15.00 - 16.30 CET
Davos Priority: Investing in People
In today’s evolving business landscape, company leaders are facing an unprecedented mix of challenges, ranging from economic volatility and geopolitical uncertainty to rapid technological advancements, requiring them to be more agile and strategic in protecting and enhancing their brands. This event will examine from different perspectives what it means for executives to represent a brand under current circumstances.
Join us for a presentation of the 2025 Brand Guardianship Index and discover the Top 10 Brand Guardians of our time. Brand Finance Valuation Director, Annie Brown, will also present you with some key trends and insights from the latest research.
Engage in a panel debate on today’s main questions for brand guardians:
The panel will be kicked off by film director and producer Rachel Ramsay. A former journalist for CNN, BBC World Service and The New York Times, Ramsay directed the inspiring, award-winning documentary Copa 71, which highlights key themes relevant to the modern business landscape. Through the lens of sport, we will explore how these elements come together to drive success and sustainability in business.
After the panel, light food will be served by Tata Group’s Michelin Star Chef, Sriram Aylur.
Rachel is an award-winning writer, producer and film director. Her latest film, Copa 71, was the opening night selection for the Toronto International Film Festival 2023 and went on to screen at film festivals across the world, including BFI LFF, AFI, CPH:Dox, Red Sea and IDFA. In 2024 the film had an international cinema release and garnered Rachel a BIFA nomination for best debut director.
She previously produced theatrically-released documentaries End of the Storm (2020), Sachin: A Billion Dreams (2017), Flight of Bryan (2024) and her television documentary work includes the Humanitas-prize winning This is Football (2019) and Amazon Originals series Le Mans: Racing is Everything (2017).
Before film, she worked in news journalism (BBC World Service, NYT, CNN, France 24) and across a broad range of factual and entertainment television, specialising in creating and delivering first series of multiple award-winning and long-running shows such as Travel Man (C4) and Clarkson's Farm (Amazon Studios).
In 2024 Rachel launched Effra, a female-led development and production company housing an ambitious and exciting slate of film and audio projects.
Mr. Abhinav Kumar serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for Tata Consultancy Services, leading a global, diverse and gender balanced team of 700 professionals in 55 countries, who drive the brand, reputation, relationships, and growth for the company.
As part of the company’s senior leadership team, he serves on the Executive Committee and reports directly to the CEO of TCS, while splitting his time between the company’s Headquaters in Mumbai and his office in Belgium.
Under his leadership, this team has been recognized with over 150 awards for excellence in Communications & Marketing, establishing the company as the #1 fastest growing brand in the IT Services Industry over the past 15 years. The brand value of the company has risen exponentially from US$ 2.3 billion in 2010 to US$ 21.3 billion in 2025. Its brand awareness among executives went up by 2X to 84% in the same period, it has consistently held a Top 3 industry position in terms of media share and been rated as #1 in customer satisfaction for 10 years in a row. All these efforts led the company to be recognized as a “Superbrand” in its top two markets - the US & the UK, and at its APAC headquarters - Singapore.
During this tenure, Abhinav has overseen a massive expansion in the brand sponsorship strategy to create a US$350 million portfolio which has included tie-ups with some of the world’s premier firms including the Ferrari, Ducati and Jaguar teams in motorsports, the Dutch Open golf tournament, the Garmin-Cervelo cycling team and over 15 major running events including the TCS NewYork City Marathon, TCS Amsterdam Marathon and TCS London Marathon. He holds executive responsibility for the company’s relationships with several multilateral bodies, including the European Union, and with the World Economic Forum.
Over the past four years from 2021-2024, Abhinav was regularly featured in the Influence 100 list, being rated among the world’s most high-impact global CMOs and CCOs. In 2020, he was recognized by Reputation Today magazine as one of the Top 20 global communications leaders. In 2019, Abhinav was accorded the SABRE award in London, for outstanding lifetime career achievement as a CMO.
Over a 23-year career, Abhinav has been part of a leadership team that has scaled the company 41X times, from a US$ 700 million to a US$29 billion business, and from a workforce of 18,000 to 615,000. He has served in several key leadership positions in this journey, including as the CMO for International Markets
(2017-2023), CMO for Europe (2011-2017), CCO for Europe (2008-2011) and CMO for Latin America (2004-08). He was also part of the corporate team that worked on the company’s US$ 1.2 billion IPO in 2004.
Abhinav holds a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta and a honours degree in Economics from Delhi University.
