The Team

Ipshita has over 20 years of international marketing communications experience, across India, Middle East, SE Asia and UK. She has worked in Leo Burnett, Y&R, Gulf Finance House and Edelman where she led high performing, multicultural and diverse teams. Ipshita has the unique advantage of hands-on experience across the spectrum of communication functions including advertising & media buying, public relations, corporate communications and employer branding which she leverages to build strong, profitable businesses as well as ensures ROI for clients by ensuring delivery of creative and impactful campaigns.

A vocal advocate of inclusive and equitable workplaces, Ipshita recently started Engendered to help women manage their careers better. She has also recently launched the India Chapter of Global Women in PR, an international knowledge exchange and networking platform that mentors women into leadership roles

Aanandita Bhatnagar is an award-winning strategic corporate communications leader with two decades of experience in building a brand for global technology companies. She is the director of corporate communications for NetApp, a leader in multi hybrid cloud technology, based out of Sunnyvale, California.

A believer of the power of integrated communications as an enabler towards achieving business objectives, Aanandita brings a solid mix of experience covering public relations, analyst relations, internalcommunication, executive communication, employer branding, as well as social/digital media, and most recently, startup communications.

Aanandita has worked as a communications leader with high-tech companies like Cisco and Texas Instruments. She has also built an award-winning communications programs for the NetApp Excellerator, a corporate accelerator program by NetApp. Aanandita is passionate about women in technology and leads communications for the NetApp Women in Tech chapter, which also was nominated in the Fulcrum awards in 2019.

In her free time, she paraglides, reads, travels, runs marathons and treks.

Archana Muthappa heads Corporate Communications at Bangalore International Airport Ltd. (operator of BLR Airport). With over two decades of experience in both Corporate and Consulting communications, Archana has been a part of several organisations, including Satyam Computer Services, The UB Group, Adfactors PR and Good Relations. She has consulted across industry verticals and geographies and brings to the table deep experience of building brands using public relations and non-paid mediums. Having been part of the team that dealt with the Satyam Computers crisis, Archana has hands-on experience of crisis communication.

Archana has a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Mysore and is currently a student of Transactional Analysis

Carolina has been leading integrated marketing and communications efforts for over 18 years and has spent her career developing insight-driven campaigns with emphasis on marketing communications, digital communications, financial communications, leadership change management and global reputation programs. She has led teams across a range of corporate, financial, lifestyle, FMCG, sports and technology brands.

She has been a trusted emissary for brands and Corporate houses and is known for her authenticity, integrity, crisis management capabilities and the leverage to engage at all levels, internally and externally proficiently.

Deepa started her career as a journalist and then moved to communications 25 years ago. During her career she has worked in leadership positions, both in-house and with a consultancy, supporting communication outreach for a range of industries including Hospitality, Aviation, Telecom and Consumer Healthcare in India & South Asia. Her areas of expertise include Change Management, Executive branding, Industry Orchestration, Corporate Reputation, Brand Communications, Employer branding, Online Reputation Management and Issue / Crisis handling.

Afterhours, she loves to travel, read, write and indulges in Shinrinyoku. She loves her long walks every weekend with her son – Neil, husband – Nikhil and Cookie, a rescue pup. You can follow her on twitter and Instagram @ddey67

With three decades of rich and diverse experience in public relations and integrated communications, Deepshikha Dharmaraj is one of the most respected leaders in the industry in India. Till recently, the CEO of BCW India Group, she now takes over as Chief Executive Officer, Burson Group India, which includes Burson Genesis, GCI Health India and Hill & Knowlton India. In this role she manages the overall business interests of Burson in India and implements its growth strategy encompassing people, clients and partners.

Deepshikha provides strategic counsel to the firm’s marquee clients and senior client leaders and is sought by them as a trusted advisor in good as well as turbulent times. A firm believer in conceptualising impactful campaigns, she champions creativity and measurement across the organization.

