ROOPANKI KALRA
Summary
Public relations leader with over a decade of experience in corporate communications, both in-house and agency, with expertise in consumer and enterprise technology sectors. Expert at developing press strategies and communications guidance related to company initiatives, as well as crafting key messaging and handling crisis communication issues. Skilled at cross-functional collaboration to ideate and develop communications materials and social media strategy to strengthen brand positioning and prominence in the market. Also have experience training and mentoring C-suite leaders and managing multiple levels of internal as well external stakeholders.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work History
Head of India PR
Genpact
02.2022 - Current
- Led external communications across India region and managed PR efforts in Philippines, Japan, and Australia.
- Served as primary contact for local media relations, collaborating with PR agencies and global marketing teams.
- Facilitated executive visibility by coordinating media engagements and public speaking opportunities for senior leadership.
- Oversaw stakeholder management, directing regional industry relations with organizations like NASSCOM and major clients.
- Formulated and articulated PR, social media, and digital strategies for local and global marketing teams.
- Provided strategic counsel on effective business communications encompassing earned, paid, shared, and owned media.
- Managed budgets while delivering timely reports to evaluate outreach activities through clear PR KPIs.
- Established standard operating procedures for news tracking to enhance measurement of communication initiatives.
Public Relations Manager, India
GoDaddy
03.2019 - 02.2022
- Single point-of-contact in India for Global Marketing & Communications teams, regional PR agency, and all local media inquiries, and successfully driving strategic brand and marketing communications
- Solely advising India Country Head and other vertical leaders on how to effectively deliver brand messaging and use communications to make an impact, by providing speech and presentation support for press announcements, launches, interviews, meetings, and industry events – significantly increased thought leadership and contributed towards 17% increase in positive brand tone of voice YoY
- Devising recommendations for GTM and Customer Care team to drive more customer engagement as well as supporting the company’s key employee and talent function by developing and sharing D&I, CSR and workplace culture narrative
- Creating and managing internal company blog and sharing cross market updates to amplify India market wins and achievements
- Maintaining and optimizing third-party relationships with key journalists, industry institutions, policymakers, as well as celebrity and community influencers including MeitY, WeWork, Ketto, ICC, MS Dhoni, Rahul Bose, Shane Watson, among others for important outreach programs and special initiatives
- Strongly focused on leveraging customer stories, exploring new media formats and topical days for targeted PR pitches; all of which led to an increase in share of voice and PR Buzz YTD 2021 versus YTD 2020
- Successfully led some of the biggest events and marquee campaigns including ICC Men’s World Cup 2019 press conference in India and media day in UK, Keynote at NASSCOM Design4India Summit 2019, Bijness Bhai India marketing campaigns 2019-21, Global Entrepreneurship Survey 2020-21, Digitised Bharat eConclave 2021, EXPAND 2021 India virtual event : helped achieve 85%+ aided brand awareness
Account Manager
20:20 MSL
03.2016 - 02.2019
- Managed a team that produces high quality work and develops creative new ideas for effective storytelling across a portfolio of accounts including Facebook, Publicis Groupe, Honeywell, USA Pears, among others
- Developed strong relations with the business and technology media across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore
- Was part of the core team handling communications for Facebook by supporting its brand strategy, policy, content partnerships, and business marketing teams in India
- Deeply involved in managing key business stakeholders for Facebook in India from Kirthiga Reddy, Umang Bedi, Sandeep Bhushan to Ajit Mohan
- Managed brand crisis situations including Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica incident, along with the crisis around spread of misinformation and fake news in India
- Developed external and internal communications for high-tech employees (~10,000 workforce) that reflected and positioned Publicis.Sapient as a great place to work in India
- Trained and briefed spokespeople across different brands to communicate key messaging, while seeking opportunities for them to be represented externally
Account Executive
Cohn&Wolfe-6 Degrees
03.2015 - 03.2016
- Executed process-oriented tasks, including preparing media pitches, media lists, and dossiers, copy writing and editing, sentiment analysis, among others, for a diverse portfolio of brands, including HCL Technologies, Cushman & Wakefield, Verint Systems, Teradata India, and Rostec Russia
- Provided support for marketing initiatives and communications for some marquee events, including Google’s first India Summit and Kurkure Express train launch
Education
Executive Certification Programme - Digital Marketing and Analytics
Indian School of Business
Hyderabad01.2021
Masters - Journalism and Mass Communication
AMITY University
NOIDA01.2015
Bachelor of Arts - English Literature
University of Delhi
North Campus01.2013
Skills
- Stakeholder management
- Executive communication
- Corporate communication
- Media relations
- Public relations strategy
- Technology industry knowledge
- Digital business understanding
- Digital analytics
- Content writing and editing
- Organizational skills
- Collaboration and teamwork
- Project management
- Prioritization
Pronouns
She/Her
Timeline
Head of India PR
Genpact
02.2022 - Current
Public Relations Manager, India
GoDaddy
03.2019 - 02.2022
Account Manager
20:20 MSL
03.2016 - 02.2019
Account Executive
Cohn&Wolfe-6 Degrees
03.2015 - 03.2016
Executive Certification Programme - Digital Marketing and Analytics
Indian School of Business
Masters - Journalism and Mass Communication
AMITY University
Bachelor of Arts - English Literature
University of Delhi