The Payal Nanjiani Leadership Podcast

Paul Dupuis | CEO - Chief Enabling Officer,Take-5 Global K.K.

 consultancy firm focused on business advisory, leadership development, and M&A in Japan and India. For more than twenty-five years, Paul has worked in several countries across Asia, helping leaders and their organizations grow and transform on a mission to be future-ready.

Prior to founding Take-5, Paul was CEO and chairman of Randstad Japan, where he led one of Randstad’s largest operating companies with 100 branches and 35,000 employees, helping it to achieve record profitability and exceptional revenue growth. 

Paul has authored the book , The E5 Movement. The Japanese version, The 5 Golden Rules of Leadership, 

Dr. Varun Nagaraj | Dean,  S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) 

During a 30-year career in product innovation in Boston and Silicon Valley prior to assuming his role at SPJIMR, he held various product leadership roles, including that of CEO at venture-funded start-ups and public companies. He was also a partner at PRTM Management Consulting now part of PWC. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, an MS in computer engineering from North Carolina State University, an MBA from Boston University, and a PhD from Case Western Reserve University.

CHITI PARIKH |  Co-Founder Integrative Health & Well-being at Weill Cornell, New York Presbyterian Hospital

As an Integrative Medicine physician, She use 5000 years of science, the best of cutting edge Western medicine with the wisdom of Eastern medicine. She focus on a holistic approach to care that addresses not only physical but also psychological, social, spiritual, and environmental influences on health. Her training in integrative medicine, functional medicine, Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine allows her to create a personalized treatment plan that is tailored to each individual’s unique needs and circumstances. 

Her book Intentional Health is about transforming our health by setting an intention and putting it into action by using 5000 years of science.

About Darshana Bhalla, Founder & CEO, D’Artist Talent Ventures:

Darshana Bhalla is an innovative and thoroughbred entrepreneur and leader for over 20 years in the media and entertainment industry. She has the ability and vision to envisage future trends and innovations, a creative entrepreneur with an acute sense of business. Darshana’s experience varies from starting her own company at the age of 28 and partnering with India’s largest homegrown communication conglomerate Madison Communications  (advertising veteran Sam Balsara’s company) to forming a company called Madison and  Teamwork’s Entertainment Solutions (MATES).

She started the Entertainment vertical and was a pioneer in branded content, celebrity management, and solutions for over 18 years. Her work has won her several accolades at prestigious Advertising Events like Abby’s and EMVIES  for Creative and Media innovations. She successfully ran MATES for 13 + years. In 2018, she decided to move on from MATES and look at the media, entertainment, and sports industry through the lens of a new media landscape of deeper associations with Creators, Digital Platforms,  Intellectual Properties, Branded Content, Celebrity Solutions, and Sponsorships.

Her revenue-focused, stoic, and creative vision-led business plan, along with an extremely high network in the media and entertainment industry led to investments from TTS: IO (Rana Kapoor’s Family office) to form DO IT Talent Ventures. 

In 2020, as an entrepreneur, Darshana faced and rose above an extremely difficult phase of entrepreneurship which is the sudden truncation of the association with TTS: IO, along with the global crises of the pandemic. However, as a leader, she withheld the business and social exigencies and came out even stronger within a year to bring back the business to normalcy.  During this phase, with a lot of difficulty, she exited the partnership with TTS: IO and started her own venture D’Artist Talent Ventures. Not only did she retain the team, but also brought back the business to normalcy within a year, despite the ongoing pandemic. 

D’Artist Talent  Ventures continues to grow at a healthy rate and expand its horizon to the ambitious objectives set out in the space of Entertainment and Sports. Darshana with her experience of managing the business, and being on both sides of IP ownership has an in-depth understanding of Media Properties and their P&L.