LBR LBO Brand Summit 2014 – “Rethinking the Rules of Brand Building” – Wednesday, 21st May 2014

Guest Speaker Ramani Samarasundara Marketing Director Foods & Beverages and Marketing Service Unilever Sri Lanka Limited      

Ramani joined the Management Committee of Unilever Sri Lanka in 2006, having joined Unilever from university in 1995. She has worked across many brands and categories within the organisation and has crafted many brand campaigns that have touched a chord in the consumers life driving business growth, resulting in accolades both locally and globally.

Ramani believes the ability to work with people earning respect, trust and commitment is important in one's journey in leadership. A thread running through her career has been her commitment and investment in building knowledge and insights with regard to both consumers and her people both at Unilever and in the industry. In leadership she has demonstrated that empathy and soft skills coupled with a vision and creative energy can unleash the latent potential of individual and teams.Ramani holds a honours degree in Bio Science from the University of Colombo

  Guest Speaker Poonam Lalwani Head – Digital Brand Experience and Programs SAP India      

Poonam L is a business savvy marketing professional with over 15 years of experience in successfully developing and launching marketing programs on a local, national and global level. In her current role as the Head – Digital, Brand Experience and Programs, she has been developing award winning digital and social campaigns. Her

earlier experiences include working with mid to large size organizations across various marketing functions. She can be reached at @poonaml or on linkedin.com/poonaml

  Session Chair Peter D'Almeida Managing Director, Chief Executive N*able      

Peter D’Almeida is the Managing Director and Chief Executive of N*able (Pvt) Ltd, a technology company he founded in 2008. Last year, the company achieved 1 billion rupees in annual revenue, making it the fastest growing IT firm in Sri Lanka. Today, N*able is re-shuffling its core businesses, aligned with its vision: connecting people and things, with insight, for an efficient and intelligent world.

Before N*able, Peter was the CEO of Millennium ESP. During a career spanning 25 years in the IT industry, both overseas and in Sri Lanka, Peter feels privileged to have been part of several pioneering efforts. Before his involvement with the IT industry, Peter was a banker, having served as the treasurer of the Ceylon Bank Employees’ Union. Peter is also involved in the arts: As a director and actor, he has taken part in a number of stage plays, television dramas and movies.

  Guest Panelists Rakesh Khosla Marketing Director Hemas Consumer Brands Hemas Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd      

Rakesh has spent 15 years with Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd. in roles of increasing responsibility in Consumer Marketing & Sales. During this period he has had several stints in Brand Management, Regional Sales Management, Category Management & Market Development. In addition he has also been a certified Category Management Trainer and Global Ethics & Compliance Investigator.

Amongst several national awards he is also a recipient of Colgate Palmolive’s highest Global Annual Award : The 2011 Global Chairman’s “You Can Make A Difference Award”. He joined Hemas in 2012 as Director Marketing for the FMCG business and is responsible for all Consumer Marketing activities across all brands & categories of Hemas Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd. Rakesh is an alumuni of Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), Melbourne, Australia.

  Guest Panelists Dileep Mudadeniya VP- Brand Marketing/JKH Hotels Founder/ Center for Research and Sustainable Studies in Tourism      

Dileep Mudadeniya possesses many years of experience in travel, tourism, communications and strategic planning and currently he is the Head of Brand Marketing –Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts and Vice President- John Keells Group, one of the leading hotel management services in Sri Lanka. He was the first managing director of Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau and also held the position as the Head of Quality Standards, Licensing and Investment of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority.

He has served the Public Sector of Sri Lanka working extensively in the areas of travel and tourism and mass communication for over 15 years. An alumnus of the University of Colombo, (B.A) an Attorney-at-Law, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Chartered Marketer and has a MBA in Marketing. He is also the Winner of the ten outstanding young person award (TOYP) 2010 for public sector.

  Guest Panelists Shehara de Silva General Manager–Marketing and Sales Janashakthi Insurance      

An experienced international marketer, with a track record of high impact market development in Malaysia and Sri Lanka, Shehara has been behind the success of several regional and Fortune 500 multinational brands. Shehara worked over a decade with Omnicom companies in Kuala Lumpur. She was Managing Director of Interbrand, the worlds largest brand consultancy, and became Group Chief Strategy Officer of Foetus International covering a spectrum of companies in digital and interactive marketing, mobile content ,digital gaming technology, Social media ,Experiential marketing and media buying.

