Unlocked 4.0

Balaji is an integrated marketing communication professional with over 16 years of extensive experience in building brands for both global and Indian companies.

In his current role as Marketing Director, CEEMEA for Franklin Templeton, Balaji is responsible for marketing strategy and building brand SOV for the CEEMEA region. The region covers over 20 countries across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa and focuses both on institutional and retail businesses.

Prior to this role, Balaji was Deputy Head – Marketing for Franklin Templeton India and was responsible for leading all key brand initiatives. Balaji has been one of the early adopters of leveraging gamification, video content and storytelling in the mutual fund industry to promote investor education in the online space. His deep understanding of consumer marketing and customer lifecycle journeys have won him multiple awards in India and globally across creativity, content, innovation and effectiveness. Very recently, he was conferred with the citation of “Marketing Influencer of the Year” by DMA Asia at the 2018 DMA Asia Echo Awards.

Marketing professional & Automobile Industry Expert with 11 years of successful track record in Brand Development, Product Marketing & Planning, Marketing Communication, Category Management, Marketing Operations, Strategy and Media Advertising. Outstanding performance in CFT leadership, Brand Communication, ATL/BTL, Product Development, Product Launches, Special Editions, Events & Sponsorship, Media Planning, Digital Content, Agency leadership, Celebrity management, Retail Marketing, Luxury & Sports Marketing, Business Planning & CRM. Currently heading Marketing & PR for Harley-Davidson India. Was associated with Nissan Motor India as Head – Marcom for Datsun brand. Prior was Sr. Group Product Marketing Lead & Country Chief Marketing Manager for Hatch, Sedan, Luxury SUV, Sports, Electric Vehicle & Connected Car(Intelligent Mobility) segments leading the product, pricing, Go To Market and project management strategy for Nissan India. Before Nissan, was Sr. Category Brand Head – Commuter motorcycles for World’s largest two wheeler manufacturer (Hero MotoCorp- formerly known as Hero Honda), taking care of brand development, marketing communication, strategy, digital content nationally for the 10-brands portfolio along with key corporate marketing and global business projects. Started career as Marketing Lead for North with focus on regional media, BTL activations, rural, sales support & CRM. Part of strategic projects as a CFT member/leader like CBU Business model, Intelligent Mobility, Scenario Planning, DMS, Dealer websites, Marketing Planning & Budgeting Software, QBR – Commonwealth Games, IPL, MTV Roadies, HIL, Hero World Challenge, FIFA, ICC, Employer Branding, National Dealer Conclaves, Auto shows, Factory Launches, International Marketing & CSR. An MBA in Marketing & Operations; Also a Mechanical Engineering Degree holder along with Executive programs in Digital Marketing & Leadership. Ad Awards Jury & Globally certified GT-R instructor

Piali Dasgupta is currently Senior Vice President, Marketing, at Columbia Pacific Communities, India’s largest senior living community operator. Columbia Pacific Communities is part of the Seattle-based Columbia Pacific Management. which has presence across USA, Canada, China and India. Piali started her career in journalism with The Times of India, and crossed over to Marketing and Communication with playing key roles in creating impactful content marketing strategies for Myntra and later Amazon. She was responsible for creating Myntra’s very popular style makeover series along with celebrity style chat show series. In a career spanning 14 years, Piali has created a number of award winning marketing campaigns and served on juries. She is on Social Samosa’s Top 40 marketers under 40 list for the year 2019-2020 and has also been awarded the Content Mogul title by CMS Asia (Content Marketing Summit Asia) and has been named one of the top 10 Content Marketing Leaders in APAC in 2020 by CMS Asia. She has also been recognised as the Woman Marketer of The Year at MCube (Masters of Modern Marketing) Awards 2020. She was also part of Social Media Superwomen 2018, that recognised the top 50 women in
marketing in India. She has worked across print media, e-commerce (Myntra, Amazon), retail (Aditya Birla Fashion
Retail) and real estate and is currently building a compelling brand narrative around senior care inIndia.
Her core expertise lies in content marketing, storytelling, building brand narratives and strengthening
brand positioning through storytelling. According to her, good content is one that is purposeful, uplifting and has the ability to startconversations and believes that we are long past the age of “vanity content” or content for the sake of content. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, is a voracious reader, spends time sketching and is also a
strong mental health advocate, doing her bit to remove long standing stigmas around mental illness.

An MBA in Marketing from PSG Institute of Management. Also holds M.A & M.Phil in Sociology. Sharmila joined Saint-Gobain -Gyproc in 2021 as the Head of Marketing.

Sharmila has 18yrs of Brand and Marketing experience across various industries. Prior to Saint-Gobain, Sharmila led marketing and product management at ICICI Bank, Bisleri, Pidilite, Hatsun Agro, Radio Mirchi & Future group retail. Sharmila has vivid interest and acquired skills in numerous handicrafts, conducts workshops and loves being a swimming coach. She unwinds by watching movies and social networking.

Sudeep is passionate about storytelling, building brands & categories and perfecting human connections. He has spent the last 17 years in various sales and marketing roles in Cadbury/ Mondelez and Pidilite, both being companies with incredible brand-building capabilities. This combination also makes him a rare marketer to have built brands in B2C as well as B2B space. He is passionate about everything that’s related to marketing and people. He is also a Marketing educator who conducts a crash course titled “Science behind the art of advertising” at GrowthSchool where he unpacks frameworks to create effective & measurable brand campaigns. His course has added value to around 2000+ industry professionals, marketing enthusiasts and students thus far. He also hosts a marketing podcast titled “CoBB -Conversations over Business of Brands” with his ex-colleague from Mondelez where they try to dispel myths & misinformation related to marketing