Team

As the Founder & Chairperson, Nandita provides the vision and direction for The PRactice. Her views on public relations, based on over twenty three years of experience have helped shape the vision of the Firm and influenced several of its best campaigns. Nandita is focused on establishing a culture of continuous leadership through mentoring and coaching, fostering intrapreneurship and exploring collaborations with affiliates to prepare the Firm for future growth. She leads with the belief that an idea is only as good as its execution, thereby maintaining a close eye on implementation and the last mile.

Nandita has served on various prestigious juries to determine excellence in public relations, including the 57th Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for the PR category; the Sabre Awards India, among others. She is an alumnus of the Fortune/US State Department Global Mentorship Program, where she won the Exxon Mobil-Vital Voices grant for an idea titled “Integrity Decoded”. In 2014, she won the Sabre Individual Award for her contribution to the PR Industry in India. The Award called out The PRactice as “unquestionably one of the best (PR Firms), showcasing a grown up, ethical approach that has served the Firm well in a fast changing marketplace”. She was recognised among India’s top 10 women in Public Relation by Reputation Today in 2016.

Nandita, in her free time, dabbles in kitchen gardening and exploring the rich legacy of Indian arts and crafts – handloom in particular.

Since he joined The PRactice in 2001, Vivek has been a core member of the team driving many of the initiatives that have earned the firm its global reputation. Vivek’s success hinges on his ability to listen to clients and identify distinct opportunities for more effective communication. With experience spanning everything from corporate and product positioning to crisis handling, Vivek has provided solutions-based counsel to Indian and international companies across various sectors.

As passionate as he is about his work, Vivek still finds time to pursue other interests outside it. He enjoys photography and has a collection of riveting images to show for this hobby. He is also an avid Carnatic music buff and rarely passes up an opportunity to catch Bombay Jayashri live in concert.

Abhijit leads the Consumer vertical and infuses it with her dedication and energy. She believes in the power of Public Relations to influence every single aspect of consumer and brand experience and has leveraged this conviction into ideas that have made a real difference for her clients. Since she joined The PRactice in 2007, she has driven or been associated with several award-winning campaigns, including one that was shortlisted for a Cannes PR award.

As someone who is always up for new experiences, Abhijit has a long travel bucket list. She has North America and Asia largely covered and now has her sights trained on other continents. When she is not checking out good deals on Makemytrip.com, Abhijit likes to curl up with a good book or settle in to watch a movie – preferably with a glass of Merlot.

Jayanthi has close to 20 years of professional experience in the technology domain and is President -Technology. She has worked with technology majors including IBM, HP, Fujitsu and Tally Solutions in addition to consulting with technology start-ups. Her experience spans strategy, public relations, advertising & brand management, marketing operations, field marketing, market research and demand generation. Jayanthi has extensive experience in the IT infrastructure, software and services industries across verticals and geographies. During her career, Jayanthi has demonstrated a consistently strong business-focused sensibility and focus on top line growth and bottom line management. She actively participates in industry forums and academic programs related to thought-leadership in marketing. Jayanthi holds an M.S. in Advertising from Syracuse University, USA. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, with her favorite genres being non-fiction, travel and science writing.

Sukhmani leads the Life Sciences and Social Innovation vertical at The PRactice with her unique blend of clear-eyed practicality and free form creativity. She is adept at defining communication strategies for clients and using these to formulate tactical plans for her team to execute. Since she joined The PRactice in 2007, Sukhmani has been a vital part of many of its successful campaigns and initiatives.

When she’s not working, Sukhmani likes to visit places that are off the beaten track – preferably a quaint spot in the hills or a rustic retreat that is untouched by tourism. She has accumulated an impressive collection of local art and jewelry during the course of her travels. If she has more free time, Sukhmani likes to check out music festivals featuring her favorite EDM and Rock music. Dancing makes her truly happy, she says. She also counts on yoga to keep her fighting fit and healthy.

As a Senior Media Consultant at The PRactice, Narahari (popularly known as Hari) guides internal teams on media engagement and outreach strategies. He is a seasoned corporate communications professional with over thirty-six years of experience in the field. During the course of a noteworthy career, he has led several global initiatives at organizations such as Wipro, IBM, Dell and Texas Instruments. The Public Relations Council of India recognized his contribution to the profession by inducting him into its ‘Hall of Fame’ in 2011. Hari also contributes to the broader professional community through his other engagements. He is currently the Chairman of the Marketing and Communications Forum of NASSCOM in Karnataka. In between, he manages to find time to teach a Corporate Communications course as a visiting faculty member at two colleges in Bangalore.

A fan of vintage Hindi film music, Hari joins a Bangalore karaoke group called ‘Friends of Music’ once a month to belt out hits by Hemant Kumar and Mohammed Rafi, among other legendary singers. In addition to travel and long road trips with his family, Hari likes to follow the ups and downs of the Indian cricket team and comment on these through his blog.

As Vice-President at The PRactice, Rajneesh’s focus areas are stakeholder communications and employee engagement. His client advisory is based on deep insights derived from his past experience in management consulting during which he worked with several leading global organizations on areas such as strategic human resource development, organization design and change management.

