B N Kumar
B N Kumar (BNK to his friends) has over 30 years of experience in mass communications as a journalist as well as a PR professional. He has acquired varied skill sets like Strategy Planning, Media Relations, Media Training, Event Handling, Corporate Events, Networking, Crisis Communications and Corporate Communications and developed wide contacts in corporate and media circles.
Presently he is President at Concept PR, India’s largest, Independent PR Company.
BNK began his career with Free Press Journal, the then leading English daily published from Mumbai, and later moved over to United News of India, the news agency with the largest news gathering network. He has also worked with Business India and The Week magazine and contributed content to The Times of India, The Economic Times, Indian Express, Mid-Day, Newstime and a host of other publications covering a wide range of topics like business, science, space science, crime, films and politics. At UNI he was known as the “fastest reporter” and has won several internal awards.
He joined the PR profession with Reliance Industries Ltd where he worked with the legendary Dhirubhai Ambani handling media relations during the largest ever AGMs that the company had and public affairs campaigns.
BNK was part of the team that set up Ogilvy PR (then O&M PR) – the first PR arm of an advertising agency in India. The other PR consultancies where he worked included Capital Images (of Walchand Capital), DeanPielle PR and a start-up company Beehive Communications.
He had his second stint with the Reliance group when he joined Reliance Infocomm handling media for the company’s wireless business and several product launches and media visits to Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC) – the largest telecom campus in the country.
He moved over to Concept PR in March 2006 and since then has been handling a wide array of communication for the agency’s clients.
Apart from several IPOs, some of the clients that handled over the years include: Sahara India Group, DLF, GMR Infrastructure, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd, Rural Electrification Corporation, Aditya Birla group, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund, Cbay India, Tech Mahindra, Idbi bank, Tourism Malaysia, Reliance Infocomm (CSR), 20th Century Fox, DaimlerChrysler; Prudential-ICICI, J P Morgan Stanley; Siemens Ltd; Kanbay India Ltd (Software), Boeing, British Airways, HCPL (Cadbury’s)and National Egg Coordination Committee.
One of the prestigious CSR accounts that he handled was for INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art & Cultural heritage) for Ganga Action Plan to spread the message of keeping the Ganga clean during Mahakumbh (the grand Hindu religious fair).
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