Vijay Sampath,
CEO

Vijay Sampath has 23 years of achievement across the fields of Media, Consumer Products, Franchising and Entrepreneurship. With key assignments at Blow Plast, Zee Network, Bennett Coleman & The Alia Group, Vijay has worked with leading brands, created and led innovative business units, spearheaded corporate strategy and has also been an entrepreneur. Vijay is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur.

Manas Mohan,
COO

Manas has over 17 years of experience in marketing, communications, media, branding, advertising, promotions and sales. At ACK Media, he is the Chief Operating Officer and oversees the Direct Marketing and Ecommerce business, The National Geographic Business, Licensing and Merchandising, Advertising Sales as well as the strategic marketing leadership of the Brand. Prior to this he was the Director & Head (Marketing) at Reader’s Digest. Earlier, at Wunderman and at Lintas Direct, he had some of the best brands as his clients - Tata Sky, Jet Airways, FedEx, ICICI Prudential, Tata AIG, Castrol, etc. At Discovery Channel, he played a pivotal role in brand advertising and the school contact programs across India. With an MBA from Lucknow, Manas also has an advanced management diploma from ISB, Hyderabad.

Vishwanath Kotian,
CFO

Vishwanath Kotian is responsible for finance, legal, human resource and administration functions at ACK Media. Prior to joining ACK in April 2010, he was associated with Ernst & Young, leading a team of professionals in the assurance practice of the M&E sector. Vishwanath brings an experience of over 14 years in the fields of M&A, assurance and corporate taxation. He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Sandeep Padoshi ,
VP – Operations

Sandeep heads Operations, IT, Production and Customer Service at ACK Media. He has over 14 years of procurement, supply chain and distribution experience in Retail, Telecom, E-commerce and Publishing organizations. Prior to joining ACK Media, Sandeep was VP – Operations with the DRTV giant, Guthy-Renker LLC. He also spent 6 years at Reader’s Digest and helped to set up its Indian subsidiary. He holds an MBA degree and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

Anil Sanjivan,
Founder & CEO, Ideas Box

Before his association with The Ideas Box, Anil was the Business Head at Miditech and was involved in conceptualizing and producing shows like K for Kishore, Indian Idol, Choona Hai Aasman, Parivaar and Lead India among others. Anil’s stint in the advertising field saw him function as the Vice President in Ogilvy & Mather, and later on as the President of Speer Communications (an agency acquired by O&M). Equipped with an experience of working and driving the strategic vision of some of the biggest Global and Indian brands like Kimberly Clark Lever, Cadbury, Pidilite (makers of Fevicol, Feviquik), Nilkamal plastics, Times of India, World Wide Media(owners of Femina) and Raymond, he also has a successful track record in launching new brands and turning around brands. He has lectured and conducted workshops at management institutes and seminars conducted by TISS, CII & Mudra Institute of Management.

Krishna Kiran,
Sr. VP – IBH

Krishna Kiran brings an experience of 22 years in sales, advertising, marketing, events and distribution in companies such as Blow Plast Ltd., Wipro Lighting, The Hindu and India Today. He was instrumental in the launch of Wipro Lighting products in India. He has worked in sales and advertising at “The Hindu” and prior to IBH, was with India Today as GM-Sales(South). At The Hindu, he played a vital role in the promotion of children-specific products such as The Hindu Young World. He played a similar role in promoting Reader’s Digest at schools in southern India during his stint at India Today. He was instrumental in promotion of business publications in management institutes. He has the credit of bringing out some very innovative advertising features in The Hindu and Business Line. He has exposed himself to retail trade and dairy industry for a brief period. KK, as he likes to be called, is a Management graduate from BITS, Pilani.

Prakash Batna,
VP - Sales

Starting his career with the Godrej Group, a consumer durables giant, Prakash followed this with a successful stint as a product manager at Ingram Micro India Ltd. At ACK Media, Prakash has played a key role in setting up the complete Sales and Distribution network and driving the sales for the entire range of print products. Prakash is an engineering graduate with an MBA from Mumbai University.

Abizar Shaikh,
Director IBH

Abizar has a varied experience in building and running diverse businesses. He enjoys the challenge of recruiting, developing and nurturing teams which ultimately lead to building successful businesses. He has had long and successful stints with start-ups as well as with established businesses like Kotak, Max New York Life Insurance and Blow Plast Ltd. Abizar is an engineering graduate with an MBA from SPJIMR.