He is a member of the World Economic Forum CMO Council, the Wall Street Journal CMO Network and the UN Global Compact CMO Think Lab. Abhinav serves as a board member at EIBC (Europe India Business Council), Global Advisory Board member of the IT Services Marketing Association (ITSMA), Member of IMD Business School’s CMO Roundtable, Member of Ipsos Mori’s Reputation council, Advisory board Member of the Think Tank Free Trade Europa, Advisory Board Member of ThinkYoung, Customer Advisory Board Member of Relayto, and a Member of the Global Communications Director Network (GCDN) in Switzerland.
Based out of the firm’s Brussels office, Abhinav has lived and worked in six countries (Belgium, Chile, France, India, Switzerland and Uruguay) and speaks two European languages - Spanish and French. He is a regular speaker at various universities, parliaments, and industry events worldwide on communications, branding, trade and economic issues. He has two sons, with whom he shares a passion for discovering the world and for the sport of cricket, and a wife who is a Career Strategist and Executive Coach.
Ami is an accomplished technology leader with over 20 years of experience in marketing, product management, business development, strategy, and investment research. Currently, she serves as the Chief Marketing Officer at Arm, where she leads the global marketing organization, driving company and product positioning, brand awareness, thought leadership, and developer engagement.
Before joining Arm, Ami was the Vice President of Marketing and Developer Products at NVIDIA, where she contributed to the company's threefold growth and helped it reach a market cap of three trillion dollars. She was instrumental in driving the data strategy for Generative AI and leading the product, developer ecosystem, and marketing efforts for the data center portfolio, the fastest-growing business segment.
Ami also held various roles at Cumulus Networks (acquired by NVIDIA), Instart Logic (acquired by Akamai Technologies), Cisco, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, among others.
She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a B.S. in business from the University of Southern California.
Chris Leong is a driven leader with extensive experience across continents and disciplines, including organization and digital transformation, business strategies, sales and marketing, sustainability and social responsibility.
Chris started with Schneider Electric in January 2012 as the Executive Vice President of Digital Customer Experience and in March 2015 she joined the Schneider Electric Executive Committee Leadership Team as Chief Marketing Officer.
As of January 2025, Chris is appointed Chief Sustainability Officer, with a mission to drive our sustainability strategy, commitments and engagements, from corporate citizenship and institutional affairs to sustainability performance and environmental impact.
Before joining Schneider Electric, Chris led Nokia's Greater China, Korea & Japan region, after having held various global roles including Senior Vice President of Global Marketing. Prior to joining Nokia, Chris held various senior executive positions in WPP group, including Bates Asia, Ogilvy Europe and Grey Global Group Asia, working with global brand leaders such as P&G, Ford, HSBC, Heineken and various telco brands.
Chris is passionate about ESG-based principles and is a firm believer that purpose-led enterprises are the foundation for a sustainable and equitable future for our businesses, customers, employees, communities and the environment. She is an advocate of UNSDG which serves as our collective guide towards progress and sustainability for all.
During her free time, she believes in giving back, passionate about working with charity groups focusing on efforts to support underprivileged children in our community.
Chris speaks four languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Malay.
Annie is a qualified management accountant and has worked on Brand and Business valuation projects serving global clients, including Barclays and Shell. She is experienced across of variety of services including brand licensing, research analytics, rebrand uplift and balance sheet valuation. Annie heads up various studies at Brand Finance, including the annual Global Intangible Finance Tracker (GIFT™) and the Brand Guardianship Index. In addition, Annie has conducted research and analysis for the Brand Finance brand rankings, specialising in Banking, Retail and Oil & Gas sectors. Annie has served clients worldwide, with a particular focus on the USA and the Middle East. Annie joined Brand Finance as an Analyst in August 2017 after graduating from The University of Edinburgh with a Masters degree in Philosophy and Economics. She has since completed her CIMA professional qualification.
David is the Chairman of Brand Finance Plc – the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. He has worked in the area of branded business, brand, and intangible asset valuation since 1991. He specialised entirely in the field after becoming the Director of Brand Valuation for Interbrand in 1995. He subsequently left Interbrand in 1996 to launch Brand Finance which is celebrating 25 years in business this year.
David represented the British Standards Institution in the working parties responsible for crafting international industry standards: ISO 10668 on Brand Valuation in 2010 and ISO 20671 on Brand Evaluation in 2019.
David is a passionate writer and has authored many articles on brand valuation, published in numerous marketing and finance newspapers and magazines, such as: Financial Times, Accountancy Age, and Marketing Week. He has also lectured on the topic of brand valuation for Harvard, Chicago, and London Business Schools.
David graduated from Bristol University with an English degree, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London, and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). He is a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and has a practising certificate with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).
