Eminent speakers at SLIM International Marketing Conference 2012 tomorrow

An eminent panel of speakers will address the International Marketing Conference 2012 organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) to be held at Hotel Galadari on Thursday, 1 March.

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH) Sri Lanka Director of Marketing Subroto Geed will make a presentation on ‘Practical Insights into Brand Adaptation vs Standardisation’.

An experienced hand in marketing, he has over 12 years of experience leading growth focused brand management, brand and media strategy, innovation vision boarding and consumer insight work across large Indian and multinational organisations. During the course of his career, he has worked on some of India and Sri Lanka’s leading brands in the healthcare (nutritional and OTC) space.

Prior to his current assignment with GSK Consumer Healthcare Sri Lanka, he was with GSKCH India leading a portfolio comprising their second largest nutritional drinks brand – BOOST.

In Sri Lanka, the company markets some of the country’s most trusted and reputed brands including Panadol, Viva, Horlicks, Sensodyne, Iodex and Eno.  ‘Brand Management’ is the theme handled by S. Subramanyeswar, National Planning Director -Lowe Lintas, India. Subbu,as he is best known, has spent more than a decade and a half in marketing and advertising working at leading companies like Wipro, Publics, Rediffusion Y&R and Saatchi & Saatchi. Some of the brands he anchored include Citibank, Colgate, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Unilever, Idea Cellular, Tata Tea, Nestle, Hyundai and Sony Ericsson.

At Publicis, Subbu was a key global planning resource on a number of brand and knowledge initiatives including authoring the ‘New Brief’ for the agency worldwide. He was one of the five planners globally chosen to work on Citibank global repositioning directly under Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citibank Worldwide.

While at Saatchi, Subbu was awarded ‘Gold’ for being the best strategic planner in Saatchi Asia-Pacific region in 2006.

Dr, Hooi Den Huan, Director of the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center and a faculty member of the Nanyang Business School (NBS), NTU, Singapore, he will talk on ‘Entrepreneurial Marketing’. A Fellow of CIM-UK he is currently Chairman of the Executive Board, Asia Marketing Federation Foundation and an Advisory Committee member for the Singapore Brand Conference.

With Philip Kotler and Hermawan Kartajaya, Den co-authored two bestselling books, ‘Think ASEAN!’ and ‘Rethinking Marketing’ and they established the Philip Kotler Center for ASEAN Marketing which launched the World’s first Marketing 3.0 Museum in Bali last May. He publishes regularly and sits on the editorial boards of the International Retail and Marketing Review; Journal of Creativity and Innovation Management and the Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship.

As a mark of recognition of his marketing and business skills, Den has been awarded the Pan Pacific Business Association Distinguished Global Leadership award.

S. Srikanth, who will talk on ‘Brands Going Beyond Borders’, is a marketer with abounding experience and a diverse career of over 15 years in the Pharmaceutical, FMCG, F&B Industries. He currently operates from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia heading the global marketing operations spanning 55 countries as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the downstream business of Goodhope Asia Holdings (part of Carsons group of Sri Lanka). Previously he was Director of Marketing, at the global MNC GlaxoSmithKline - consumer business, managing the reputed Panadol, Horlicks, Sensodyne, Viva brands.

He was the Vice President of the blue chip conglomerate, John Keells Holdings (JKH), heading the Soft Drinks operation, spearheading the Elephant House brands.

With a quest and passion to share his knowledge, Srikanth has imparted his knowledge and experience to thousands of students, as a Senior Lecturer at SLIM, the London School of Economics External Programme and Wisdom Business School, lecturing on the topics of branding, strategy and management.

Whilst being a visiting lecturer at the University of Colombo and other local universities, Srikanth has been recognised as a leading educator for both CIM and CIMA programs in Sri Lanka and has been invited to deliver guest lecturers in India, Malaysia and other countries.

Srikanth is well known in the marketing fraternity having been a Board Director of the IAA (International Advertising Association) – Sri Lanka Chapter and held position of the Chairman of the Chillies 2007 Steering Committee and has been a judge at Brand Excellence awards for three consecutive years.

In addition to these speakers, Dr. Nick B Fontamilla, President – Asia Pacific Centre for Research Inc. will be the Guest Speaker.

The session will end with a panel discussion moderated by Prasanna Perera – Management and Marketing Consultant.