu Mission Hospital at Chennai catering to the urban poor and the surrounding rural areas. Further, as Chairman of Valluvar Gurukulam School Society, he is active in running school for 2700 poor students, primarily girls, whose parents have not entered the portals of any school.

He serves as a Trustee in Aim for Seva which runs over 80 poor student homes across India. He is also a Trustee in the Consumer Association of India and CONCERT. He is actively involved in many other Educational, Social and Religious institutions.
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S. Swaminathan, Managing Director & CEO, Hansa Customer Equity
swaminathan.s@cequitysolutions.com

Swami has over 16 years of experience with leading direct marketing agencies in India like iContract (one-to-one agency of Contract Advertising, India - a WPP group company and a subsidiary of JWT, India) and Result-McCann (The direct marketing arm of McCann Worldwide). He was the Executive Vice President and National Head of iContract,

He holds a Bachelors Degree in Engineering and a post-graduate degree in Management. He is an avid blogger and runs his own blog customerworld.typepad.com. He also teaches at leading management institutes and regularly writes in leading management dailies & magazines.

He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing, London. Other interests include music (is an accomplished percussionist), playing and watching cricket.

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Sujit Kumar, Senior Development Strategy Director, Social ^ Rural Direction
sujit.kumar@rksbbdo.com

Sujit is an MBA from Berhampur University.

Sujit has been in the advertising industry for the last 14 years. He has been in social and rural advertising for more than a decade. He held various key positions in Ogilvy Outreach, RC&M, Lowe Lintas and IL&FS, ETS in past.

He has serviced major Social / Developmental clients such as Unicef, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, State AIDS control Societies, USAIDS, etc.

He has also handled major Clients with focus in rural marketing such as TVS Motors, TI Cycles, Hero Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra, Britania, BBC Hindi, Microsoft , Department of Information Technology, Hugh Communication, Hindustan Unilever, P&G, Colgate Palmolive, Dabur, etc.
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Surojoy Banerjee, President - HR
joy.banerjee@rksbbdo.com
  • 37 years in advertising, outdoor, events & activation, PR, etc.
  • Headed R K SWAMY BBDO operations in Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai
  • Set up Agency's operations in Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Set up Agency's specialist Financial Services Group - FINHANS
  • Guest faculty at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, the Xavier Institute of Business Management, Jamshedpur, Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune, International School of Business & Marketing, Pune.
  • Committee Member of the Public Relations Society of India.
  • Committee Member of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce

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G Suresh, Vice President - IT
suresh.g@rksbbdo.com

A postgraduate from IIT Kanpur. He joined the group as General Manager in the year 2000. He has worked in the IT (EDP) department of many corporate houses in Chennai prior to joining the group.
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Vathsala Ravindran, Director, Hansa Research
vathsala.ravindran@hansaresearch.com

Vathsala Ravindran has over 25 years of market research experience.

She focuses on quantitative research and has significant background in consumer products, financial services, telecom, health services and social services. She has conducted research across a broad range of methodologies, including baseline market studies, segmentations, customer satisfaction, brand health measurement, and corporate image measurement.

An MA in economics from Madras University, she has also audited courses in consumer behaviour, marketing research and statistics at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle Campus.
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R Vishwa Mohan, Chief Operating Officer, Pharma Direction
vishwamohan.r@rksbbdo.com

Vishwa Mohan as the chief Operating Officer of the Pharma Intiative, which he was instrumental in setting up, heads two divisions Pharma Direction and HANSA MedCell.

After quick stints in a few agencies in Mumbai and Chennai and an entrepreneurial venture in marketing spices, Vishwa Mohan settled down to a long career in R K SWAMY BBDO in 1987.

The first decade of his career saw him rising from the position of Sr. Account Executive to Client Services Director in the Chennai office contributing to the growth of the key accounts of the office. The second decade of his stint saw him contributing to the growth of the Hyderabad office where he was moved as the General Manager. He established market leadership for the office with a commanding lead and was rewarded with quick promotions to Sr. Vice President of the office. During the Hyderabad stint, on the back of a successful client relationship with a pharma client, he nurtured and grew the pharma initiative of the agency. In 2007 he moved to Mumbai as Chief Operating Officer of the Pharma Services Group with the mandate to grow the business across all offices.

Vishwa Mohan has a degree in statistics and a MBA from the University of Mumbai.
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V V Vijay Gopal, President - South & East
vijay.gopal@rksbbdo.com

Vijay heads the offices in Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. An Electronics Engineer by qualification, Vijay has done his post graduation in management from IIM, Ahmedabad.
He is also an SMP post graduate from the Omnicom University and has trained on the BBDO Tools at the Marketing Sciences Department in BBDO New York. He is closely involved with his clients in the development of communication programs, guides account management teams to craft brand strategy.

In his 24 years of experience, he has worked on clients like SONY, Citizen, Henkel, Sara Lee, Mars Chocolates, Maxis Aircel Telecom, Fujitsu, Apollo, AMP Sanmar amongst others.
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V S Chakrapani, Director
chakrapani.vs@rksbbdo.com
V S Chakrapani is a postgraduate in Mathematics and is a fellow member of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India, Calcutta.

He served as a Cost Accountant in Railways, first at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, and thereafter at Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. He worked with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Trichy till August 1985. In August 1985 he moved to Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited, Koramangala, Bangalore as Director (Finance) and retired in September 1989. After his super-annuation, he joined R K Swamy Advertising Associates Limited as Financial Advisor. He is at present the Director of R K SWAMY BBDO Private Limited from 1994 onwards.
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Sandeep Sharma, President, R K SWAMY Media
sandeep.sharma@rkswamymedia.com

Sandeep Sharma as President RK Swamy media group is in charge of four businesses viz (MediaDirection : Hansa Media services : Hansa Outdoor : Digital Direction)

Sandeep has 22 years of experience in the areas of Revenue management , Brand management & communication encompassing Media (TIMES TELEVISION NETWORK, STAR INDIA) , Brand communication (LINTAS , CONTRACT) and Brand management ( WIPRO , LAKME), where he has successfully managed, launched and built iconic brands and profitable businesses.

In his previous assignment as Sr VP Marketing & Sales, he was part of the core team that launched TIMESNOW and built it into an iconic English news service over a period of 7 years.

He has won numerous accolades, awards and recognition for his positive impact on revenue, image and profitability of the brands he has been associated with in his career and is sought after in industry forums as a speaker and panelist.

Sandeep is a chemical engineer from IIT Mumbai, MMS from NMIMS. He has also attended an EDP course in "Senior leadership" from ISB Hyderabad.