Indian Media Leaders eSUMMIT 2023

Fredric Karen is an accomplished journalist with over 30 years of journalistic and business experience. He began as a reporter at local papers and later worked as a sub-editor at local/regional papers. He then joined Aftonbladet, Sweden’s largest tabloid, as a reporter. Karen served as a news editor at the Swedish News Agency (TT) before transitioning to digital editor and later editor-in-chief at Svenska Dagbladet. He also held senior editorial positions at the Toronto Star and currently serves as Senior Vice President of Editorial Transformation at Schibsted. He graduaged from Klaralvdalens fhs. Karen’s extensive career showcases his expertise and adaptability in the evolving media landscape.

Ritu Kapur is the managing director and CEO of Quint Digital Media Limited which runs The Quint, an independent news site in India. She has strived to provide multiple platforms for free speech like

Michael Miller has been Executive Chairman of News Corp Australasia since November 2015. News Corp Australia is Australia’s leading media company with a diverse portfolio of brands that connect with 7 out of

Jayant Mammen Mathew is the Executive Editor and Director of Malayala Manorama Company, one of India’s largest media companies with a significant presence in Print, Television, Radio and Online.

He was the President of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS), for the year 2018-19. Malayala Manorama is India’s largest selling regional newspaper with a daily circulation of 2.3 million. The company also publishes more than 40 titles in various languages and operates Radio Mango, Kerala’s No. 1 FM station and ManoramaOnline, one of the largest portals. Jayant played a major role in the company venturing in to television broadcasting. He spends considerable time expanding the television business.

Prior to joining Malayala Manorama, he was an Associate Editor at Electronic News, a unit of Cahners Publishing in New York, where he specialized in finance and technology coverage. His articles at Electronic News won the Gold Award for feature series instituted by the American Society of Business Publication Editors. Jayant wrote for Malayala Manorama and The Week from New York for several years. He co-wrote the Man of the Year feature for The Week that won a South Asian Journalists Association Award in 2000. Jayant also worked for Bridge News, a financial news service in New York.

He received a BE in electronics and communication engineering from Mangalore University, an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh and an MS in journalism from Columbia University, New York.

Shanth Kumar has been a printing technologist, editor and director with The Printers Mysore since 1983. He has driven the editorial coverage at Prajavani and helped it retain a leadership position in Karnataka over the last decade.

Samudra Bhattacharya is Chief Executive Officer – Print for Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd. He is also on the board of Next Mediaworks Ltd., Mosaic Media Ventures Pvt Ltd., Next Radio Ltd. and Digicontent Ltd. and Chief Executive Officer-Print at HT Media Ltd.

He previously was President, Executive Director & General Manager at Pepsi Cola Products Philippines, Inc. and Chief Operating Officer-Franchisee Bottling & VP at Pepsi Foods Pvt Ltd.

Samudra Bhattacharya received an undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow.

Joseph Hook is the founder of Subbed News, a news automation consultancy. He was previously the editor of the RADAR local news service, part of PA Media, the UK and Ireland’s national newswire. While there, he led a small editorial team in the production of thousands of AI-driven stories every week.

He is now helping organisations to develop their capabilities in automated news, and the integration of AI into the newsroom, as well as using AI technologies to build products which deliver news to new audiences in increasingly personalised ways. His background is in data analysis and local and national news, and he has developed automated products in international markets, across news, sports and finance.

With an extensive knowledge of recent developments in generative AI, and the practical application of AI in delivering news to audiences, he helps organisations develop the content they provide and find new audiences.

Priyanka is a media professional with over 15 years of experience in the industry. Having worked with brands like India Today she has a strong background in print media and has also held leadership positions in the digital realm. Since joining Times Internet in 2019, she has taken on the responsibility of leading the company’s Non-News business across India.

Puneet Jain comes with 15+ years of rich corporate experience across consumer internet and management consulting. He has proven track record of building and scaling large consumer tech businesses in India as well as advising large corporates on their growth agenda.

Puneet is currently the CEO of HT Digital (2020 – till date), the digital arm of the venerable HT media group. During his stint so far, he has grown the digital news business to significant revenue and profitability levels. In this period, he scaled HT Digital’s user reach to 200mn+ monthly users, launched several new content offerings, expanded reach in the vernacular space, scaled digital subscriptions and spearheaded group’s overall digital transformation journey.

