Welcome to the new age content company

Shobhana Bhartia
Chairperson & Editorial Director

Mrs. Shobhana Bhartia is the Chairperson and Editorial Director of HT Media, one of India's largest publicly listed media companies. She is also currently serving, as the Pro-Chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences.

A former Member of Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Parliament of India, Shobhana Bhartia also served as a member of the Committees in Parliament on Energy, Women Empowerment, and Human Resource Development.

Conferred with numerous awards and recognition, including Global Leader of Tomorrow from the World Economic Forum, Davos 1996, and Entrepreneur of the Year, 2005, from Ernst and Young, she was decorated with the Padma Shri, Government of India's National Award for outstanding contribution in a particular field, in the year 2006 and from The Economic Times, Businesswomen of the Year, in the year 2007.

P.S. Jayakumar
Director

Mr. P.S. Jayakumar is a Chartered Accountant and holds post graduate diploma in business management from XLRI Jamshedpur. He has a deep experience in the banking sector and financial sector with 23 years of work experience with Citibank in their India & Singapore offices. Mr. Jayakumar’s last assignment in Citibank was being the Country Head for the Consumer Banking Group. In his 23 years of working in Citibank, Mr. Jayakumar has been involved in innovation and development of retail financial service industry. On leaving Citibank in 2008, he worked as an entrepreneur and was (i) a cofounder of ‘Value Budget Housing Company’, a Company that has pioneered the use of manufacturing approach to construction and application of form and IT technology to low cost & affordable housing; and (ii) ‘Home First Finance Limited’, a housing finance company listed on NSE and provides long term purchase money mortgage loans for customers with low & moderate income household. The aforesaid two companies have contributed to pioneering effort in building demand and supply for low cost & affordable housing. In 2015, Mr. Jayakumar was selected by the Government of India to serve as the Managing Director & CEO of Bank of Baroda, first person from the private sector selected to run a large public sector bank. He led a successful transformation of Bank of Baroda and completed three way merger between Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank & Dena Bank. Currently, Mr. P.S. Jayakumar is working on his third start-up venture and also serves as an independent director on the Board of well-known companies.

Rashmi Verma
Director

Mrs. Rashmi Verma, IAS (Retd.) has a rich experience of working in various sectors in her career spanning more than 36 years.

She did her MBA (Project based) from University of Hull, UK. Her last posting before superannuation on 30th November, 2018 was Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India. She had earlier worked as Principal Secretary Tourism, Bihar cum CMD, Bihar State Tourism Corporation and before that as Additional Director General (Tourism), Govt. of India. She was associated with ‘Incredible India’ campaign as Additional DG, Tourism and with Incredible India 2.0 as Secretary Tourism. She has acquired special expertise in development of selected tourist sites by ensuring all round infrastructure development and better connectivity necessary for a world class destination. Prior to her posting as Secretary, Tourism, Ms. Verma worked as Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India. She acquired deep knowledge of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other related matters in her capacity as Additional Secretary, Department of Revenue, Govt. of India. While working in Department of Defence Production, Ministry of Defence, Mrs. Verma oversaw the working of Ordnance Factories and took initiatives for their modernisation and capacity expansion. Mrs. Verma also worked as Director / Joint Secretary Prime Minister’s Office during 1998-2002. Currently, she is an independent director on the Board of Indian Institute for Insolvency Professionals of India.

Vivek Mehra
Director

Mr. Vivek Mehra is a well respected senior Chartered Accountant with an illustrious professional career spanning over 40 years and experience spanning across sectors in Tax and Regulatory domains of Merger & Acquisition specializing in Cross-border Investment and Transaction Structuring.

He has held various leadership roles till April 2017 in PriceWaterhouseCoopers Private Ltd. (‘PWC’) as Partner/ Executive Director. He was the founder and national leader for PwC Regulatory and M&A Practices and has been elected on PwC Governance Oversight Board for two consecutive terms.

Mr. Mehra is extending his expertise as an Independent Director and esteemed Board Member for some prominent Indian Companies such as:

Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd.

Embassy Office Parks Management Services Pvt. Ltd (Embassy/ Blackstone REIT Manager)

HT Media Pvt. Ltd.

DLF Ltd.

Hero Future Energies Pvt. Ltd.

Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd.

He is also on the Board of Governors of Lawrence School Sanawar and Grassroot Trading Network, a SEWA organisation.

Mr. Mehra graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Degree from Sri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. He has been a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India since 1979 and has also given his valuable contribution as a member of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Steering Committee and National Executive Committee.

Priyavrat Bhartia
Director

Mr. Priyavrat Bhartia is a Non-executive Director of HT Media. He started as a financial analyst with Wasserstein Perella & Co., New York, in 1998. With a Masters degree in Business Administration from Stanford University (USA), Mr. Bhartia is also a director with a number of companies including Hindustan Media Ventures Limited, Jubilant Enpro Pvt. Ltd.

