About The Summit

Since its inception in 2017, the CII National Marketing Leadership Summit has grown into a premier platform for in-depth discussions, innovative strategies, and high-level insights within the marketing domain. Across seven consecutive editions, the Summit has consistently brought together top industry minds, featuring over 130 distinguished speakers, including 25 renowned international thought leaders, and engaging more than 2,300 participants from various sectors. The Summit has been successfully hosted in both physical and virtual formats, offering a unique blend of global perspectives and localized insights. Participants have benefited from thought-provoking sessions, hands-on workshops, and invaluable networking opportunities with business leaders, senior executives, and marketing pioneers.

The upcoming 9th edition, to be held on 2nd December at The Lalit, Mumbai, promises to continue the tradition of delivering cutting-edge thought leadership, fostering strategic collaborations, and setting the agenda for the future of marketing.

25+

Speakers

7

Plenary Sessions

300+

Industry Participants

Speakers 2025

MLS 2025 Agenda

09:00 – 10:00 Hrs.
Registration & Welcome Tea/Coffee

As India’s marketing ecosystem evolves in the face of technology, shifting consumer expectations and economic change — CMOs are transforming into business architects. The theme explores Resilience, Relevance & Reinvention, balancing agility & empathy, creativity & technology to build sustainable growth models for the future.

10:00 – 10:10 Hrs. Welcome Address Ms. Kavita Chaturvedi
Chair — CII Committee on Marketing 2025–26
Business Unit Chief Executive — Biscuits & Confections, ITC Ltd.
10:10 – 10:30 Hrs. Inaugural Keynote Mr. Giuseppe Stigliano
Marketing Professor — UCL School of Management
Executive Advisor
10:30 – 11:00 Hrs. Fireside Chat Mr. Sundar Raman
Advisor — Chennai Superkings
Former COO — IPL • CEO Sports — Reliance Industries

Mr. Gaurav Kapur
Actor • TV & Cricket Presenter
11:00 – 11:05 Hrs.
Session Changeover

Bharat’s rise — driven by Tier-2 & Tier-3 growth — is reshaping product adoption, aspiration and digital behavior. With AI-powered regional personalization, brands are unlocking new markets and value-sensitive digital buyers.

Special Presentation:
Mr. Harsh Chhaparia — Partner, McKinsey & Company
11:35 – 11:50 Hrs.
Networking Break

Data-led intelligence meets creative intuition — Hybrid marketing structures enable scalable personalisation, AI-assisted decision-making & modern storytelling. Panel explores leadership capability & future-ready team design.

Moderator:
Mr. Pradeep Prabhala — Partner, McKinsey & Company
Speakers:
Mr. Rahul Talwar — Director & CMO, Max Life Insurance
Mr. Ankit Desai — Head Digital & Brand PR — Marico
12:35 – 12:40 Hrs.
Session Changeover

How to chase ROAS without losing emotional capital — performance + brand + purpose balance. Focus on media optimization and long-term brand building impact.

Moderator:
Mr. Karan Goel — Partner, McKinsey
Speakers:
Mr. Rathin Lahiri — Head Marketing & CSR, SBI General Insurance
Mr. Shuvadip Banerjee — CDMO, ITC Ltd.
13:25 – 14:25 Hrs.
Networking Lunch

Modern desirability is aspiration + trust + cultural inclusiveness. Brands decode mass-premium pull using storytelling, digital influence, and product innovation across Bharat & metro audiences.

Moderator: Mr. Pradeep Prabhala — McKinsey

Speakers:
Mr. Gunjit Jain — EVP Marketing, Colgate Palmolive
Mr. Ashish Bajaj — CMO, Narayana Health
Mr. Harish Mehta — President Business Development, Reliance Industries Ltd.
14:55 – 15:00 Hrs.
Session Changeover

Loyalty shifts from transactional to relational — built on transparency, identity, shared purpose and meaningful experiences.

Moderator: Mr. Shivanand Sinha — McKinsey

Speakers:
Mr. Harish Sarma — Pluxee India
Mr. Shekhar Saurabh — Tata AIG
Mr. Gunjan Khetan — Perfetti India
15:45 – 16:00 Hrs.
Networking Break

A real-world blueprint for transformation — culture reset, data-led decisioning, integrated creative + tech collaboration, execution discipline and outcome-focused innovation.

Moderator: Mr. Shivanand Sinha — McKinsey

Speakers:
Mr. Hemant Khsirsagar — CBO – FS & FinTech, Dentsu
Mr. Tushar Malhotra — Director Sales & Marketing
Mr. Niraj Ruparel — Creative Technology Lead, WPP Media
16:30 – 16:35 Hrs.
Session Changeover

Fast-paced sprint format — real challenges, real solutions, real wins.