She has led digital brand strategy for the Malaysian Medical Tourism and MICE travel, social media projects for Air Asia, Malaysian Airlines, the oil and gas industry. In the development arena Shehara consulted for the UN ILO, USAID, Norad & GTZ. Brands she has worked on include, Mobil, Cadbury, Nestle, American Express, Perodua, Mercedes, Hasbro, Pepsi Volkswagen, F and N, Anchor, Ministry of Tourism Malaysia , The NDB & the Malaysian Government.

Guest Speaker Adrian Terron Executive Director - Consumer Insights & Innovation Practice Nielsen, India      

Adrian is Executive Director for Consumer Insights and Head of Shopper Insights, for Nielsen’s India region. He leads the Company’s strategic initiatives across the region that pertain to its Consumer Insight business and its Shopper Practice. He has over a decade of experience spanning print & television journalism, marketing research, corporate communications strategic advisory.

Previously he led NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey Company that builds upon the industryleading social media and online brand metrics as well as its Retailer Services unit. Before his current roles within Nielsen, Adrian was Head of Group Corporate Brand Communication with the Godrej Group. Prior to this, he was Associate Director for Marketing and Communications, with Nielsen Europe. Adrian began his career at Nielsen as a researcher. Before this, Adrian was a business journalist with CNBC TV-18. Adrian graduated from the HR College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai and is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad’s Accelerated General Management Programme.

  Guest Speaker Samari Ihalagedara Head of Marketing/Keells Foods, Assistant VP/John Keells Holdings PLC      

Building Brands and Developing Brands are the key driving forces of Samari; her career in Marketing which spans over 15 years, has led Samari to specialize increasingly in consumer marketing in the FMCG sector. She has handled world class brands like Maggi, Fair & Lovely, Ponds, Lipton, Bru, Unilever and local jewels like Laojee, Ceylonta, Keells, Elephant House and Krest. The challenges and the ambitions for each and every brand have been different & daring! She has a wealth of experience cum knowledge in dealing with different environments & people i.e. multinationals to local conglomerates & global / local brand /business teams. She is passionate about brands & teaching & lectures in most of the local universities in building young budding marketers to build & develop strong brands. Samari holds a BA Honours University of Perdenaiya, MBA-University of Rajarata, She is currently reading for MSC in Marketing-Strategy, AOE, University of Malaysia

  Session Chair Shaheen Cader Managing Director Nielsen, Sri Lanka      

Shaheen joined Nielsen in 2006 as Director Client Service and took over Nielsen Sri Lanka as Managing Director in 2010. In addition to his seven years at Nielsen he has 14 years market research experience at LMRB & a further 10 years’ experience in banking and in industry. During his 20 years in research, Shaheen has been involved across a plethora of assignments in the consumer, business, social and retail spheres, constituting local and multinational entities as well as multilateral agencies.

In addition to Nielsen providing consultancy through client specific research studies, Shaheen endeavors for Nielsen to be a significant provider of Sri Lankan consumer trends and insights to the broader business community. Shaheen has also been involved with The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing as a speaker at knowledge sharing forums & on the Brand Excellence judging panels. The LMD-Benchmark program also features him on a regular basis.

  Guest Panelist Rohan Jayaweera Country Consultant-Sri Lanka Google      

Rohan is the first & the only employee appointed by Google for Sri Lanka. Prior to moving to Singapore to join Google, Rohan worked for Cisco, Lenovo & IBM. Rohan has BSc in electronic & telecommunication from University of Moratuwa, postgraduate diploma in marketing from CIM U.K. and is in the process of completing his MBA in International Business & Masters in Business & Technology. Also holds a professional certification on global strategy from INSEAD. Rohan is passionate about entrepreneurship & does regular lectures at the University of Moratuwa.

  Guest Panelist Chalaka Gajabahu President LOWE LDB      

Starting his career in advertising at boutique creative shop Equinox, Chalaka soon graduated to the likes of JWT, O&M, Leo Burnett and McCann Erickson. Following these, he joined Lowe LDB as its Chief Operating Officer, one of the youngest ever to hold this position, aged just 33, prior to being launched up the ranks to his current role of President. After almost two decades advocating major brands, across almost every sector, including FMCG, Banking, Financial Services, Telecoms and even Hospitality, Chalaka has earned the respect, admiration and trust of Lowe LDB's clients namely Unilever, Dialog and Elephant House, all leaders in their respective sectors, a function of his dynamic, hands-on leadership style and highly valued judgment. Importantly, Chalaka also brings to bear his extensive training in planning tools, at international Lowe Worldwide offices, which aid in developing effective, compelling strategies for brand and market building.