Shamit Bhartia
Director

Mr. Shamit Bhartia is a Non-executive Director of HT Media. He holds a degree in Economics from Dartmouth College, USA. He has worked in the Corporate Finance and M&A Group, Lazard Frere, New York, from July 2001 till August 2002.

Praveen Someshwar
Group MD & CEO

Praveen Someshwar is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at HT Media Group.

Praveen has been with the Group for over two years and has been working towards transforming it into a new-age media group, with digital transformation and innovation being the driving forces.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Praveen was Senior Vice President and GM with PepsiCo and responsible for all the company’s businesses across North & South East Asia. Preceding that, he was the CEO for the Food business, CEO for PepsiCo’s beverage business in India & South Asia, CFO for PepsiCo’s India & South Asia business, Strategic & Financial Planning Head for Pepsico India & South Asia.

Praveen is a Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant by qualification and holds a Bachelors degree in Business.

Sandeep Singhal
Director

Sandeep Singhal co-founded Nexus Venture Partners in 2006. Nexus manages over $1.5 billion and has an active portfolio of over 75 companies across the technology, enterprise, consumer services, internet and mobile, alternate energy and agribusiness sectors.

Prior to Nexus, Sandeep was co-founder & CEO of Medusind Solutions, a leading healthcare BPO acquired by a US private equity firm, and previously a co-founder & MD of eVentures India, where he invested in Customer Asset and MakeMyTrip. He has held senior roles at McKinsey & Company in their US offices.

Sandeep has an MBA from The Wharton School with Major in Finance and Marketing, and a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University.

Praveen Someshwar
Group MD & CEO

Praveen Someshwar is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at HT Media Group.

Praveen has been with the Group for over two years and has been working towards transforming it into a new-age media group, with digital transformation and innovation being the driving forces.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Praveen was Senior Vice President and GM with PepsiCo and responsible for all the company’s businesses across North & South East Asia. Preceding that, he was the CEO for the Food business, CEO for PepsiCo’s beverage business in India & South Asia, CFO for PepsiCo’s India & South Asia business, Strategic & Financial Planning Head for Pepsico India & South Asia.

Praveen is a Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant by qualification and holds a Bachelors degree in Business.

Rajeev Beotra
Executive Director, Revenue

Rajeev Beotra is the Executive Director, Revenue at HT Media Group.

Rajeev has been with the Group for over five years and heads in revenues, advertising and distribution for the entire group. Prior to his current position, he was the CEO of HT Media’s print business.

Before joining the Media Industry in 2005, Rajeev worked in FMCG and Durables Industries in leading organisations such as Asian Paints, Coca-Cola, and Whirlpool. He holds a Master’s Degree, MBA in Marketing from Punjab University, Chandigarh, and has over 30 years of experience across various industries and geographies.

Puneet Jain
CEO, Digital News Business

Puneet Jain is the Chief Operating Officer for Digital Business at HT Media Group.

Puneet has been with the group for over a year and spearheads the group’s digital journey towards becoming the media house of today and tomorrow.

Before joining HT Media Group, Puneet worked with Paytm as Senior Vice President, where he built and lead their online merchant payments business across its Wallet and Payment Gateway product lines. As part of this role, Puneet led all key aspects of business building such as Go to Market Strategy, Enterprise Sales and Business Development, User Growth and Engagement, Product and Tech Roadmap etc. culminating to complete P&L responsibility of this business. Prior to that, he spent 6+ years in management consulting industry with firms like Accenture Consulting and Diamond Management & Tech Consultants advising clients in areas such as New Product Launch, Revenue Enhancement, Sales Acceleration, Consumer Experience etc. helping organizations drive their growth and transformation agenda.

Puneet did his Post Graduation from IIM Calcutta (2006-2008) and Bachelor of Engineering from NSIT, Delhi University.

Samudra Bhattacharya
CEO, Print

Samudra Bhattacharya is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Print Business Unit at HT Media Group.

He has been with the Group since two years, and is leading several strategic initiatives to enhance the Print Business Unit’s value proposition to a rapidly evolving cohort of readers and clients.

He is a Director on the Boards of the publicly listed entities of Next Radio Limited, Next Mediaworks Limited and HT Group owned Mosaic Media Ventures Private Limited, and a Key Management Member on the Board of Hindustan Media Ventures Limited.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Samudra was President of and Member of the Board of Directors at Pepsi Cola Philippines Products Inc. In that position, he was responsible for managing scale P&L responsibilities, with comprehensive cross-functional exposure and robust ecosystem partnerships.

Samudra completed his Management program from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow in 1995. His other passions include reading and travelling.

