About the Lexicon Institute of Media & Animation

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan is the Executive Chairman and Founder of 5F World, a platform for digital start-ups, skills and social ventures in the country. He is also the co-founder of Global Talent Track, Skills Alpha and Lighthouse Communities Foundation and two Indo-US joint ventures – Kalzoom Advisors and the Center for AI and Advanced Analytics. Dr Natarajan has a Master’s in Industrial Engineering from NITIE Mumbai, a PhD from IIT Bombay and Advanced Management from Harvard Business School. He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT Bombay and NITIE and has been recognised by EY and the Asia Pacific HR Forum for excellence in technology entrepreneurship and people-centric leadership.

Dr. Natarajan serves as a member of the Central Board of Directors of the State Bank of India, Chairman of the Board of Honeywell Automation India Limited. He has been Chairman of prestigious industry associations such as NASSCOM and NASSCOM Foundation, and various national committees of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the All India Management Association. He serves on the Boards of Principal Asset Management, Hinduja Global Solutions, Asian Venture Philanthropy Network, Singapore, Systech Inc., and Social Venture Partners (SVP) International, USA. He has authored several books and is a regular writer and speaker at national and international forums. Among his many honours, Dr. Natarajan received the ‘Asia HRD Congress Award’ for contributions to the organisation through HR in 2005 and was a finalist at the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year Award in the same year. He is also a Gold Medallist in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering from IIT Bombay.

Dr. D. R . Sharma is currently working as Sr. Regional Director in IGNOU Reginal Centre, Pune. He completed his PhD in Telugu Literature from Hyderabad Central University in 1993. In 1990, he started his professional journey as a Third Language Teacher in Navodaya Vidyalaya, Bihar. Later he joined IGNOU as the Assistant Regional Director in the year 1997 in Ahmedabad, and since has worked for IGNOU in various Indian states. Dr. Sharma has also coordinated the translation work of IGNOU course materials into regional languages for different courses and submitted research articles in the area of Distance Education.

Passionate about languages, he is also a translator and writer. He has translated 8 Sanskrit Dramas into Telugu, including three famous dramas by Maha Kavi Kalidas, three by the Great Sanskrit Poet Bhavabhooti, and two more by the contemporary poet Sri. Ambatipoodi Venkata Ratnam, namely Akrutagno Naraha and Indira Vijayam. He has also written nine devotional books in Telugu, the latest being ‘Sai Geeta’, which explains how the entire Bhagavad-Gita is illustrated in the teachings of Sri Shiridi Sai Baba.

Mr. Nitin Vaidya comes with 35 years of media experience and has been a journalist before venturing out as an entrepreneur. He has played a vital role in setting up and running general entertainment channels networks like Zee and Star and taking them to new heights through innovative content. He was instrumental in launching the Marathi language movie production business for Zee Studios. Today, he is the head of a successful entertainment business venture, Dashami Creations LLP and Dashami Studioz LLP.

Starting his journey as a journalist in the prestigious Marathi language daily, Sakal in Mumbai in 1985, he went on to cover various beats such as education, civic affairs, courts and politics for the Maharashtra Times of The Times Group. He has also served as the Chief of the News Bureau for Zee News in Mumbai. After a long and successful stint at Zee Network, including the launch of Zee Marathi, Mr. Vaidya joined Star India Pvt. Ltd., as Head of its Hindi channels. He was responsible for the flagship channel, Star Plus channel, and closely worked on the path-breaking show Satyamev Jayate, anchored by Aamir Khan. In August 2012, he launched his own venture Dashami Creations LLP, a Mumbai based media house that specializes in creating original and commercially viable films, television shows, web series and advertisements for the Indian and global marketplace. Dashami has created 21 Hindi and Marathi language television shows of various genres in the last ten years.

MR.Bibhor Srivastava, has over two decades of work experience with a record of achievement and demonstrated success in Senior Management roles of publishing, events and exhibitions, marketing and sales management, business development.

Currently as the Managing Director, ITP Media India, Bibhor manages seven B-2-B premier magazine brands. He also manages the event portfolio covering knowledge-based conferences, seminars, round tables & branded awards.

As a leader with extensive experience in the industry, Bibhor was instrumental in launching ‘Hotelier India’ in 2008 which has now become the most respected publication in the hospitality space. The ‘Hotelier India’ Awards is now the most aspired for awards in the hospitality sector. As the leader of the Indian team, he works to improve the organisation’s market position and achieve financial growth through the development of new business and retention of customer accounts.

MR.Umang Uthappa, a professional with over 13 years of experience in media and advertising, currently serves as the Managing Director-India at Engage Digital Partners. He started his professional journey in 2009 at Repucom, a part of Nielsen Global Media, where he successfully set up the core analysis team for Europe and contributed to a significant increase in revenue. He was also a part of the core management team responsible for setting up policies and procedures.

Umang has previously worked with renowned Indian media organizations in the sports domain, such as PlayRight, Bangalore and Meraki Sport and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai, in various leadership positions. Umang is passionate about sports and the impact of social media on the sports management business. He is equally passionate about adding value to those looking for careers in creative media and remains supportive of mentoring new professionals.

At age 23 Ms. Akshaara founded Communicate India as a home-grown Indian public relations agency. Today, the agency employs over 120 employees and works with MNCs and Blue-Chip companies, including Reliance, Cipla, and clients in overseas markets. Akshaara has been featured in IMPACT’s top 50 influential women of 2018, while Communicate India ranked among the “Most Promising PR Agencies” in Silicon India’s list of 2018. She also won the title of Social Samosa Super Women in 2019.