Previously, Puneet worked with Paytm as its Senior Vice President (2014 – 2020) where he built its Payment Gateway business from scratch and led the journey to market leadership. Puneet was among the earliest person in Paytm’s payments business and drove its trajectory from a few hundred transactions more than a billion transactions with value running into billions of dollars.

Puneet started his career in management consulting where he worked for more than 6 years with global firms like Accenture and Diamond Management and  Tech Consultants advising firms in areas such as New Product Launch, Revenue Enhancement, Sales Strategy, Consumer Experience etc. helping organizations drive their growth and business transformation.

Sitaraman Shankar started with The Economic Times, and then moved to Reuters in Mumbai, Frankfurt, London and Dubai. He has also reported from Moscow, Vienna and Singapore. In 2012, he took up senior role at Hindustan Times to oversee its largest edition, and ran the coverage of the 2014 elections and trained nearly 100 colleagues.

In 2016, he moved to Network18 and led the revamp of India’s largest financial site, Monecontrol.com resulting in quadrupling in unique users and a tripling in page views. With a stellar career spanning 29 years, Shankar is now the CEO of The Printers (Mysore), the company that publishes Deccan Herald and Kannada titles Prajavani, Sudha and Mayura. He is also the Editor of Deccan Herald.

Megha Mamgain is the Associate Vice President, Content & Strategy for the health and lifestyle verticals at Jagran New Media, the digital wing of Jagran Prakashan. A respected name and face in the media industry, Megha has an experience of over 18 years in digital and traditional media. At Jagran New Media, Megha is one of the top leadership.

She has previously led editorial teams in top television news channels and has been a recipient of several industry awards and recognitions. Megha has reported on gender politics, stories of human interest as well as citizenry. OnlyMyHealth.com and HerZindagi.com, Jagran New Media’s prime products have been carefully steered, strategized, and managed by her. Her flair for engaging interviews, her knack for hooking narratives and her out of the box ideas bring an edge and spark to her products. Leading a high target-driven digital newsroom, she ensures high-quality and credible content at all costs. With her astute vision, she deploys resources, devices workflows, creates monetizable intellectual properties, and builds robust brands.

Pramida Pradeep is Currently serving as the Head of Operations- UK & MEA at Marsh & McLennan Companies, she is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Pramida has a diverse skill set that encompasses various areas including Professional Liability, Property & Casualty Insurance, Employee Benefits Design, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and People Development. With her extensive knowledge and expertise, she consistently delivers outstanding results and contributes to the overall success of the organizations she serves.

Prior to her current role at Marsh McLennan Global Services India Private Limited (MMGS), where she serves as the Head of Operations, Pramida held the position of Vice President at Marsh & McLennan Companies. She has also gained significant experience during her tenure at Willis Towers Watson, where she worked as an Associate Director for over 12 years.

With her extensive background in operations management, Pramida Pradeep continues to make significant contributions to the financial services industry and plays a key role in driving organizational success at Marsh & McLennan Companies.

Mayura Shreyams Kumar, Director – Digital Business at the Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited. Mathrubhumi is a Media Conglomerate involved in the publishing of the Mathrubhumi Daily and 11 other periodicals, Mathrubhumi News TV Channel, Kappa, Club FM Radio, Mathrubhumi Online and Books Division. She is a graduate in Communication & Media, Literature & Psychology, from Christ University, Bangalore, and started her Professional Career in 2017.

Later in 2018, She was appointed to the post of Director- Digital Business shouldering the responsibilities of the holistic development of all the Digital Properties of the Mathrubhumi Group. In addition to that, Mayura takes care of Club FM, [ 6 stations around Kerala and a radio station in Dubai], Kappa & Mathrubhumi Books, publishing house, are the other verticals that she handles in Mathrubhumi.

Her hobbies include Photography, Music, and Travel.

Sanjay Sindhwani, CEO, Indian Express Online Media Services, has over 29 years in the Media Industry primarily across Digital with earlier stints in Print and Television. At IEOMSL, Sanjay is responsible for driving business growth and strategy. He is leading the diversification of revenue streams by creating new SBUs like Subscriptions, Events and Digital TV for Indian Express, besides leading its expansion in new geographies with regional local language editions.

Prior to joining IEOMSL, Sanjay has worked with Times Internet, Television 18, and Bennett Coleman across functions like P&L, Business Strategy, Business Development, Product Management, Editorial and New initiatives. As the business  head @ ET Sanjay was responsible for conceptualizing and launching ET Prime and making ET the undisputed No.1 in terms of reach across all business and financial websites.

