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.

Vikram Singh Mehta
Director

Mr. Vikram Singh Mehta holds a B.A. (Mathematics Honors) degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi University, a BA/MA (Economics Honors) degree from Magdalen College, Oxford University and a post graduate degree in Energy Economics from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. Mr. Vikram Singh Mehta started his career with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1978. He then resigned in 1980 to join Phillips Petroleum as the International Affairs Specialist for Asia. Since then, he has served large conglomerates like Oil India Ltd., Shell Markets and Shell Chemical Companies in Egypt. In 1994, he became the Chairman of the Shell Companies in India. Presently, he is Executive Chairman of Think Tank Brookings India. He is also serving as Independent Director on the Board of well-known companies.

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.

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.

Ajay Shrivastava
Chief Digital Officer

Ajay Shrivastava is the Group Chief Product Technology and Business Initiatives Officer at HT Media Group.

Ajay has been with the Group for almost three years over two years and has been working on all groups companies i.e Digital News, Print, Radio, Shine, VC Circle etc. He has built a strong Product, Technology, Data Science, Design departments across the group. Under his leadership, the Organisation has played pivotal role in various technology driven growth and efficiency initiatives across the HT Group. He is Digital News has grown exponentially to growing active traffic on the Group’s news websites exponentially and claim the industry wide leadership position in active users.

Prior to joining HT Media Group, Ajay was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Technology Officer with Knowlarity. He also enjoys the credit for powering hockey-stick growth of OYO.

Ajay is a 2005 graduate from holds a Masters degree in Technology from IIIT Bangalore.

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.

Ramesh Menon
Chief Business Officer, Digital Innovation & New Businesses

Ramesh is the CEO– Radio & Digital Audio and Business Head- Digital Innovation and New Projects at HT Media Group.

Ramesh has been with the group since the last two years and has been responsible for incubating and setting up digital media start ups and now leads the transformation of the Audio and Radio businesses of the group.

He brings along a rich experience of over 25 years across various high complexity, intensely competitive industries and geographies. He has been in leadership roles across companies such as Hypercity retail, Future Group, Airtel and Spencers leading change and transformation in mostly turn around and start-up situations. Prior to joining HT, he was CEO, Small Format Retail with Future Group. Ramesh has also held senior roles at Pepsico, Colgate Palmolive and ITC.

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.

Dinesh Mittal
Group General Counsel & Company Secretary

Dinesh Mittal is the Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at HT Media Group.

Dinesh has been with the Group for fifteen years and is responsible for the legal, tax, secretarial and corporate relation functions for the group.

Prior to joining HT, Dinesh was a Whole time Director & Vice President – Legal and Taxation and Company Secretary with Whirlpool of India Ltd., where he headed these functions for South-East Asia.

Dinesh completed his Bachler of Law from Delhi University, Masters of Law from The University of Queensland, Australia and is a Fellow Member of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

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