Presenter 1:
Mr. Abhishek Mehrotra — VP & Head of Marketing, Aashirvaad, ITC Ltd.

Presenter 2:
Mr. Sahil Rawal — VP & Head Brand + Media, Max Life Insurance
17:05 – 17:10 Hrs.
Networking & Close
Download Agenda
Participant Profile
  • CEOs, CMOs
  • CXO’s, Department Heads
  • SMEs, Start-Ups
  • Web and Social Media Strategists
  • Marketing and PR Agencies
  • Data and Analytics Professionals
  • Market Research Organizations
  • Brand Consultants

Agenda

10:15 - 10:25 Hrs. Opening Remarks Indrani Kar
 Principal Advisor, CII &
Head, CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of
Excellence for Leadership
10:25 - 10:40 Hrs. Welcome Address Rajesh Ramakrishnan
 Chairman, CII National Committee on Marketing Leadership and
Managing Director, Perfetti Van Melle India
10:40 - 11:00 Hrs Special Address Bikram Bedi
Vice President & Country Managing Director
Google Cloud India
11:00 - 11:05 Hrs. Concluding Remarks Indrani Kar
The Artificial intelligence revolution is the biggest technological shift in our lifetime & has emerged as a transformative force, revolutionizing industries as well as reshaping the way businesses operate. AI is reimagining operations and enhancing efficiency, unveiling hidden insights & empowering data-driven decisions. As Al becomes all-pervasive, its also having profound implications on business models as a whole new generation of companies are being built. Marketers are not competing with AI but are competing with a business that is leveraging AI.

The session will deliberate on how the ecosystem should be ready & incumbents be more agile in embracing this change.
Moderator
Bhaskar Ramesh
Director - Omnichannel Businesses
Google
Speakers
Kedar Lele
Executive Director, Customer Development
Unilever
Moumita Sarker
Partner
Deloitte
Whether AI achieves the potential that clearly exists depends on businesses coming to understand the need for a coordinated and strategic approach to AI-led marketing. There is a need for perspectives across the marketing realm on how AI is being used to reimagine work, which sectors are seeing the maximum adoption and what success would look like when the benefit of this technology is unlocked.

The session will feature three seasoned business practitioners showcasing their POV and backing it up with case studies of how they are leveraging AI in their fields.
Moderator
Anindita Veluri
Director- Marketing
Adobe India
Speaker
Ravi Santhanam
Group Head and CMO
HDFC Bank
Arun Iyer
Founder
Spring Capital
This keynote will showcase how future marketing leaders must function to make their role a strategic differentiator across industries and how marketing can move from being a cost center to driving boardroom value. It will also give an overview of the findings of a high-impact CII and Deloitte report.
Speakers
Karishma Gupta
Partner - Consulting
Deloitte
Hyper-connected consumers demanding seamless and personalized experiences across every touchpoint with a company will be the norm in the future. Meeting these expectations will be critical for success, and the future of customer experience will depend on staying ahead of the curve.

This session will deliberate on a diverse range of elements molding the consumer of tomorrow including millennials Z of tomorrow. It will also discuss how marketing to the Gen-AI native consumer assumes priority and global concepts need to be blended with local realities.
Moderator
Ranjani Krishnaswamy
General Manager - Marketing
Titan Company Limited
Speakers
Manish Makhijani
Partner
MRSI
Srivatsan Sridhar
Founder and CEO
Skydo
Soumya Mukhopadhyay
Head of Innovation Domain - APAC
Kantar
Deepika Bhan
President - Packaged Foods
Tata Consumer Products
We hear all the time about how technology has disrupted the marketing industry, resulting in a field that looks nothing like it did five years ago. And while that’s true, consistent threads have remained intact the entire time.

This session can deliberate on essential tenets and strategies that will not change in an ever-changing business environment. The panel will discuss proven best practices that will remain in vogue despite changing market dynamics.
Moderator
Anand Santhanam
Chief Sales and Marketing Officer
Saint Gobain
Speakers
Prabhat Kumar
Vice President - Flat Products, Marketing & Sales
TATA Steel
Ashwin Moorthy
Chief Marketing Officer
Godrej Consumer
Mohit Ahuja
President
Gozoop Group
V G Senthilkumar
Head-Marketing & Branding
Bank of Baroda
The session will contrast the possible future of marketing in the context of consumer mindsets becoming more entrenched in the past (increased nationalism, trade barriers, nearshoring, etc.) vis-à-vis a more global outlook and appropriate brand responses. It will be a tete-a-tete between two highly seasoned marketers.
Moderator
Mehernosh Malia
Director
Nestle India
Speakers
Sumeli Chatterjee
Head - Integrated Marketing and Experiences, India & Southwest Asia
Coca Cola
Indrani Kar
Principal Advisor, CII &
Head, CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of
Excellence for Leadership

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