Puneet Gupt is the COO of Times Internet, India’s largest digital products company, where he has the privilege of driving hyper-growth for 15+ category-leading businesses. With his early career roles in coding, product management, and growth hacking, he has learned the levers of product-led growth and leveraged them along with sales, partnerships, corp dev and M&A to drive outcomes on market share, revenue, and profitability.

Puneet holds a BTech from IIT Delhi and an executive MBA from IIM Calcutta. Additionally, he is an active angel investor in health tech, media tech, nutrition & wellness, and B2B commerce. Puneet has won numerous awards and honors, including Best Local Language Website for NavbharatTimes – 5th India Digital Awards and Best Entertainment & Lifestyle Website Service (Silver) – HappyTrips.com, among others. He loves meeting new people and hearing new perspectives.

Bhairavi Buch Sonowal, is a seasoned healthcare, education and social development professional who has designed innovative and meaningful programs focusing on healthcare, leadership and sustainability. She has the experience of more than 22 years. An entrepreneur with a passion towards bringing social impact has directed her to create her startup HEDHealthcare Pvt LTd a healthcare company. Along with her own venture she is also the Managing Partner with BeyonDiversity Foundation, a Top 10 Diversity & Inclusion firm, managing the women’s leadership programs as well as the CSR program of the foundation. She has worked across diverse portfolios through which she ahs been able to create an approach that impacts people. Through her coaching and mentoring she ahs impacted close to 10000+women and impacted lives of 50000+ individuals.

In her role as a Partner to BeyonDiversity, she worked with women from all sectors, corporate, academicians, women working in social impact, women entrepreneurs and women in business. Through the programs like ‘We the change – A leadership accelerator program for women social entrepreneurs” and I – L.E.A.P. – A leadership accelerator program for middle management women, she has helped women navigate their career as well as entrepreneurial journey. As part of the program, she has helped them build their visibility, brand and executive presence. She was involved in developing a pan UNICEF program to create a roadmap for diversity and inclusion strategy for UNICEF India. Her programs on skill enhancement, skill creation and impact evaluation have been recognized across many NGOs and corporates. Women’s entrepreneurship is a very close to heart subject to her and she has been called as an expert in various national as well as international panels to share her expertise. She was one of the experts in curriculum design for Center for Innovation and Social Enterprise in Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, in 2019. In the year 2021, she was invited as the speaker and an expert to speak at the panel, “Women in Diversity & Business at eh UK Trade Mission organised by Northern Asian Power, UK, to discuss how to increase trade ties between UK & India.

In her own venture HED Healthcare Pvt Ltd she has created models on addressing the unmet need of healthcare – creation of skilled workforce in healthcare. She created 2 centers across Eastern India by developing partnerships with GE Healthcare and the Health Sector Skill Council (HSSC). She has also developed a model for enhancing the reach of patients across healthcare settings irrespective of their locations. Partnerships developed with many hospitals like Apollo group, Nemcare and Medica group stands testimony to the efforts in creating long lasting partnerships, She enjoys coaching and mentoring talent. She is a respected speaker on Women’s issues, Gender Gap, CSR, Team Building & Employee engagement as well as Personal Branding. She is an expert on POSH (Sexual Harassment In workplace Act) training and policy development She also sits on Board of the Internal committee of ICC of several organisation. She is awarded as Global Ambassador For Human Rights & Peace by International Human Rights Council. She is nominated as Global Ambassador For Human Rights & Peace by International Human Rights Council. Her venture and initiative during Covid 19 pandemic won a CSR Health Impact Gold Award for the initiatives of providing health and safety kits to 2000 slum dwellers. Recently she also bagged an award for “Best ESG Initiative: Health & Well being”. for their efforts in 2022-23. The initiatives made a remarkable impact through supplying life saving products across the globe.

Brut India is an independent digital video publisher dedicated to covering the world’s largest democracy. As VP & Editor-in-Chief of Brut India, Mehak Kasbekar leads a team of media professionals, producing compelling journalism in new formats and bringing stories from across the country to audiences in India and around the world. A Columbia University graduate, Mehak has closely witnessed and reported on India’s evolution over the last two decades across business, policy, politics, and society through her stories. She has worked with multiple media formats, from wire-agency to television, and from print to digital news publishing.

