Media Panel: "From Media to Multi-media - How Democratisation of Content is Changing the Industry


Ravi Kiran
MD Starcom MediaVest, South Asia

Proud of calling himself a lifelong student of marketing and communications, Ravi Kiran is the Chief Executive Officer for South East & South Asia of Starcom MediaVest Group, one of the largest marketing communication networks in the world. Kiran is focussed on providing the strategy and vision that will allow Starcom MediaVest Group to attain its goal of being a powerful company in the region that provides brands engaging connections with their consumers. A respected media executive, Kiran joined Starcom in 1998 and was named Starcom MediaVest Group’s CEO - South Asia in August 2005. In January, 2007, Kiran assumed additional charge as CEO-Asia for specialist communication services within the group and has supervised setting up of many units across the region. In April 2008, his role was expanded to include South East Asia region.

Under his leadership, Starcom MediaVest Group has built competencies in many non-classical disciplines over the last 3 years. Prominent amongst these are Sports and Cause Enabled Marketing [Relay Worldwide], Entertainment and Embedded Marketing [The Bridge], Online and Wireless marketing [Starcom IP], Activation and Consumer Excitement [ACE], Out-of-Home and Ambient Marketing [Navia], Small Town and Rural Marketing [Xpanse], Retail Branding and Navigational Signage [Enhance], Luxury and Lifestyle Marketing [‘C’]. In addition, the network has begun experimenting with a potentially powerful discipline – Peer-2-Peer Marketing.

Since 2003, Kiran has been chairing the marketing committee of Indian Readership Survey, India’s premier readership and product usage survey, which is conducted under the aegis of the Media Research Users’ Council. He regularly speaks in industry forays across the region as well as is engaged in teaching assignments as visiting faculty in several business schools.

Kiran holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from University of Kashmir and an MBA Marketing degree from Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He lives in Mumbai with his wife Shalini. His interests include technology, behavioral sciences and philosophy.



Anuj Khanna
ED South Asia - Affle Ltd

Anuj Khanna is a serial entrepreneur & innovator, and founder of three high-tech companies - myMCSB, SecLore, and Affle. Khanna is the CEO & Chairman Executive Committee of Affle Group which is the largest mobile media in India and has significant business operations in Singapore, UK, Thailand and Malaysia.

Khanna leads the overall product and business strategy for the Affle Group of companies and drives its ambitious vision that could change and define the mobile media business worldwide. Under his leadership Affle has achieved significant success across several markets in Asia and Affle is on track towards establishing its global rollout in the next 2 years. He has in-depth understanding of the mobile media ecosystem and a passion for studying user interaction with mobile devices. His entrepreneurial business acumen ensures that he is able to leverage his technology and user insights, towards building Affle into a scalable media business.

Khanna is a thought leader in mobile marketing and takes time out to speak at global industry forums. He is passionate about entrepreneurship and believes that sustainable businesses are built during economic recessions. He ventured into his first business when he was still a Singapore Airlines Scholar pursuing his engineering degree in Singapore and has built businesses through the recession phase of 2000-2003. Khanna believes that the best time to start a business is during university years and encourages university students to venture into entrepreneurship.

Paritosh Joshi
President – Advertising and Distribution - Star India

Paritosh Joshi has been with STAR since August 2008. After graduating from IIM, Ahmedabad in 1985, Joshi was recruited by Procter & Gamble (then Richardson Hindustan Limited). Since then, his itinerant career has spanned FMCG, B2B Services, Newspapers, Industrial Perfumery, International Trade and for the last three years, television. In his current role, Joshi is overseeing strategic diversifications for STAR into a few new business sectors.

Joshi is married to Suma, an Advertising professional (currently on an extended home making and child rearing sabbatical) and has two children, Aalhad – 14 and Ananya – 10.


Parminder Singh
Business Head, Technology & Media, Google India

Parminder Singh is Business Head - Technology & Media at Google India and leads Google’s monetisation operations in Technology, Telecom, Media & Entertainment spaces in India.

Singh brings with him over 15 years of cross -functional experience in strategy and brand marketing with excellent understanding of the latest technology trends and concepts. With a track record of consistent and outstanding performances in companies such as IBM, Apple, HCL and Cyrix (National Semiconductor), he is also credited with launching and setting up successful distribution networks for high technology products.

An accomplished speaker on Web 2.0 and Marketing at various industry forums, his areas of experience & special interest include Marketing through New Media, Business Planning & Brand strategy, ROI measurement metrics, and Customer Relationship Management.

Parminder holds an MBA in Marketing from University Business School, Chandigarh and is Bachelor in Physics (Hons) from Delhi University. He specialised in advanced Customer Relationship Management, from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Chicago.

Anuj Poddar, SVP, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd.
Head – Corporate Strategy & Business Development
Head – Digital Media

Anuj Poddar spearheaded the 2007 formation of Viacom 18 Media Pvt Ltd, a JV between Viacom Inc (a $13 billion entertainment conglomerate comprising leading brands such as MTV, Nick, Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks, etc) and the TV18 Group (India’s leading media group). Viacom18 is set to become one of India’s leading multimedia entertainment powerhouses across television, film and digital media.

As Head of Corporate Strategy, Poddar is responsible for providing strategic direction, driving growth initiatives and is actively involved in decision making on all current business activities and functions at Viacom18. As part of his Strategy role, he drove the decision to launch a Hindi General Entertainment channel (COLORS, which has quickly reached a leadership position and catapulted the company into a broadcasting leader in India from an earlier niche positioning).

Poddar also heads the Digital Media business and in this role is spearheading the extension of Viacom18’s brands (COLORS, MTV, Nick and Vh1) into the digital platforms (online and mobile) as Viacom18 transforms itself into a leading multimedia entertainment powerhouse. In addition, he is also involved in advising MTV Networks’ business across Asia (Singapore, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines) and actively led the entry of MTV into Pakistan.

Poddar has been nominated in 2006 as a Fellow of the prestigious India Leadership Initiative programme by the Aspen Institute, USA and Goldman Sachs, thereby forming part of a set of 24 highly accomplished young Indian leaders, so chosen. He is a member of the Governing Council of ‘Young Indians’, a part of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Poddar is also a member of the Indo-German Young Leaders’ Forum and the Asia Society.

He has schooled in Michigan, USA and Mumbai, India and is a rank-holding Chartered Accountant. Poddar lives with his wife and 2 daughters in Mumbai, India.

Alok Kejriwal
Co-Founder and CEO, Games2win
Co-Founder, Media2win

Alok Kejriwal is a serial entrepreneur who has focussed approach to fire up a great idea and then partner with the best people to make it come to life. His companies are owned by the CEO's who run them with an unbelievable passion. Kejriwal actively mentors first generation entrepreneurs, who are looking at starting out on their own and helps them by VC contacts, negotiating funding, start up strategising, introduction to brand and media owners and all kinds of service providers. His ambition is to own a billion dollar company.

Games2win India is his forth new media venture and is India's first online game company. It is a unique India themed casual games website that attracts global audiences and an MMOG business in India. Games2win aspires to build great quality flash games from India for consumers all over the world and to become India's first international media success in the online games business!

Media2win is India's largest independent online full service ad agency that works with more than 100 of the world's leading Fortune 500 brands