Brands can be both sustainable and profitable

Jonathan Hall

Managing PartnerKantar Sustainable Transformation Practice

Jonathan is the Managing Partner for Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice, which works globally for private and public sector organisations.

The core expertise of the Practice is in understanding the relevance of sustainability issues by sector, developing and helping activate meaningful and authentic Purpose, devising innovation solutions, unlocking behaviour change, and  structuring impactful measurement programmes.

Jonathan has over 25 years' experience of creating breakthrough brand, innovation and consumer strategies, and has led businesses in the UK, France and East- & West-Coast US: in the fields of innovation, design, communications, brand development and consumer insight.

Jonathan is on the Executive Council for the Future of Marketing Initiative at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, and is a contributor and expert on Said's Digital Marketing Disruptive Strategy Programme. He is on the Advisory Group for the Disrupting Marketing for Sustainability course at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, the Leadership team of the Insight Climate Collective and a contributor to the Purpose Disruptor initiative, Good Life 2030. He has also been a jury member for both the Movin'On Startup Challenge and the Drapers Sustainable Fashion Awards. He is a long-standing member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Brand Management and a member of the sustainability changemaker organisation, The Conduit.

Nazeeb Arif

Executive Vice PresidentITC Limited

Mr. Nazeeb Arif is the Executive Vice President and Chief of Corporate Communications of ITC Limited, one of India’s foremost private sector companies. Mr Arif is the spokesperson of the ITC Group and on the Company's behalf interacts closely with all its external stakeholders including multilateral institutions, Government, Chambers of Commerce, Media etc. He is also a Member of the Sustainability Compliance Review Committee set up by the Corporate Management Committee of the Company. Currently he is the Liaison Delegate in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva, representing ITC. Mr Arif is also on the Board of Trustees of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, a unique institution engaged in the preservation and teaching of Hindustani Classical Music and on the Consultative Committee of Akshay Patra Foundation.

Mr Arif’s professional experience spans 38 years. Prior to joining ITC in 2006, he led the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) as its Secretary General and CEO. Earlier, he has also served the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the apex Industry body in the country. In these roles, he has actively advocated policies for building competitiveness of Indian Industry to enable a larger contribution to national economic development. During this time, he also served as an Adviser to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in its South-Asian Sub-Regional Economic Co-operation (SASEC) project promoting greater regional co-operation amongst 4 countries in South Asia.

He has been very actively involved in environmental and sustainability issues, and his initiatives have also been awarded by international organisations. He was awarded the United States Asia Environmental Partnership -“Environmental Leadership Award". Mr Arif set up the Environment Management Centre at ICC which won the world’s best project by the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris, the apex body of business in the world.  Mr Arif led a team from Europe and India to implement a project funded by the European Union on Industrial Disaster Management. 

Mr. Arif was invited by the United States Government as part of the International Visitors Program, and also by the European Commission as part of the European Union Visitors Program. He was also invited to attend the International Institute for Leadership in Germany (Theodore Heuss Akademie, Gummersbach) by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung. 

Suresh Narayanan

Chairman & Managing DirectorNestle India Ltd

Mr. Suresh Narayanan has over 36 years of rich and exhaustive experience in the FMCG Industry and has held Senior Management and Top Leadership roles in leading global companies.

 Mr. Narayanan joined Nestlé in 1999 as Executive Vice President for Sales in India, where he spearheaded major structural and strategic changes in Sales and Customer Management and set up the chilled dairy business. He moved to Nestlé Indochina in 2003, as Executive Director for Sales, Marketing and Food-Services, covering the countries of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Two years later in 2005, he returned to Nestlé India as Head of Sales for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.  

 Mr. Narayanan was Managing Director of Nestlé Singapore Pte. Ltd., from 2008 to 2010. During his time, the overall business in Singapore witnessed sustained growth amidst the economic downturn. He was awarded the Medal of Commendation by the Government of Singapore in 2010, for excellence in employee relations during this challenging period. He moved to Nestlé Egypt as Chairman and CEO and Head of NEAR, where his initiatives resulted in significant business growth and investments despite the turbulence and volatility faced by the region at this time. Mr. Narayanan was Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines prior to joining Nestlé India in 2015.