Sasikanth,
Business Head - Brainwave

Sasikanth is an entrepreneur with progressive exposure to all facets of setting up and building a business. He has received recognition from BusinessWeek, FYSE (Hong Kong), CNBC (India) Young Turks, Financial Times (India), BITSAA Global, Youth International Economic Forum St. Petersburg (Russia) etc. He is currently the Business Head for Brainwave and handles the business needs of the fast growing Brainwave property, develops various revenue streams and drives rapid growth of the Brainwave franchise across formats and markets. Sasikanth, who graduated with honours from BITS Pilani, is an exec-alumnus of the Indian School of Business and an alumnus of London Business School.

Eric D'souza,
VP - Ad Sales

Eric got a head start in the ad industry in 1981 with the Stardust Group (Magna Publishing), where he participated in the launches of all major magazines. Eric spent the next 17 years at Dainik Bhaskar and Reader’s Digest (as National Head – Advertising Sales), playing a pivotal role in the growth of these organisations. Eric started his journey with ACK Media in the year 2011 and has since been working for magazines like Tinkle, Brainwave, Amar Chitra Katha and National Geographic. Eric is a B.Com graduate from Narsee Monjee College, Mumbai with a degree in Advertising & Marketing Management from Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai.

Kushal Ruia,
Creative Head - Animation

Kushal has over eight years of experience in the Indian and Canadian animation industries. During this time, he animated at C.O.R.E Digital Pictures, Toronto, and worked in directorial capacities with some of the most respected names in Indian animation. Kushal is also a published and critically acclaimed photographer, with his works displayed at internationally reputed exhibitions. Kushal holds a major in animation and filmmaking from Sheridan College, Canada.

Shubhadeep Bhattacharya,
Business Head – Digital

Shubhadeep’s career in children's publishing started with Karadi Tales, where he was engaged in marketing and producing children's content across media formats. At present, he manages the digital content business at ACK Media. Shubadeep is a commerce graduate, who worked as a software engineer for four years before a tortuous route led him to his present vocation in children's media.

Sandya Jadhav,
Marketing Manager

Sandya has over six years of diversified experience in marketing and business development across industries. She started her career with a multinational healthcare company, B.Braun Medical India Pvt. Ltd., followed by a successful stint as marketing manager at Morphy Richards, where she handled product and brand management. She currently looks after marketing and corporate communications at ACK Media. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Masters degree in Economics, she has also attended the Western Carolina University B-School in the US.

Rajesh.M Iyer,
VP – Creative

Rajesh has over 17 years of experience as editor, creative director and writer of books, TV shows and films. Before joining ACK, he has been a part of Spacetoon, Magna and Macmillan. Apart from commissioning and editing books, he has to his credit serials like ‘Colgate Top Ten’ and ‘Khabdoo Bigdoo’ as creative director and writer, magazines like ‘Raga to Rock’ and ‘Modern Scientist’ as editor and books like ‘Nanha Natkhat: Tales of Little Krishna’ and ‘Valiant Warriors’ as writer. He has a combination of management and literature as his academic background.

Reena I. Puri,
Editor – Amar Chitra Katha

Reena has been working with Amar Chitra Katha since 1991. Reena worked with Anant Pai as an Associate Editor of Tinkle till 2005. During her tenure, Tinkle became a 72-page monthly magazine. She started the Tinkle Holiday Specials and helped develop and create many new characters. Reena became Editor at Amar Chitra Katha in 2007 and was instrumental in the revival of the series. A post-graduate in English Literature from Delhi University, Reena has worked with various newspapers and magazines before she discovered that writing comics was her forte.

Sudipta Dhruva,
Creative Head - Content and Activation

Sudipta Dhruva has been working in the space of children’s communication since last 20 years. She worked with Erehwon for over 10 years, working in the space of creative thinking and concept building for children and teachers. A stint with Derek O'Brien and associates as Head of Training and Development allowed her to explore avenues within communication, media and television. She was an integral part of the Bournvita Quiz Contest and the KQ program. She was then a partner at Different Strokes, an event management company that focused on events and school contact programs. In her last job as the Creative Head of Kid's Vertical at Miditech, she was in charge of development of programs aimed at kids. She was the Content Producer for the award winning show MAD, Season 6 on POGO.