In her professional journey, Deepshikha has experienced every aspect of the business. After spearheading the communication mandates for some of the biggest clients at the firm, she led the regional expansion of the erstwhile Genesis PR in the west, setting up the Mumbai office in 1996 and Pune in 1998. She then went on to create the talent development framework as the Chief Talent Officer and Head of Learning and Development. As Chief Marketing & Growth Office, she led the acquisition and retention of key clients and built strong partnerships for new services and capability enhancements. And then combined all these roles as the Chief Business Growth Officer, before being named the CEO.

An active leader in India’s public relations industry initiatives, Deepshikha is a founding board member and currently the President of the India chapter of the Global Women in Public Relations (GWPR), a global organisation for senior women in PR and communications. She serves as the Managing Committee member and President of the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI). She also served as President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India (PRCAI) in 2008. Passionate about bringing creative ideas and measurement into communications, she has been jury for numerous prestigious award shows, including Cannes PR Lions, D&AD Awards, SABRE South Asia Awards, PR Week Awards, Campaign PR Awards India, Fulcrum Awards and IPRCCA amongst others. Deepshikha has also won several awards and recognition, including, most recently being named PR Professional of the Year at Indian PR & Corporate Communications Awards (IPRCCA) 2023 and CEO Of The Year by e4m Women’s Achievers Summit & Awards 2023. She was also listed among the top 25 PR and Communications professionals by Reputation Today, among the 100 Changemakers of PR and Corporate Communications by Exchange4Media, and PR

Ira is a Corporate Communications Leader with experience in Healthcare, Consumer Electronics, IT, Retail and the Automotive industry. In a career spanning over 15+ years as a Communications expert, she has championed and led programs on  employee engagement, employee advocacy, employer branding, best places to work, CSR, corporate events and is a social media expert. In addition she has partnered with several sustainable business practices, diversity and inclusion programs.

The accolades for her achievements as a Communication experts rests firmly behind her legacy as daughter, wife and mother. She loves to read literature, and books on management and developments in technology and economics. She mentors young women students & entrepreneurs in her home state, Sikkim.

Currently, Ira heads Corporate Communications at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India.

Madhu Chhibber is CEO, Madison PR with 25 years of experience, including tenures with Indian and international organisations in leadership roles. Prior to this she was CEO, Perfect Relations. Before that as VP – Corporate Communication & Corporate Marketing with a multi-billion AED entity, based in the UAE, she led on PR and marketing communications for a formidable portfolio of over 100 globally respected brands, across 7 countries, necessitating sound understanding of policy, political environment, cultural nuances and the media landscape of each. Madhu has played a lead role in strategic industry initiatives critical for business continuity, including shaping the debate on effectiveness of accommodation programmes versus restrictive legislation. She’s devised measurement and reporting modules for PR, developed as part of proprietary software catering to analytic requirements of a large portfolio.

Adept at working with large, multi-cultural teams she’s familiar with multi market working nationally as well as across Europe & the Middle East. Being instrumental in winning many industry awards for a diverse body of campaign work, she has also served as jury on several award panels, including Sabre Awards South Asia, PR Abby’s, Effie MENA and more recently Grand Jury of the INMA Global Media Awards, New York. She’s been recognized by industry with inclusion in exchange4media’s ‘Top 100 Influential Game Changers List, 2019’ of  PR & Corporate Communications professionals of India; The Reputation Today Power 50 list, 2019 of  PR/Corporate Communications; ‘Women to Watch Out For’ on the list of IMPACT’s 50 Most Influential, 2018.

Melissa Arulappan has spent over three decades in challenging and exciting communication roles in the corporate and consultancy sector in India. She is currently India communications head of US-based human data science firm, IQVIA. She was earlier with Vice President & Director, Development, Corporate Voice|Weber Shandwick and before that with Glaxo India.  Passionate about nurturing and developing talent, Melissa is actively involved in teaching PR and running professional development initiatives.

