About Us
Meet Our Leadership
Dominic leads strategy, client servicing and operations at AZN Partners. He has over 24 years of experience across corporate communications, journalism, branding and marketing across sectors ranging from corporate to technology, infrastructure, healthcare, FMCG, media and entertainment.
Some of the more critical mandates he has handled during his career include, leading the branding and PR initiatives for UTV at the time of its IPO, building brand awareness for the Heroes Project and guiding the India branding and communication strategy at Syntel. He was also Branch Head – Mumbai for Perfect Relations’ sister concerns Imprimis and Image PR and handled some of the biggest crises that made headlines between 2011-15 and led the corporate and technology practice at Ketchum Sampark.
Dominic has also written a book on corporate communications that is being used as a textbook at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
Shefali Petiwala
Director
Shefali leads client servicing at AZN Partners, where she works closely with clients to deliver business impact through qualitative media outreach. A PR and Communications professional with over 17 years of experience in Brand Management, Retail Operations, Marketing and PR, she has worked across various verticals such as Luxury and Lifestyle, Technology, Entertainment, Retail and Real Estate.
In her prior assignments at Ketchum Sampark and Priority, her work included managing clients in B2B Education, Cloud Solutions, Big Data, Data Integration and Blockchain for the supply chain space. Prior to that, she managed PR for clients such as NTT Ltd. India, Meliora Jewels and Medlife as well as leading real estate companies like Raheja Universal, Four Seasons Private residences and Oberoi Realty. She also managed branding and communications for retail and lifestyle brands such as The Bombay Store and Swarovski at the start of her career. Her professional strengths include client servicing, media relations, creative thinking and content writing.
Harry Pinto
Director
Harry leads the Bangalore and South operations at AZN Partners. He has 17 years of experience in public relations, corporate reputation management, crisis management and strategic communication. His expertise includes strategic counsel, client relationship management, project management, media relations, issues, and crisis support, and new business development.
During his earlier stint with Edelman, he worked as an AVP and handled key client relationships with TCS, Tata Elxsi, Tata Teleservices, Bosch and Flipkart amongst others. He was also involved in handling big ticket events for the Government of Karnataka projects such as BangaloreITE.biz, BangaloreIndia Nano, BangaloreIndiaBio Indian Science Congress, and Aero India, US Congress Woman Tulsi Gabbard’s visit to India and Nasscom product conclave at Bangalore for corporate clients.
Harry has an MBA in Marketing from Sikkim Manipal University and a Postgraduate degree in Mass communication from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan.
Prajakta Kumbhar
Director
Over the past 10 years, Prajakta has engaged with various stakeholders across the social, corporate, and government verticals to design, develop, execute and monitor communication strategies. At AZN Partners, she looks after operations, client servicing and media relations for clients in the Pune market.
Her last stint was with Ketchum Sampark, where she handled clients across agriculture and chemicals, healthcare, real estate, education, fintech, startups and lifestyle. Prior to that she worked as Marketing Communication Manager with the agritech start-up, Agri10x, and handled APAC Communication responsibilities during her tenure with The Palladium Group.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a post-graduate degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Pune University, where she topped her batch in the course.
AZN Partners: At a glance
Over 100+ man years of experience in managing corporate reputation for Indian and International clients
Aim to be the ‘preferred PR partner’ to brands, corporates alike through customized public relations solutions
Effective storytelling skills and strong relationships with both editors and beat journalists across the board
Active involvement of leadership team in all client mandates
Strong issue and crisis management skills, experience in handing some of the biggest crises in the country
Presence in three cities across India, ability to reach out to media across metros, network of affiliates in 100+ centres