Niraj Ruparel, Chandani Samdaria, Chandni Shah, Senthil & P G Aditiya appointed as jury chairs for Abby Awards 2024

The Abby Awards will be held on the 29, 30, and 31 of May during Goafest 2024.

Niraj Ruparel, emerging tech lead for WPP and head of mobile at GroupM, Chandani Samdaria, executive creative director at L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, Chandni Shah, COO of FCB Kinnect, Senthil, CCO, VML and P G Aditiya, CCO and co-founder of Talented, join as jury chair for Technology category, Red Abby category, Mobile category, Integrated category and Digital category respectively, at The Abby Awards 2024 powered by One Show.

Niraj Ruparel, emerging tech lead for WPP and head of mobile at GroupM, has been appointed jury chair in Abby Awards 2024 powered by One Show in the Technology category. Niraj is an accomplished professional with extensive experience in Generative AI, Metaverse Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Voice Marketing, XR marketing, consumer platforms, brand communications, and marketing analytics.

Niraj has been instrumental in developing cutting-edge creative technology solutions for agencies and clients in India. He is a go-to expert for all things related to voice, technology, mobile, and digital platforms. His work has won several awards, including FOMG, WARC, Cannes, and I-com Data Creativity Awards. In addition, he has been personally recognised for his achievements, including winning the prestigious inaugural WPP Ignite awards, Niraj has been listed in Campaign Asia's Top 40 Rising Talent and has been featured as a top digital marketing leader in 2022 by CMO Asia. Niraj was recently awarded for his contribution to Metaverse & AI industry at IAA Tech Plus 2023.

Chandani Samdaria, executive creative director at L&K Saatchi & Saatchi, India has been appointed jury chair in Abby Awards 2024 powered by One Show in the Red Abby category. Chandani has been a National Gold Medalist in Figure and Artistic Skating. She then smoothly transitioned from gliding on wheels to gliding through ideas, campaigns and briefs.

With a career spanning over fourteen years, she has honed her skills at agencies like Lowe Lintas, Leo Burnett and now L&K Saatchi & Saatchi.

Chandani has created campaigns for giants like Vicks, Head & Shoulders, Nivea, Tide, Ariel, Amazon Audible, Knorr, Closeup, Kwality Wall’s, Axis Bank, Hotstar, and more. For every brand, her forever mantra has been to conceive campaigns that weave powerful ideas through cultural insights.

Chandni Shah, COO of FCB Kinnect has been appointed jury chair in Abby Awards 2024 powered by One Show in the Mobile category. Chandni heads a team of over 400 talented #Kinnectors across multiple cities. Her charisma is unmatched and she's a torchbearer for the next generation. Her all guns blazing attitude has forged strong client relationships, attracting an enviable roster of blue-chip companies.

Under her leadership, FCB Kinnect has won some note-worthy global industry accolades, such as Cannes Lions, One Show, Spikes Asia, Grand Clio and many more. She was one of IMPACT's 50 Most Influential women. She was also the recipient of the SHE 2022 award by Agency Reporter. She has also been listed in Campaign South Asia's prestigious 40 Under 40 Award and the Young Business Leader Award for the South Asia region. While having contributed on almost all their large clients, she works closely with HDFC Bank, Amazon, Tata Motors, TVS, Aditya Birla Capital Group etc.

Senthil CCO, VML India has been appointed jury chair in the Abby Awards 2024 powered by One Show in the Integrated category. Senthil is the spearhead of the creative team at VML. He believes in leading by example and leading from the front with insightful ideas that have built legendary local brands like Wipro, The Times Of India, Tata Steel, Tata Gluco Plus, Himalayan, Apollo Tyres, Hero Motors, Aditya Birla Fashion, Murugappa Group, Nestle Munch, Star Sports and leading global brands like Nike, Levi’s, Puma, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Gatorade, KitKat, Johnnie Walker, Google, Facebook, Rotary International, Shell, Unilever Radiant and Unicef.

THE ECONOMIC TIMES gave Senthil the title of ‘Lion Hunter’ for winning India’s first Gold Lions in Film & Film Craft at the Cannes Lions International Festival. He has also won India’s first One Show Gold Pencils in Film, Film Craft and Film Innovation and several D&AD, Spikes, Clio Awards and New York Festival Gold Medals.

With over 300 International Awards, Senthil is the most awarded writer, creative director and film director in Indian advertising, while leading the company to several ‘Agency Of The Year’ and ‘Campaign of the Year’ titles. Senthil has been voted ‘Copywriter of the Year’ and ‘Film Director of the Year’ several times at the National and Asia Pacific regional creative festivals.

P G Aditiya, CCO and co-founder of Talented has been appointed jury chair in Abby Awards 2024 powered by One Show in the Digital category. He is the creator of The Unfiltered History Tour campaign, an undercover tour of the British Museum's disputed artefacts - for VICE. Talented is an employee-owned creative agency founded by PG Aditya prior to which he was the CCO of Dentsu Webchutney until February 2022. His work is responsible for India's only "Agency of the Year" title so far at Cannes Lions.

PG Aditiya has helped elevate the country's credentials at international stages through campaigns like Why is this a Swiggy Ad?, Or Travel on Cleartrip and Flipkart's Hagglebot. PG was also recognised as APAC's #1 CCO by the One Show & as Creative Agency Leader of the Year by the IAA.