  Guest Panelist Ahmed Irfan Director Insights and Innovation MAS Holdings      

Irfan has 15 years experience in emerging markets and digital trends. He is Director - Insights and Innovation, MAS Holdings. Prior to this he was Chief Marketing Officer at Digital Commerce Lanka as well as Head of Marketing Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s largest mobile service operator. Irfan worked in advertising as Head of Account Management and Brand Strategy at JWT until June 2011. He developed strategy and handled operations for over 100 brands from large MNC’s such as Unilever and Nestle to local and Asian conglomerates' such as AA Paper Thailand. He was part of the JWT Digital Acceleration Program for South Asia from 2008 – 2011. He specializes in consumer and market insight, brand development, marketing strategy and digital marketing. Irfan is the Co Founder of Thunkk Technologies, a social innovation lab with competencies in IOT (Internet of Things).

Guest Speaker Shea Wickramasinghe Group Managing Director Ceylon Biscuits Limited      

Shea Wickramasingha is the Group Managing Director of CBL Group. Having joined the Company in 1991 as a Food Technologist she worked in various management positions in the Company and was invited to join the Board in 1996. She has an interest in Functional and Healing properties of Food and has studied extensively on the subject. She is on many of the Group Boards and also serves as Managing Director of Modern Pack Lanka (Pvt) Ltd a Company she founded in 1994. Shea has a MSc. Degree in Food Chemistry from Purdue University, USA and a BSc degree in Food Science & Industry from Kansas State University, USA.

  Guest Panelist Graham Marshall General Manager Automotive Coatings Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka    

With over 20 years’ experience in marketing and business management disciplines, Graham is presently the General Manager – Automotive Coatings at Akzo Nobel Paints Lanka With a degree in Chemistry from the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Graham started his career at Chemical Industries Colombo (CIC) Ltd where his experience spanned from paints to consumer durables and industrial chemicals.

He then worked in the pharmaceutical industry holding senior marketing roles at Glaxo Wellcome Ceylon Ltd. Prior to joining Akzo Nobel, Graham was Country Business Manager, Eastman Kodak for Sri Lanka and the Maldives. He served as Education Liaison Officer of the Chartered Institute of Marketing CIM (UK) Sri Lanka Branch. Graham holds an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management , University of Sri Jayewardenepura and was a recipient of the PIM’s achievers award. He is a Diplomate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (UK) and a Graduate of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants Australia (CMA).

  Session Chair Udayan Dutt Director, Human Resources and Corporate Relations Unilever Sri Lanka Limited      

Udayan joined Unilever in 2006 as the Reward Director for Unilever South Asia, leading the Reward Function for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. He moved to Sri Lanka in February 2012, as Director Human Resources. Udayan is a certified assessor and administrator of the MBTI©, Firo-B©, and TKI© instruments. Born and brought up in New Delhi, India, Udayan pursued his graduate education in Business Studies from the University of Delhi and completed a Masters in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Since 2011 Udayan has served as Subject Matter Expert, Compensation and Benefits–SHRM India He has also worked at: Hewitt Associates as Compensation and Benefits Domain Leader for HR Consulting and Outsourcing, Asia Pacific Region. Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd., Head of Remuneration & Bharti Airtel Limited as a Management Trainee, HR.

  Guest Panelist Jhumka Saha Leader Mindshare      

Jhumka Saha, a postgraduate in Philosophy from a renowned University in India started her career in media planning with Grey Worldwide, which was then known as Trikaya Grey in India. She joined Mindshare in 2005 as Business Director, Planning, with several years’ experience in media management. Since then she has been part of the Mindshare purple family and drove the creation of media innovation practice by considering and engaging all communication channels for brand building.

Her career and experience spans across working on FMCG giants like Unilever, P&G, Marico, Kellogg’s, Telecom major Airtel and ICICI Group in B&FS category in India. Recently she moved from India operations to take charge of Mindshare Sri Lanka office. Currently her focus is on new business development and moving up the value chain in terms of product offerings to existing clients. Her special interest lies in developing talents by driving training agenda within the organization.

