IAA Leadership Awards honour Punit Goenka, R Balki and Shashi Sinha

The second edition of the IAA Leadership Awards gave away trophies in 21 categories. The other winners included Nitin Paranjpe and Arnab Goswami.

The IAA India Chapter bestowed the prestigious 'Media Person of the Year' award on Punit Goenka, MD and CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, as Lowe Lintas' chairman and chief creative officer R Balki bagged the 'Creative Agency Head of the Year' award.

Sashi Sinha, CEO, IPG Mediabrands India, won the Media Agency Head of the Year title.

Reminiscing, Sinha said that 2013 was a year of triumph for the company. However, in comparison, 2014 will be a tough year if the economy doesn't grow.

Expressing similar concern, Goenka said the upcoming General Elections will make this year far tougher than 2013. However, he was confident that the company was prepared for any outcome.

In his acceptance speech, Goenka said, "This award is a result of the valuable lessons learnt from our chairman, Mr. Subhash Chandra and of the innovative approach taken by the entire team at ZEE."

Meanwhile, Balki said the award came as a surprise, since he "didn't know when IAA had chosen him". Balki believed that every year was a good year for the agency and thought "award is just a one night drink and you move on".

HUL's Nitin Paranjpe won the 'CEO of the Year' award as Times Now's Arnab Goswami was awarded 'News Anchor of the Year'.

The second edition of the IAA Leadership Awards established by the International Advertising Association's (IAA) India chapter took place on March 1 in Mumbai.

The annual event felicitated 21 individuals in the fields of marketing, advertising and media, who have made significant professional contributions and delivered business success to their companies. The awards were given away by chief guest Sri B L Joshi, Governor, UP.

Manish Tewari, Union Minster of State, Ministry of I&B, was expected to grace the occasion as chief guest but he couldn't make it to the function. In a special audio-visual address, he said, "The IAA Leadership Awards have always received profound appreciation in the industry. They recognise creativity on a large extent which eventually adds to being a source of inspiration. I would like to congratulate all the winners as well as the nominees - each of them has been instrumental in creating a huge difference in the marketing industry. May their future see them rise to even greater heights," he added.

IAA had roped in marketing research company A C Nielsen to conduct the nomination and final selection process, while Ernst & Young audited and validated it.

This year's edition of the IAA Leadership Awards was presented by the Hindi GEC, Colors. Speaking about this initiative, Raj Nayak, CEO, Colors, said, "To recognise, encourage and celebrate excellence in leadership - that is what we have done at the IAA, a vibrant association which I have had the opportunity to lead. I would like to thank IAA for giving us the honour to be associated with this event, and congratulate the winners for their outstanding contribution towards the growth of the industry. We look forward to growing this association with the IAA year-on-year and applaud the hard work of individuals on this national platform."

The other awardees were Rajasthan Patrika's Dr Gulab Kothari (Editor of the Year); Ramesh Narayan (Hall of Fame); HDFC Bank's Kartik Jain (Marketer of the Year: Banking); HDFC Standard Life Insurance's Sanjay Tripathy (Marketer of the Year: Insurance); Hero MotoCorp's Anil Dua (Marketer of the Year : Auto: 2 wheeler); Hyundai Motor India's Rakesh Srivastava (Marketer of the Year: Auto: Passenger Vehicles); Idea's Shashi Shankar (Marketer of the Year: Mobile Services); Micromax's Shubhodip Pal (Marketer of the Year: Mobile Devices); HUL's Arun Srinivas (Marketer of the Year: FMCG: Personal Care, Laundry and Toiletries); ITC Limited Foods Division's Rajesh V L (Marketer of the Year: FMCG: Food & Beverages); Samsung India Electronics' Sandeep Tiwari (Marketer of the Year: Consumer Durables), UltraTech Cement's Kumar Pillay (Marketer of the Year: FMCG: Home Improvement); P&G's Sonali Dhawan (Marketer of the Year: Household Products) and Flipkart's Ravi Vora (Marketer of the Year: E-commerce).

Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra won the Brand Ambassador of the Year, male and female awards, respectively.