Rajani Thindiath,
Editor, Tinkle

Writing stories proved to be addictive for Rajani, which is how she landed at Tinkle. In the last four years, besides writing for the regular Tinkle characters, she has also explored new ones such as Kishu the goose, 'Jackie and the Beanstalk' in a parody of the fairytale, 'Sparks' the super cat and a girl who tames a temperamental horse in 'Taming of Shrew', among others. She still spins yarns, only now they end up in the pages of Tinkle. After a degree in psychology and a diploma in animation, Rajani figured her love for reading and a fancy for telling tall tales could be better used in writing stories. Rajani has worked at NewsHouse, a children's newspaper, for four years and subsequently acquired a diploma in journalism.

Neel Debdutt Paul,
Editor, Tinkle Digest

Neel is the Editor of Tinkle Digest and occasionally guest appears in Suppandi 48. He stumbled upon children's publishing by accident and unexpectedly fell in love with it. Neel has worked at the children's department in Hachette India as Assistant Editor. He also moonlights as an actor with his theatre group, New Delhi-based Tadpole Repertory. Neel used to be obsessed with comics as a child and things have changed very little as a grown-up. He grew up in Kolkata and Bengaluru and attended St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi.

Anisha Karthik,
Editor, Suppandi 48

Anisha has been a big fan of Tinkle since her childhood. Anisha is passionate about writing stories, and has been writing stories for Tinkle since her school days. The popular Tinkle toons and Defective Detectives are her creations. Joining Suppandi 48 as the Assitant Editor in April 2010, she has now taken the editorial reigns of this teen magazine. Anisha has previously worked with Virgin Atlantic Airways and then with Deloitte, as a content analyst. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and another in Tourism Studies.

Shobha Vishwanath,
Publishing Director, Karadi Tales

Children’s writer and educator, Shobha is the Publishing Director and co-founder of Karadi Tales Company. Shobha has worked as a consultant for several schools, developing resource material for children with learning difficulties. She has also directed workshops for teachers and parents on early childhood learning. Shobha has written over 25 books for children. She has a postgraduate degree in Literature from the University of Mumbai and also in Special Education from the Eastern Michigan University.

Manasi Subramaniam,
Editor, Karadi Tales

Manasi is the editor at Karadi Tales. She writes stories for children and adults, along with being a part of the theatre industry. Manasi has done her M.A. in literature from UK and is also a former recipient of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association short fiction prize for Asia.

Vinayak Varma,
Editor and Art Director, Brainwave

Vinayak is the founder and art director of Brainwave magazine. He has been associated with media and publishing for almost a decade. Vinayak was previously an independent creative consultant and has worked in multiple design domains, media, publishing, gaming, animation, film, radio, web and other allied industries. He has also written for The New Indian Express, The Hindu, Sunday Herald and DNA, and has designed and illustrated books for Hachette, Scholastic and Penguin to name a few. Vinayak studied fine arts and film-making at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology.

Niloufer Venkatraman,
Editor, National Geographic Magazine India & National Geographic Traveller India.

Niloufer spent a few years in academia before serendipitously becoming a writer of all things travel. She has edited TimeOut’s India: Perfect Places to Stay, Eat & Explore (2010), and co-authored Frommer’s India travel guide (2nd and 3rd editions). Her idea of unwinding is putting on hiking boots and exploring the wilderness with her husband and young daughter. She hopes she can inspire others to follow suit and take their kids outdoors. Niloufer holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Temple University, Philadelphia.

Narayan Parasuram,
Creative Director, Karadi Tales

Narayan Parasuram is Creative Director and co-founder of Karadi Tales Company. A graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, he holds a Masters degree in Material Science and a Diploma in Sound Engineering from Clemson University. He is trained in Carnatic and Hindustani Classical music. A member of 3 Brothers & A Violin, Narayan is the recipient of the Lata Mangeshkar award for best male playback singer (1989) and the Screen Award for the best non-film album Saavariya (2001). He has composed music for films like Jajantaram Mamantaram, Khoobsurat, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi etc. Narayan is also a visiting faculty at the Industrial Development Cell (IDC) at IIT Bombay and the Film and Television Institute of India. He composes and executes the music and soundtrack for Karadi Tales.