She enjoys travelling, baking and sports. Melissa holds a post graduate degree in medical and psychiatric social work and an advanced diploma in PR and is a Chevening Scholar, Women in Leadership and Management.

As the Chairperson & CEO, Nandita provides the vision and direction for The PRactice. Her views on public relations, based on 25+ years of experience, has helped shape the vision of the Firm and influenced the direction it takes to stay relevant in today’s market realities. Nandita has served on various prestigious juries to determine excellence in public relations, including the 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for the PR category; the Sabre Awards India, among others.

In 2014, she won the Sabre Individual Award for her contribution to the PR Industry in India. The Award called out The PRactice as “unquestionably one of the best (PR Firms), showcasing a grown up, ethical approach that has served the Firm well in a fast changing marketplace”. In 2016, she was recognised among India’s top 10 women in Public Relations by Reputation Today. In 2019, Nandita made it to the Power 50 annual list of Indian public relations and corporate communications released by The Reputation Today.

Over the last eighteen months, Nandita has also been volunteering with Pallium India – an NGO based in Trivandrum that has done pioneering work in India for awareness building and creating models in this area. In addition, she enjoys spending time with women who wish to return to the workforce either through resuming a career or becoming entrepreneurs and has recently helped the launch of Padme, an information portal for adoption in India. Nandita is on the panel of mentors for IIM-A’s Centre for Creative and Cultural Businesses Program, for the second year in a row.

Neha is one of the three founding members of Avian WE. She has over 17 years of experience in the PR industry. Her expertise lies in campaign planning and crisis management and reputation management. She handles some of the large agency mandates. Neha currently wears many hats at Avian which include leading PR nationally, running a programme called “Clients for Life” which focuses on client satisfaction and retention. She also has devised a three-month long training programme for fresh hires in the company.

Neha’s work has been recognised with prestigious industry awards. Among them are: Women in watch in Southeast Asia: In September 2019 Neha was amongst the only two women from India on list for women to watch for in Southeast Asia. ‘Emerging Leader of the Year Award’ at Future Leaders Summit in October 2018; Reputation Today: 40Under40, 2017 and the ‘PR|petual – Professional of the Year Award’ at IDEASFEST 2016. She is the only Indian to be shortlisted for PR Week Asia’s ‘PR Professional of the Year Award’ in 2016.

Neha is part of the founding member team for GWPR a global organisation that brings together women of power in PR to discuss issues and future of the industry. Through this organisation, Neha aims to bring about a gender balance in the boardroom and groom the next generation of women leaders in the industry.

Neha lives in Delhi with her family.

Twitter handle: @nehamehro

Pooja heads Communications for PayPal in India. She brings close to two decades of communications experience. As the communications head, Pooja is responsible for internal and external communications, and reputation risk management. Prior to PayPal, Pooja was with Genesis BM.

Currently heading Amazon India PR, I have more than two decades across different aspects of communication. My work experience straddles copy-writing, journalism, corporate communications and film writing. Working across brands and industries as well as across Asian markets, I am passionately convinced about the power of communications to make a difference for organisations in how they are perceived, with clear brand as well as business impact.  I am an advocate for how we must be strategic partners to business and play the role of strong moral compass as the brand reputation custodians.

I believe this is among the most exciting times in communication and what drives me is how technology is bringing in disruptive changes, redefining reach and remit of communications to make it more effective, holistic and powerful. I am committed deeply to nurturing talent to build leaders for the future who are fearless in experimentation, and to help mentor women for leadership across companies.

I hold a Masters Degree in International Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Bachelor of Arts in History from Stella Maris College, Madras University.

Rachana Panda, a Harvard Business School Alumnus, is VP & Country Head Communications, Public Affairs & Sustainability at Bayer South Asia.

A communications leader for around 25 years across different brands like GE, Alstom, Alcatel Nokia, Apollo Tyres and more. At Bayer, Rachana is a part of the leadership team where she champions the communication function along with Public Affairs, CSR & Sustainability strategy in the region. Rachana is an active member of forums that promotes entrepreneurship and professional excellence among women. She is actively involved in mentoring students and young leaders under Atal Innovation Mission, a program under Niti Aayog and other forums.