  Guest Panelist Bimal Silva Director/Chief Executive Officer Hayleys Consumer Products Ltd      

Bimal is the Director/CEO of Hayleys Consumer, which represents some of the world ’s leading consumer brands in Sri Lanka. He counts for over 15 years of experience in sales & marketing within the FMCG industry, having initiated his career at Keells Foods. He consequently joined Ceylon Biscuits Limited and then Hemas Consumer Brands, where he functioned as the Director Brands prior to his assignment as the Director Sales and International business. He has been instrumental in a number of breakthrough marketing campaigns and product launch initiatives throughout his career. Bimal holds a First Class Honours Degree in Statistics and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from University of Colombo. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM -UK) and also a graduate of Chartered Institute of Management Tilan is a DGM of Seylan Bank PLC responsible for its Deposits Management portfolio, Digital Alternative Channels, Housing Loans and Marketing.

He has diverse experience in local and multinational organizations in Strategic planning, General Management, Business/Brand Management, CSR, NPD, Dark marketing, Value chain management, Corporate Affairs, Project Management and Sales from many industries including FMCG, Banking, Insurance, Education and Financial Consultancy. He has headed leading brands in Sri Lanka including Seylan, Elephant House, Lion Beer, Janashakthi & Harpic. Awarded over 11 Brand Excellence, Brand Icon and Business Excellence awards during his career for brands under his leadership including the coveted “Service Brand of the year and Local Brand of the Year - Gold awards”. He won a Accountants (CIMA – UK). He has also been in the visiting faculty of MBA-University of Colombo and a lecturer for CIM - UK.

  Guest Panelist Tilan Wijesekera Deputy General Manager - Marketing Seylan Bank      

Tilan is a DGM of Seylan Bank PLC responsible for its Deposits Management portfolio, Digital Alternative Channels, Housing Loans and Marketing. He has diverse experience in local and multinational organizations in Strategic planning, General Management, Business/Brand Management, CSR, NPD, Dark marketing, Value chain management, Corporate Affairs, Project Management and Sales from many industries including FMCG, Banking, Insurance, Education and Financial Consultancy.

He has headed leading brands in Sri Lanka including Seylan, Elephant House, Lion Beer, Janashakthi & Harpic. Awarded over 11 Brand Excellence, Brand Icon and Business Excellence awards during his career for brands under his leadership including the coveted “Service Brand of the year and Local Brand of the Year - Gold awards”. He won a Gold award at the National Business Excellence Awards by the National Chamber of Commerce for SLIM during his tenure as President. Tilan is a Past President of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and former Chairman of the Effie Awards.

Guest Speaker Ravi Wickramanayake Chief Executive Officer Kelly Felder      

Ravi graduated from University of Colombo and joined the Apparel Industry as a Management Trainee. He worked for international clothing brands, Tommy Hilfiger, Eddie Bauer, Gap Intl, M&S and Reebok while working as a senior manager at Sri Lanka's top apparel companies MAS Holdings, Brandix and Hirdaramani Group. He was following his MBA at PIM - Sri Jayewardanapura when Ravi stepped in to the world of entrepreneurship, creating the premium clothing brand Kelly Felder. After opening the first store in end 2010, Ravi was able to turn it to a USD 1.5 million business within a mere 3 year span with 2 stores in Sri Lanka and the online store to cater to the international customers. Kelly Felder used the digital medium as the main platform to build one of the most popular clothing brands today. Ravi is working with the vision of making Kelly Felder, one of the most preferred urban chic labels in the world and build a chain of stores globally.

  Guest Speaker Navonil Chatterjee Executive Planning Director - Vice President JWT, India      

Navonil has close to 16 years of experience in advertising across various clients like HUL, Levi’s, Nike, Madura Garments, ITC & Titan. Navonil entered the industry as an over-enthusiastic management trainee in McCann Erickson Bangalore in 1998 and moved to JWT Bangalore in October 2000. He was chosen as a JWT Young Tiger, featured in JWT’s global High Potential Group twice and was also JWT’s first ever global Brand Pioneer for his idea called Brand Budding.

Media magazine featured him as one of top 10 young planners to look out for in Asia. He has won several national and international marketing effectiveness awards like Gold Effies for Nike traffic jam and Nike Bleed Blue, gold in New York AME for Nike, gold in PMAA for ‘Levi’s on EMIs’, silver and bronze in Asian Marketing Effectiveness Awards for Nike and ING Jiyo Easy. He has also been involved in several new business wins for JWT. He is a post-graduate in Marketing Communications from MICA.