Rajneesh is adept at developing business-centric public relations solutions, forging external partnerships, and project management. He has published and presented over fifteen case studies and thought leadership papers in various international peer-reviewed management forums. He is member of the editorial board of a leading peer reviewed management journal, Systems Research and Behavioral Science, published by Wiley, New York. A core part of his strength lies in this ability to meld academic theory and practical execution. Rajneesh is regularly invited to various forums on corporate social responsibility and employee engagement.

Rishu leads the Enterprise Technology business and oversees the Delhi operations at The PRactice. She has more than twelve years of experience in marketing communications across education, technology and healthcare industries. Having managed several heavyweight client accounts in these sectors, Rishu has an in-depth understanding of the role of Public Relations in articulating a brand’s story and direction.

Rishu is also a recreational artist and likes to set up her easel and painting canvas when she has some uninterrupted time. As the mother of an active young boy, this is not an easy commodity to come by, but Rishu doesn’t mind. For now, she prefers quality family time to artistic fulfillment.

As Vice President at The PRactice, Sameer helps integrate design concepts with client needs and goals in order to create brand publishing and communication solutions across web, mobile, print and events. He has had a rich and varied career involving roles in advertising, copywriting, and design. His creative work runs the gamut from international to local and includes a restaurant launch in London as well as an award winning website for an ICT startup in rural India. Over the last decade, he has broadened his expertise to include web development and interactive design, as well as the development of complete solutions centered on branding and design.

In his spare time, Sameer loves travelling and sampling strange foods in new places. He prefers if those places are also at the ends of roads — the highest town in the Himalayas or the last town in New Zealand at the edge of the Pacific, for instance. He hopes to swing by the Arctic one of these days and is working on overcoming an irrational fear of South America. Reading and animated, long conversations with friends are two other things Sameer thoroughly enjoys.

Arijit’s focus is identification of policy engagement opportunities, developing issue based campaigns, and strengthening stakeholder network, as we scale our public advocacy practice.

He has an interesting mix of experiences, spanning 25 years in various roles across the telecom and technology industry. In these roles he has worked closely with the governments and stakeholders in countries like Bangladesh, Africa, Singapore and India. His most recent stint was with the BBC, where he managed projects with the likes of the Gates Foundation.

He began his career in advertising and has worked with Lintas, Enterprise Nexus and Mudra.

Shubhankar is Vice President, Digital and he leads the digital practice at the firm. He has over ten years experience across digital, advertising, mobile technology & financial services. Over the years he has worked extensively on categories as diverse as automobile, healthcare, technology, FMCG and consumer durables, amongst others. He has deep interest in technology and has closely followed the evolution of the digital medium over the past decade. Before joining The PRactice, he worked at Blippar, the world’s leading mobile augmented reality platform. There, he led strategy & the media business for the India market. Prior to that he worked at Hungama Digital Services, where he was responsible for setting up their strategy, social media and listening practices. He was also instrumental in Hungama’s acquisition of key clients across sectors ranging from technology to automobile.

Shubhankar holds a MBA degree in Finance & Marketing from University Business School, Panjab University. He is an avid traveller and doesn’t miss an opportunity to catch a getaway especially to the hills. In his spare time, you will find him either reading about technology or playing video games.

Maya is Vice President, Content at The PRactice and she leads the content publishing division in the firm. She is a communications professional with more than 20 years’ experience in the area of content creation. Prior to joining the firm, Maya was the Branch Head at Associated Advertising Pvt. Ltd. She has also managed Internal Communications at Mphasis and was part of the Yahoo! Corporate Communications team that launched Yahoo! Answers in India. Maya has also worked as a copywriter with some of the leading advertising firms in the country including MCann Erickson, Saatchi & Saatchi, Contract, Clarion, and Grey Cell – an entrepreneurial venture focused on developing niche communication for NGOs.

Maya firmly believes that communication is ‘Mission Critical’. She holds a Master’s in English Literature from Osmania University, Hyderabad. She is an avid reader, a passionate traveller and a die-hard foodie. She is in the process of putting together a series of coffee table books which combines these three passions of hers.

Luna leads the Emerging sector vertical and oversees the Mumbai operations at The PRactice. She brings over 16 years experience in the Public Relations space and has worked with leading brands and companies across industry verticals. She is a creative storyteller and specialises in crafting successful brand communication campaigns, corporate reputation strategies, influencer marketing, and crisis communications.

In her spare time, you will find her tucked up with a good book or glued to Netflix. She is a film fanatic and does not miss the chance to hit the cinema theatre during her day off. Luna is also a rock & retro music buff, and unwinds herself by listening to Pink Floyd, Metallica or anything 80’s .

Sylvia brings over twenty years of advertising industry experience to her role as Creative Planner at The PRactice. She has worked in both Australia and Singapore on a variety of consumer brands spanning financial services, tourism, health insurance, optometry, events, food and wine, retirement living, hospitality, pharmaceuticals, and local government.

When it comes to her areas of expertise – integrated brand communications – Sylvia actively looks for an emotional peg to which the communication can be anchored. She believes in the power of collaborative thinking and diverse viewpoints to take an idea from good to exceptional. After a long stint overseas, Sylvia has come home to roost at her peaceful farmhouse just outside Bangalore. Her spare time is devoted to exploring local, organic ingredients to indulge her passion for cooking.