Rachana received the 2019 Outstanding Achievement SABRE Award in communications at the APAC level. She has been listed as one of the top communicators and influencers in the country. She has spoken at various National & International conferences and has contributed for leading publications. She has judged campaigns at platforms such as AMEC, SABRE & various Marketing forums.

Rakhee heads PR and Corporate Communications for IHCL on a global scale. She has over twenty years of expertise within the hospitality industry and has held several roles in the realm of Sales & Marketing at IHCL.  She currently looks after global PR and Corporate communications for 200 hotels and is in charge of enhancing & protecting the global image of the company.  In her free time Rakhee enjoys reading and traveling to explore different cultures, history and cuisine.

Sarah Gideon heads Corporate Communications at Flipkart, India’s homegrown marketplace. Prior to this she was with Infosys, a global leader in technology services and consulting, where she managed the Global Public Relations mandate for the company.

Sarah has extensive experience managing corporate reputation, developing campaigns, establishing processes and structures, managing communication during crises of varying degrees, and nurturing teams. She has managed several communication portfolios and led teams across India, Europe and the US.

Before Infosys, Sarah worked with 20:20 MEDIA (now 20:20 MSL), a communications consultancy where she worked on brands such as Google, Intel and Cannon.

She is a firm believer in the power of communication in enabling change and the potential of technology to do good and make lives better.

Sarita Bahl is the Country Group Head Communications & Public Affairs (CPA) – South Asia for Bayer. Over her three decades of professional experience, Sarita has held multiple roles across diverse industries, public sector, trade associations, MNCs and the Not-for-profit sector. An alumnus of Tata Institute of Social Science and the Swedish Institute of Management Program, Sarita specializes in stakeholder engagement, sustainability and communications. She is passionate about animals (is mother to a female cat), books and movies.

A multifaceted Corporate Communications & Brand Management expert Seema Ahuja has been in Senior Leadership roles in the Pharma & Life Sciences Sector for over two decades. During her career spanning over 30 years she has played a critical role in reputation management and Corporate Brand PR for various leading public listed companies in the Hospitality, Pharma, Life sciences and Biotech sectors.

She is currently steering the Global Corporate Communications, Brand and Digital PR function for Biocon since 2012, and has enabled recognition of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw as a global influencer. Previously she drove Corporate communication  and brand strategy for reputed global organizations like Ranbaxy, Lupin Ltd,  Jubilant Life Sciences, Oberois, Imperial Hotel etc.

Shruthi Bopaiah has 15 years of experience across Communication, Branding and HR. She is currently the Head of Client Engagement and Communications at Bridgeweave Ltd an AI Fintech company.

Prior to this , she was the Global head of Internal Communications at Infosys Ltd. She has an MBA from SIMS, Pune and certified in Design Thinking from Stanford D. School.

She is SHRM’s Top 40 HR Influencers ( 2019) in the country today. Shruthi is the only Indian who has been recognized as a ‘Game Changer’ in 2012 by the Workforce Management, USA. Under her leadership, Infosys won the IABC Gold Quill Awards (2013 and 2018) for Excellence in Leadership Comms and Change Management.

Swati Bhattacharya is a story teller and a Marketing Communications strategy professional, with over 23 years of experience in Corporate Relations, branding, internal & external communications and market creation expertise in diverse fields such as Engineering, Technology, Retail and Auto sectors. She is currently Chief Communications and Brand Officer at the Bajaj Group.

Prior to joining Bajaj, Swati was Chief Marketing & Communications Officer and Chief Diversity Officer at the CK Birla Group and prior to that she served as Vice President Corporate Communications at General Motors India. She has also Vice President of Corporate Relations, Public Affairs and Branding at Ingersoll Rand India. Earlier in her career, she has held senior leadership roles in companies such as Ingersoll Rand, Agilent Technologies and others across several industries.