  Guest Speaker Sneh Sharma Founder & CEO Ittisa      

Sneh is Founder & CEO of Ittisa, the first ever only girls digital media agency in the world. At 23 Sneh Co-founded Webenza & built it as a next Gen Media Agency with a perfect blend of Creativity, Technology and Analytics. She then started Ittisa. Before Webenza, Sneh worked at Havas Digital: Media Contacts, handling clients such as ICICI Fellows, Tuborg and Tata Building India. Prior to that she has worked at Pepper Square and Simplify360. Sneh is known for her creativity, objectivity and relentless pursuit for perfection. She has envisioned and implemented successful campaigns and helped devise Promotional and ORM-focused Digital Media strategies for clients worldwide.

  Session Chair Himanshu Saxena President JWT, Sri Lanka.      

Himanshu has over 22 years' experience across Marketing & Sales, Branding, Product Management, Market Research and Advertising disciplines in India & Sri Lanka markets. He created market success for premier marketing companies like Unilever, Marico, Pepsico, GSK, HSBC, Barclays, Idea, Airtel, Dialog, Videocon, Godrej, Blow Plast, Taj Hotels, John Keells Holdings, MAS amongst many others. Himanshu won recognition for work across many global & regional award shows like Effie, Yahoo! Big Idea Chair, One Show, Clio & Cannes for work across many of the brands managed. He has worked with premier marketing companies & agencies like Trikaya Grey, Lowe, Reliance ADAG Group, IMRB International, McCann Worldgroup. Since 2011, Himanshu has headed the country operations for Sri Lanka, designated as President - JWT Group Sri Lanka.

  Guest Panelists Roshan De Silva Marketing Director Fonterra, Sri Lanka      

Roshan has over 13 years of experience in FMCG marketing in multinational companies in Sri Lanka and across Asian markets. Currently the Marketing Director of Fonterra Brands Lanka – the leading dairy nutrition provider for Sri Lanka. He previously held regional roles as Acting Brands & Category Director and Regional Category manager for ANCHOR/ Everyday Nutrition category for Fonterra Brand (AME)Ltd covering markets such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines & UAE. Responsible for developing regional strategic plans, generating sustainable top line growth, market share and profitability through developing brands and launching new products by leveraging powerful consumer insights across international markets. Roshan had his primary and secondary education at Royal College, Colombo and then went on to obtain BSc degree (Business) from Manchester Metropolitan University with first class honours, he also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.

  Guest Panelists Prashanth Supramanium Joint Managing Director Media Factory Group of Companies      

Nine years ago youthful exuberance resulted in Mediafactory - Sri Lanka’s first AOR agency. Prashanth with his partner Kapila started Mediafactory with two laptops, two tables & chairs in a studio apartment. Today they are the second largest media billing agency in the island, independent of any globally aligned clients which makes their achievements that much more greater. Mediafactory has diversified into creatives, digital, activations PR and a Media Cartel. Their big story is that every diversification has been successful and are today recognized as thought leading institutions that are reshaping the industries ideology on creating brand connections. Proof is that almost every company in the group is amongst the top two in their respective fields of specialization.

The Mediafctory Group is a knowledge center for questioning industry best practice and reshaping our understanding of marketing communications. Prashanth holds a MSc in Marketing from Monash University Australia and a BSc Hons in Business from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK.

  Guest Panelists Tharanga Gunasekera Head of Marketing & Communications HSBC, Sri Lanka      

Tharanga, Head of Marketing & Communications at HSBC Sri Lanka has been with HSBC for over 8 years. He briefly served as Head of Communications, HSBC India and has experience in working in HSBC Indonesia. He has a strong track record in strategy development and execution. With 20 years plus experience in Marketing & Sales at Hemas Pharmaceuticals and Astron Ltd, Tharanga held senior marketing management positions for leading multinationals ,Pfizer (USA) and Reckitt Benckiser (UK).

With an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK), Tharanga is a double diplomate in marketing, securing a professional Post Graduate Diploma from CIM (UK) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from SLIM. He has been instrumental in steering the SLIM Awards & The Chilies and has been a part of the judging panel Brand Excellence Awards (2012), The Effie Awards ( 2013), Sri Lanka Tourism Awards ( 2011 & 2012 ) & The Youth Enterprise Awards (2013).