Sukumar Ranganathan
Editor in Chief, Hindustan Times

Sukumar Ranganathan is the Editor-In-Chief of Hindustan Times.

He has been with the group for over eleven years. Prior to his current position, he was the founding editor of Mint and held the helm till 2017. He has previously worked in editorial leadership roles at The Hindu BusinessLine and Business Today.

Sukumar, who has degrees in chemical engineering, math, and business administration is interested in mathematics, science and technology, the history of business, new media, and data-based political journalism. He reads and collects comic books and is an amateur birder.

Shashi Shekhar
Editor in Chief, Hindustan

Shashi Shekhar is the Editor-in-Chief of Hindustan newspaper.

Shashi ji has been with Hindustan for over twelve years and has played a key role in the huge success the twenty one Editions of Hindustan Daily. His contribution was instrumental in the redesign of Hindustan, along with introduction of special content-rich supplements for niche segments; like ‘Anokhi’ for our women readers, ‘Hindustan Jobs’, ‘Jano English’, ‘Hindustan Live’ and ‘Hindustan City’ for dynamic and versatile youth seeking career opportunities, and ‘Nayi Dishayen’ targeting aspiring young people in the households.

Prior to joining Hindustan, he has held leadership positions with other eminent media houses.

Shashi ji holds Masters degrees in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Bachelors degrees in Hindi, English, History and Sanskrit. He was the subject of a thesis prepared by a PhD student from Babasaheb Bheemrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur (Topic of the Thesis : Hindi ki samkaleen dainik patrakarita aur Shashi Shekhar). Chaudhary Charan Singh University has included a chapter on his work and personality in Masters in Journalism curriculum.

He has authored 5 books and has won accolades like Uttar Pradesh Ratna, Madhav Jyoti Alankaran and was listed in ”50 Influential People 2020” by Fame India magazine and Asia Post.

Sonal Kalra
Managing Editor, Entertainment

Sonal Kalra is the Managing Editor and Business Head – Lifestyle at Hindustan Times.

Sonal has been with HT for over 14 years and heads the domain of Entertainment, Features & Lifestyle, for pan-India editions of HT City, in her current position. She is also heading content and business for HT Cityfoodies.

Prior to joining HT, Sonal was the Editor – Informatics and Senior Scientist with National Informatics Center and brought along over 12 years of experience in Public Policy making and content development with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. She was the founding member of the eGovernance initiatives of the Indian Government and developed content strategy and policy for over 250 Government websites. She has also authored eGovernance Toolkit for India as part of National Informatics Task Force and represented Indian Government’s view on Internet Security and Policy on prestigious National and International forums.

Sonal is a renowned author of 4 books and popular newspaper column for 13 years and host a self-help motivational podcast called - TensionNot.

She is the proud recipient of coveted awards including Ramnath Goenka Award for Journalism, Dr Radhakrishnan Rashtriya Samman, PHD Chamber Award for Media, Best Content award for National Portal by Government of India, Manthan Award for exemplary content practices, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Award for contribution to journalism and United Nations Cultural Relations Media Award.

Sruthijith K K
Editor in chief- Mint

Sruthijith KK is the Editor-in-chief of Mint. He has been with the group since over a year.

Prior to this role, he was he has headed the editorial teams of publications like The Economic Times Magazine, HuffPost India and Quartz India.

He has worked as a reporter and editor for more than 15 years, covering a range of beats across business and politics and helping launch and lead multiple digital publications.

Prasad Sanyal
Chief Content Officer

Prasad Sanyal is the Chief Content Officer for HT Digital.

Prasad has been with the group for over two years and has been working towards the digital transformation of the group, especially on content initiatives across platforms.

Prior to joining HT, Prasad was the Group Editor (Digital) for the Zee Media group. He has also worked as Editor, timesofindia.com and Editor (News) NDTV Convergence. Prior to that, Prasad worked in various capacities as a broadcast journalist in ANI, CNBC-TV18, CNN-IBN and NDTV.

He trained as a journalist at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Delhi and is an alumni of Presidency College, Kolkata graduating with politics, history and economics.

Sandeep Rao
Chief Strategy Officer

Sandeep Rao is the Group Chief Strategy Officer for HT Media.

He has been with the group for over three years and works on all core strategic imperatives across business units, including new initiatives, strategic investments, alliances and new business incubation.

Prior to joining HT, Sandeep was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company and worked with them across their Indian and US offices.

He holds a Bachelors in Engineering from University of Adelaide, Australia and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

Piyush Gupta
Group CFO & CEO Strategic Investments

Piyush Gupta is the Chief Executive Officer - Strategic Investments and Group Chief Finance Officer at HT Media Ltd.