Swati is also a Winner of the ABP News Women Super Achiever Award for Brand Excellence, supported by World Marketing Congress, CMO Asia and CMO Council USA and endorsed by Asian Confederation of Businesses

Varsha Chainani is Sr. Vice President Group Communications at the Mahindra Group and is responsible for building their reputation, globally.

She is a Communications and Marketing strategist with over 30 years of experience across various facets of Communications – Reputation Management, Public Affairs, Media Relations, Employee Communications and Content Management, Crisis Management, Brand Building, Marketing, and Corporate Social Responsibility.

She has helped industry-leading global organizations like Abbott, IBM and Indian Hotels Company Ltd work through change and achieve growth, enhance & protect reputation and build brand image.

Apart from being a speaker and jury at various national and international communications forums, Varsha is an active member of the prestigious Arthur W Page Society. She is a Life and Leadership Professional Coach who works with mid-career women supporting them to accelerate their leadership journey and excel in their careers.

Shravani Dang is an Independent Board Director and an experienced business and CSR leader with over three decades of quantifiable achievements. Her experience spans Indian and multinational companies across Technology, Financial, Not-for-profit and Industrial sectors, in both complex and large organizations.

Currently, she is an independent member of the board in several organisations. She has worked with internationally reputed brands like Fidelity, IT giants CSC and HCL, as well as international relief and development organization CARE India.

A double lifetime achievement awardee, Shravani is retired from the corporate world, and is chronicling food history in a book ‘ Eat Your History’ which traces the origins and etymology of food as well as a collection of short stories- ‘There’s an elephant in my garden’. An artist too, she is working towards her second exhibition and show. She lives in Gurgaon with her husband, one cat and a dog.

Previously, Shravani was Vice President at the Avantha Group and led the enterprise-wide Communications and Marketing function globally.

Sunita is part of the Management Team, heading Country Development, Sustainability, CSR & Government Relations, at BASF in India.

Sunita has around 25 years of experience in the chemical industry and is actively engaged on topics relating to Chemicals, Environment, Sustainability & CSR through committees of CII, FICCI & the Indian Chemical Council. She contributes to Sustainability Forums like the UN Global Compact Network India as Vice President of the Western Region Council and is part of the Regional Task Group of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

She has studied Economics, Germanistics and Business Administration and has International work experience in countries like India, Germany, Belgium and Hong Kong.

Bhavna brings over two decades of experience providing counsel to clients for brand communications, corporate positioning, executive thought leadership, earned media programming as well as crisis and issues management. At Edelman, Bhavna drives key client relationships and new business while ensuring business operations, as well as culture support and scale for growth.

Bhavna has held several leadership roles in her career at Edelman. In 2012, she was posted in Edelman Hong Kong for two years where she led the Consumer business through a period of sustained business growth. Before moving to Hong Kong, Bhavna co-led the Consumer Practice at Edelman India and has delivered corporate and brand communications programs for a wide range of clients across technology, food and retail sectors.

Bhavna is passionate about building teams and culture to drive an equitable and inclusive workplace. She was part of India’s 40 under 40 communication leaders list by Reputation Today magazine in 2017 and is a founding Board Member of the Global Women in PR (GWPR) network in India.

Valerie Pinto stands as an eminent figure in the industry, holding the esteemed position of Chief Executive Officer at, Weber Shandwick India. As the Head of the firm, Valerie works closely with clients across the country to change traditional models of communication towards more integrated offerings with a focus on campaigns, creativity, and content. Her visionary approach has redefined the norms of communication, propelling the agency to the forefront of innovation and integrated solutions for brands, businesses, and organizations across major markets. With a spirit that embraces transformative change.

Her strategic acumen paves the way for a new era of communication that transcends boundaries and captivates audiences. Under her leadership, Weber Shandwick India has garnered numerous awards, solidifying its status as one of the country’s most acclaimed firms.