Akshaara has done her Digital Marketing course from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and her Masters in Entrepreneurship from Cambridge Judge Business School, UK. Akshaara has taken Communicate India a notch higher during the last couple of years as she moved the company away from a traditional PR firm to a digitally transformed, new-age agency with three new business verticals. Akshaara has also been a speaker at several high-profile events, including AISEC’s Stakeholder’s Dinner and leading media institutes such as Mumbai University and EMDI Institute of Media & Communication. Communicate India opened offices in the UAE last year and UK this year.

Rajiv Mitra is the CEO & Director, Prabhat Dairy, part of world’s largest dairy company, Lactalis. Mr. Mitra is a commentator on social and economic affairs, member & office bearer at several industry bodies like the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Pune Management Association (PMA), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). He is also on advisory boards of post-graduate institutions, MSMEs and start-up companies and a keen mentor to students and professionals.

Rajiv Mitra is a post-graduate in Economics & MBA – Marketing, an avid reader, prolific blogger(rajivmitra.com), movie–watcher, debater and public speaker.

Mr. Anurag Bende is a senior journalist who brings along nearly 20 years of experience covering media in the general news domain. Starting his career with the Indian Express group, Mr.Bende has been associated with several reputed news organisations. Armed with in-depth knowledge of Pune city and its happenings, he worked as the Pune-based bureau chief of the Zee Group owned, DNA (Daily News & Analysis) newspaper.

He was also associated with the popular tabloid, Pune Mirror as its Resident Editor. Proficient in Marathi language, he also led the Pune based Marathi language regional paper, Civic Mirror. An accomplished journalist, Mr. Bende has been a journalism facilitator and visiting faculty at reputed media institutions like MIT and VIIT. He firmly believes in the power of the pen and ethical news reporting being fundamental to a more equitable society.

Mr. Rajesh R. Turakhia has made a significant impact in the field of Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) training across India by creating and successfully executing two leading educational institution brands, Frameboxx 2.0 and MAAC over the last 25 years. His visionary mindset saw him founding MAAC in 2001. As CEO and Executive Director of the state-of-the-art production studio, Maya Entertainment Limited (MEL), his initiatives made MEL one of the top five studios in India. Under his mentorship, MEL worked with some of the country’s most prolific brands like BBC, Electronic Arts, MTV, Activision and Coke.

Mr. Turakhia launched Frameboxx in 2008 and in 2019 refashioned it in a new avatar - ‘Frameboxx 2.0’. The company has since broadened its gamut of creative design and visual art by curating verticals of new media technologies in the fields of Gaming, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and more.

Mr. Rajesh Turakhia is proactive in several industry bodies and regularly participates as a key speaker at national and international events. He is a part of the Sub-Task Force (Skilling) for formulating and suggesting the policy for the AVGC ecosystem. He is also a member of the CII Sub Committee on AVGC and Immersive Media.

The Director of Teaching and Learning at CUNY's Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in NYC, Mr. Jeremy Caplan, is a journalist and educator with over 30 years of experience. During his stint as a reporter and contributing writer at Time Magazine, Mr. Caplan has written on diverse subjects such as digital innovation, scents and sensibility, and nuances of low-wage work in the business, technology and culture domains. In his academic accomplishments, Mr. Caplan has earned an MBA from Columbia Business School as a Wiegers Fellow and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University as a Knight-Bagehot Fellow.

He is currently training a new generation of journalists through the new Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program. It is a 100-day online curriculum that has recently helped more than 100 journalists from 37 countries start new niche ventures. Mr. Caplan also writes Wonder Tools, a newsletter highlighting advantageous digital resources for thousands of weekly subscribers.

Hemant Kumar is a journalist, novelist and mentor. He has studied television production and film making at the Film and Television institute of India (FTII), Pune.

He was a wire service reporter with the Press Trust of India in New Delhi before joining Doordarshan News as a correspondent for 10 years. Hemant was also a senior executive at various news channels. In 2012, he published his debut novel – Prey by The Ganges. Based on a man's dogged 48-hour search for the killer of his only friend, ‘Prey by The Ganges’ is a hard-hitting thriller set on the banks of river Ganga in Bihar. He has completed his second novel and is now getting ready to place it with publishers. In 2013, he co-founded Quill Club Writers to work with schoolchildren who love fiction. Quill Club Writers has so far published 120 books of fiction with children from schools all over the country. Nearly a quarter-of-a-million children have either read, or are reading, these books as part of their curriculum at more than 100 schools. Hemant is fond of reading, writing, travelling, cooking, walking and watching meaningful movies.

Ms. Racheal Campbell has over 13 years’ experience delivering both external and internal communication campaigns. After graduating with a Master’s Degree in Art History from the auction house Christie’s, she spent nine years achieving national and international press coverage for leading arts organizations, including the Science Museum in London, Christie’s, the Nelson-Atkins Museum, the ICA in Philadelphia and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. She focused on building brand awareness, securing key pieces in publications like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, as well as TV shows including BBC Breakfast.

She has now shifted to internal communications, and currently manages employee-focused campaigns for Wolters Kluwer, a global provider of professional information and software solutions in tax & accounting, health, compliance, legal and finance. She’s passionate about creating messaging and employee-focused campaigns that inform and excite employees, strengthening their connection to the wider mission and purpose of their organization. Employee award Programs, team-building events, executive presentations and messaging, and employee social media platforms are among the channels and activities she manages.