Piyush has been with the Group for over thirteen years and has been working towards sustainable value creation objectives in a well governed environment.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Piyush was CFO with Wrigley India Pvt. Ltd. and responsible for integrating the India business with Global business after the acquisition by Wrigley Inc US. Preceding that, he was the Director – Business Planning, and Treasurer for Whirlpool of India Ltd.

Piyush is a Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant by qualification and holds a Bachelors degree in Finance and Accounting.

Paras Kaushik
CHRO

Paras is the Chief Human Resources Officer at HT Media Group. Paras has been with the group for over a year and is responsible for Human Resources function for all group brands and businesses.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Paras was Head, Group HR at Motherson Group. He was responsible for managing the Human Resources function for the Group’s 1,35,000 employees across 41 countries.

Prior to this he worked for 17 years at Aditya Birla Group. His repertoire of experiences range from working for global to local, start-up to mature, manufacturing to retail, listed to not-for-profit organizations of the Group. He worked in various HR leadership roles at Hindalco, Group HR, Minacs Philippines, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, Pantaloons, BITS Pilani, Columbian Chemicals and the Fashion & Retail Business of Aditya Birla Group.

Post Graduate from Symbiosis International University, Paras is passionate about telling stories and sharing his experiences in variety of conferences, webinars, B-School events and social media.

Avinash Mudiliyar
Co-Founder HT Labs At HT Media Ltd

Avinash Mudaliar is the Co-founder, HT Labs at HT Media Ltd.

His has successfully led the team into launching some of the popular application offerings from the group and continues to work on paving the way on the group’s digital transformation journey.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Avinash was VP – Saregama India Ltd. and the brains behind the company’s most popular product – Carvaan.

Akhil Gupta
CEO, Shine.com

Akhil Gupta is the Chief Operating Officer – Shine with the HT Media Group and is leading the team working towards transforming Shine as a career, learning and lifestyle based platform. He is also a part of the core leadership team and contributing to envisioning and building the group’s digital journey.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Akhil was VP – Growth and Strategy with HealthKart and a part of the core founding team of the platform. Preceding that, he was GM – Products and Business Strategy of the Internet business of a national media house.

He holds an MBA in General Management and a Bachelors in Electronics and Electrical Communication

Yudhvir Mor
Chief Product & Technology Officer

Yudhvir Mor is the Chief Product & Technology Officer of the HT Media Group.

Yudhvir has joined the Group very recently and heads the Product and Technology function.

A product and Technology leader with over 20 years of rich experience, Yudhvir has been the powerhouse behind 20+ successful enterprise & consumer-facing products to drive innovation, automation & provide business value to stakeholders of more than $ 2 Billion.

Prior to joining HT, he was the Country Manager & Vice President – Engineering with Zuora and has worked with other global brands like Genpact, Xerox and Johnson & Johnson, HP and IBM. Yudhvir holds a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering from Kurukshetra University and holds a Certificate Program in Business Analytics, from Indian School of Business.

Manhar Kapoor
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary

Manhar Kapoor is the Group General Counsel & Company Secretary of the HT Media Group.

In this position, he is responsible for the legal, tax, secretarial and corporate relation functions for the group.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Mahar was the General Counsel and Company Secretary at Royal Enfield/ Eicher Motors. In this position, he led a team of extremely competent and empowered lawyers and Company Secretaries delivering pragmatic legal services and aiding the rapid growth the business has witnessed. He was also responsible for contract management and financial control, dispute management, IPR, compliance and company secretarial matters for the group spanning multiple entities in various countries.

In his career of eighteen years, he holds a diverse and extensive experience of having worked at corporate-strategic legal and secretarial roles with companies from across various industries and has anchored several domestic and overseas debt and equity transactions, M&As and new business set up.

Manhar is a lawyer by qualification and holds and MBA in Finance & Strategy.

Ajit Dheer
CEO, Radio & Digital Audio

Ajit Dheer is the CEO of Radio & Digital Audio HT Media Ltd. He is a Business Leader with 25 years of experience in leading step change and building strong businesses. He has extensive general management and P&L management experience with functional expertise in sales, customer management, go to market & finance.

He Joined HT media in May 2019 as National Head Circulation and was later given the additional responsibility of Chief Revenue Officer for WUP and UK region. In this role he transformed the Circulation Ecosystem by digitalising it. Under his leadership, the group has gained circulation share across English and Hindi markets and seen value share gains in advertising sales in WUP and UK. Before joining HT Media, Ajit worked in PepsiCo for over 11 years and in his last assignment with them he was the CEO and MD of NourishCo Beverages Ltd (TATA PepsiCo JV). At NourishCo he turned around the business and made it profitable. He comes with a rich experience and has worked in companies like Spencer’s Retail Ltd., Reckitt Benckiser India Ltd., Cargill India Pvt. Ltd. and Dabur Foods.