I'm Arun Balachandran

Marketing Pioneer, Execution Expert, Creative Innovator, Startup Evangelist, Brand Strategist & Sales Professional with more than 14 Years of Experience in Creating Scalable Business Models and Digital Transformations across Public and Private Sectors.

Email : mail@arunbalachandran.in

ABILITIES

My Skills

Career Achievements

Marketing Strategy, Business Development, Startup Advisory & Management, Design Thinking & Innovation Management, Digital Marketing, Media & Communication Management, Sales & Marketing B2B, Digital Transformation, SaaS Product Development & Management, Public Policy & Framework Making, Corporate - Govt Relationships.

- Combated wrongful media trial due to a political allegations
- Founded 6 startups and managed 5 failures
- Founded India's largest design festival - Kochi Design Week
- Founded country's first startup incubator for NRIs - NRI-TBI
- Founded a national fashion dialogue platform - India Fashion Summit
- Founded India Fashion Incubator, a platform for fashion entrepreneurs
- Founded e-learning platform in 2009 to connect industry & academia

My Resume

My Expertises

Career History

DIRECTOR | MARKETING & OPERATIONS

High Power Digital Advisory Committee, Govt Of Kerala

- Digital transformation Initiatives, industry investments & partnerships
- Developed a design eco-system & design policy for the state
- Created marketing strategy and digital marketing plan for IT parks.

Till Jul 2019

CHIEF MINISTER'S FELLOW - IT

Govt Of Kerala

- Assisted to iterate IT policy & CoEs in emerging technology domains
- Executed #FUTURE- global digital summit
- Attracted investments and partnerships with E&Y, CISCO, Airbus etc

Sep 2017 -Jul 2019

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

NRI Technology Business Incubator, Infopark

- Created India's first tech startup incubator for NRIs
- Incubated and managed over 30 startups
- Created over 300 job opportunities in the state

Jan 2013 - Mar 2017

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Forward Media Pvt Ltd.

- Luxury lifestyle magazine, 6 other publications & Digital portals
- Innovative digital properties and national events like India Fashion Summit
- Grown the company from 5 to 57 member team

Jun 2011 - Sep 2014

Education Background

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT KOZHIKODE

Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management

MODEL ENGINEERING COLLEGE, KOCHI

B.Tech in Electronics & Communication

My Projects

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FWD Life Magazine

FWD Life is the Kerala’s most read premium Lifestyle, Fashion & Entertainment Magazine in English. It covers, Luxury, Fashion, Entertainment, Travel, Food, Automotive and high end collectible for the discerning buyer.

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Kochi Design Week

India’s largest design festival held at Queen of Arabian Sea, where instigators from different parts of the world disrupt, imagine, ideate, innovate, and design for a better tomorrow.

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NRI.TBI

A Technology Business Incubation center focusing solely on NRI's is the light at the end of this tunnel. The Non Resident Indian’s-Technology Business Incubator (NRI-TBI) is a joint initiative of Infopark-Kochi, Technopark- TBI, Non Resident Keralites Affairs Department (NORKA) & Diaspora Incubator designed specifically to incubate NRI start-ups.

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India Fashion Summit

A creative platform to share your passion in the realm of fashion, initiate growth talks and to develop an ecosystem for the sustainable development of fashion.

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India Fashion Incubator

Launched in 2018, India Fashion Incubator (IFI) is India’s very first platform to find, nurture, launch and promote some of the most talented young designers. IFI proposes to create a professional environment to train and launch promising young creative talents so as to make them successfully establish in their respective fashion design businesses.