Nagaraj Nagabushanam is the Vice President – Data and analytics at The Hindu. Nagabushanam directs a data and insights group to build and implement data systems and pipelines for data-driven decision-making in the newsroom, product, business, and technology functions. Prior to this, he was a Director of Digital & Data at News Corp Technology Services,  where he headed the Digital and Data practices, this role involves scoping projects for transition, managing the transition, standing up the teams required, and scaling the teams at appropriate times. He also managed the teams from capabilities, talent, performance, rewards & recognition, and career growth standpoints. 

Debarati Guha is Director Programs for Asia at Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany’s international broadcaster. Born in Kolkata, India, her parents are originally from Bangladesh. Hailing from a family of freedom fighters, historians, and activists, she developed a fighting spirit and an interest in politics at an early age. Ms. Guha did her master’s and M.Phil. in political science at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her thesis was titled, ‘Representation of Women in Postcolonial Literature: Exploring the Subaltern Studies Perspective.’

As a journalist, she never misses out on an opportunity to tell exciting stories about women’s lives and the challenges they face. Debarati Guha worked as an assistant to the Asia correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in New Delhi from 2003 to mid-2005. Later, she completed a training program in online, radio, and television journalism at DW and joined its Bengali department as a senior editor in 2007. After working as the coordinating editor for Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu departments from 2009 to 2012, she was appointed as head of DW’s Bengali service in 2013.

In 2015, Ms. Guha was given the responsibility to run DW’s South and Southeast Asian services. In 2018, she was promoted to head DW’s Asia Department, and in 2021, she was given the charge of three additional offices in Asia – in Taipei, Delhi, and Jakarta – as the Director of Programs for Asia. Debarati Guha currently manages DW’s nine Asian language programs as well as its German and English desks. In 2022, she completed the prestigious Executive Management Program organized by the European Broadcasting Union. She also conducts workshops and seminars on ‘Digital Leadership,’ ‘Future of Digital Media,’ and similar subjects.

Apart from journalism, Ms. Guha works as a researcher and as a performer with a Berlin-based theatrical company Flinnworks. She has been living in Germany since 2005.

Pradyuman Maheshwari is a senior editor and media commentator having worked with a variety of media entities for over 35 years. He has worked with The Indian Express, Mid-Day (where he was Editor and also Head of Interactive Services), the Sakal group in Pune, the now-defunct DNA where he was on the Editorial Board and Senior Editor, and Group Chief Editor, exchange4media.com. He turned entrepreneur 12 years back with MxMIndia, a web-based publication tracking the media and advertising. He is also a serial entrepreneur, and in addition to various other things is also editing an online magazine for senior citizens.

His first tryst with the digital media was in 1996 when he set up the website for Mid-Day’s coverage of the World Cup. Since then he has been active on the internet space having set up Mid-Day Interactive and then with the leadership team of Aptech Internet. He has been on the jury of the Advertising Club Bombay’s interactive categories for over a decade and is also an academic associated with many educational institutes. He is on the Consumer Complaints Council of the Advertising Standards Council of India since 2016 and is one of the early evangelists of the internet and convergence.

He toggles between Pune, Mumbai and Delhi with his wife, daughter and many digital devices.

The brand started its journey in 1958 with its flagship Hindi language Newspaper brand Dainik Bhaskar in Madhya Pradesh. Today, the company is present in 13 states with 61 editions. It boasts of FM Radio in 7 States with 30 Stations and has a Digital Business comprising 4 portals and 3 apps in Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi to cater to the rapidly growing digital audiences.

Pawan heads the Production and Information and Technology Department in addition to the Radio and Digital Media Business. He has been awarded by the Prime Minister for his contribution to Indian Language Journalism.

An industrial engineering graduate from Purdue University, USA, Pawan is credited with conceptualization and leading the acclaimed twin-contact-strategy, which was implemented for the launch of Divya Bhaskar.

Corinne Podger is a results-driven educator, author, and lecturer based in Australia, with a proven track record of supporting newsrooms, NGOs and social impact organisations in more than 60 countries to implement digital innovations that grow audiences and support business priorities. She has worked in the media sector for more than 30 years. She is a firm advocate of media diversity and inclusion in all her work.

Corinne is an accredited trainer with BBC Media Action, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and the Solutions Journalism Network. Her specialisms include digital-first newsgathering, online verification, mobile journalism, social multimedia production, podcasting and audio storytelling, and strategic audience engagement that drives brand awareness and media revenue. She also works with science and public health organisations to tackle misinformation and disinformation.

Ankita Anand is a journalist-writer-poet based in Delhi, and has been published in various languages and countries. An editor with Unbias the News, she has been awarded the International Labour