 Mr. Narayanan was honoured at the Forbes India Leadership Awards 2017 as the Best CEO in the Multinational category.  He was recognized among “Most Valuable CEOs" in 2019 by Business World and also awarded “Best CEO - FMCG" for two years consecutively in 2019 and 2020 by Business Today. CNBC-AWAAZ awarded Mr. Suresh Narayanan as the Best Performing Leader for the MNC category in 2020. Mr. Narayanan was honored as the Entrepreneurial CEO at EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2020

 Under his leadership, in 2019, Nestlé India won the “Best Governed Company Award for 2018" by Asian Centre for Corporate Governance & Sustainability. Business Standard Awarded Nestlé India as the MNC of the year in 2020. In 2020 Business World Awarded Nestlé India for Best Financial Performance in the MNC Category and also bestowed ‘Purpose and Resilience’ Award 2020 and in 2021 Nestlé India was awarded Outstanding Company of the year by CNBC TV18 India Business Leader Awards (IBLA).

Rahul L. Kanodia

Vice Chairman & Chief Executive OfficerDatamatics Global Services Limited

Rahul L. Kanodia is the Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Datamatics Group. 

Rahul has been the chief architect in driving Datamatics to be a leading Digital Solutions Company, focused on enhancing business productivity for digital-first companies through smart automation of data-driven processes. Rahul leads all the strategic and corporate initiatives globally, leading to the long-term growth, profitability and industry leadership for Datamatics. He also plays a pivotal role in envisioning and shaping the company’s strategy for mergers and acquisitions. He has over 30 years of professional experience and has held several progressively senior and leadership positions.  

Recognizing his contribution, in the year 2014 he was presented with ‘CEO of the Year Award’ for his exemplary leadership amongst organizations from across 41 Asian countries. Rahul also received ‘CEO of the Year Award’ in the year 2019 in 2nd Edition of Leadership Summit & Awards. Rahul is also the Chairman of NASSCOM’s Regional Council. Rahul also serves on the Advisory Board of Columbia University’s India Business Initiative (New York) and is Director on the Statutory Board of Goa Institute of Management and Statutory Board of Safari Industries.

Rahul holds an M.B.A degree from Columbia University (USA), with a major in Business Strategy & Marketing and a minor in Mergers & Acquisition and Turnaround Management.  He has 2 Bachelor degrees from H. R. College (India), with specialization in Finance & Accounting, and Babson College (USA), with specialization in Management Information Systems. 

Anirban Ghosh

Chief Sustainability OfficerMahindra Group

Anirban has worked with the USD 20 billion Mahindra Group since 1999 where he is currently the Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer.

During his work Anirban has developed an award-winning sustainability framework, enabled businesses to be the first in the world to commit to doubling energy efficiency, and the first in the country to commit to a carbon price and Science Based Targets. He is striving to make Mahindra planet positive by becoming carbon neutral, water positive, zero waste to landfill and a promoter of biodiversity at scale.

Anirban has helped triple per capita income for 40,000 Indians through national award-winning watershed development projects, created an EHS+ centre, in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Communities, to spread sustainability in the supply chain and has, in partnership with the World Bank, helped create the Sustainable Housing Leadership Coalition to enable green construction in India.

Anirban has been an invited speaker at international conferences like the UN Climate Conference, the Global Climate Action Summit, The Climate Week, World Circular Economy Forum, and the GRI Global Conference He has featured in Al Gore’s “Climate Reality Project", written opinion pieces for publications like Financial Times, Huffington Post, Green Biz and Eco-business, conducted sustainability sessions for students at INSEAD, Nalanda University, Indian School of Business and Indian Institutes of Management. He has been acknowledged as a “Thought Leader" and a “Distinguished Sustainability Officer" and is the first Chief Sustainability Officer to feature in the list of “C-Suite Sustainability Champions" published by GreenBiz.