Ex-CXOs who have
been there.
Boardwalk is pivoted on Deba Ghoshal — a passionate marketer and industry veteran who has spent three decades in Consumer Durables and related products. As a former CXO, he has driven growth trajectories, won markets, and created exceptional stakeholder value.
Around him, Boardwalk constitutes professionals from diverse industries and domains — each having spent extensive parts of their careers in real organizations, holding front-line roles. They are not academics. They are operators.
Together, they bring you the ability to solve anything and everything related to your business — from starting off to scaling up, from brand to supply chain, from GTM to AI integration.
When you walk with Boardwalk, you walk with advisors who have already crossed the terrain you are about to enter.
Sumit Kumar Singh is a senior technology strategist with over 18 years of experience leading digital product innovation and AI transformation across global enterprises. A former Principal Product Lead at Microsoft Teams and alumnus of Harvard Business School, IIT Delhi, and IIM Lucknow, he has shaped technology strategy and product direction at Microsoft, Times Internet, MakeMyTrip, Jabong, and Talabat — spanning consumer internet, enterprise software, and e-commerce at scale.
His track record includes architecting Times Points at Times Internet — a loyalty and engagement platform mobilising over 50 million users, and one of India's earliest large-scale gamification deployments.
As Founder of Garage Labs Technologies, AceAI.Club, and Product Management Mixers — a global community of 20,000+ senior product and technology leaders — Sumit has built one of the most active applied AI learning ecosystems in the region. His programmes have trained over 70,000 professionals across India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Through 3,000+ sessions and 1,000+ webinars, he has mentored 1,500+ aspiring product managers and facilitated 500+ successful transitions into high-impact product and AI roles.
Sumit has advised central government ministries, civil services, and law enforcement leadership — including IAS and IRS officers — on AI literacy, responsible technology adoption, and digital transformation strategy. This advisory work at the intersection of governance and emerging technology represents a distinctive dimension of his practice.
He serves as faculty at IIT Delhi, IIM Lucknow, INSEAD Singapore, Great Lakes, Masters' Union, and MDI, and is a TEDx Speaker with a global platform spanning Dubai, Singapore, London, and Jakarta. His consulting engagements focus on AI strategy and roadmap design, product-led growth, organisational capability building, and the ethical deployment of AI in complex institutional environments.
Alumni: Harvard Business School · IIT Delhi · IIM Lucknow
Deba Ghoshal is a seasoned business leader with over three decades of experience in building brands, driving growth, and leading business transformation across consumer-facing industries. With deep expertise in marketing, product planning, and channel expansion, he has consistently delivered market leadership and strong business outcomes.
At Voltas (a Tata Group company), Deba was a key force behind the transformation and leadership of its Room Air Conditioning business since 2011. He drove significant growth in market share and brand equity, while strengthening distribution, channel reach and retail across India. His leadership powered consumer-centric innovations such as All Weather AC, Adjustable AC, Pure Air AC, and Smart AC, and expanded Voltas into new categories including air coolers and home appliances. During his tenure, Voltas achieved multi-fold growth and emerged as one of India's most trusted and leading AC brands — also achieving a Top 10 ranking as the strongest Indian brand across all categories, as per the prestigious Brand Finance Report.
Earlier, Deba was part of the core leadership team at LG Electronics during its formative years in India, contributing to its rapid rise as a market leader in consumer electronics and home appliances. Working closely with global leadership, he played an important role in establishing the LG brand in India, shaping its product portfolio and go-to-market strategies, and driving high performance in a competitive market.
He has also held leadership roles across organizations such as Hero Electric and Honda Power, including pioneering efforts in India's early electric mobility space. In 2025, Deba stepped down from his executive roles and founded Boardwalk & Co — a consortium of senior industry domain experts providing customized advisory services to consumer-facing brands, alongside co-working engagements with leading consulting firms.
Deba is a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Business World Most Influential Marketer Awards, Tata Business Excellence Best Practice recognition and LG Global Product Planning Award. He is an alumnus of the International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi, and has excelled in executive programs from Imperial College London, Ross School of Business (University of Michigan), and IIM Ahmedabad. He has also served as the Hon. Secretary and Executive Committee member of CEAMA.
Amjad is an advertising and brand-building professional with over three decades at the intersection of brand strategy and business growth. A veteran of Lintas — one of India's premier advertising agencies — he built his credentials working with some of India's most recognised names, including LG Electronics, Maruti Suzuki, Havells, Dabur, OLX, Vistara, and Honda, and played a defining role in transforming brands such as Greenply/Greenlam and Micromax into category leaders.
At Lintas, his roles evolved from creative and account management to deeper involvement in brand thinking and business strategy. What remained constant across every engagement was his instinct for identifying brand potential early and backing it with conviction — not just campaign execution, but building something enduring.
In his next chapter, Amjad transitioned into business consulting, taking on hands-on mandates with emerging brands such as Homefoil Aluminium Foils and Milagrow Robots. He immersed himself in the digital ecosystem — building brands' digital presence, onboarding them onto e-commerce and quick commerce platforms, and driving performance marketing outcomes. At Homefoil, he achieved a strong ROAS of 2.3 through focused performance marketing — an outcome that reflected both strategic clarity and execution discipline.
Today, Amjad advises brands on brand building, business growth, and technology transformation through “And And Brand Partners”. His perspective spans legacy brand architecture and new-age digital strategy — allowing him to operate fluidly in both worlds.
Nikhil Mathur is a consumer insights and market intelligence leader with 25 years of experience across research, strategy, and business leadership. He served as Managing Director of GfK India — now part of NIQ (NielsenIQ) — one of the world's leading consumer data and analytics firms, and as Asia-Pacific Innovation Lead at Nielsen and Kantar, where he worked with global brands on growth strategy, shopper insight, and market entry.
Across his career, Nikhil has helped organisations move from data to decision — translating complex consumer behaviour into actionable business strategy. His expertise spans brand equity measurement, innovation pipeline development, demand forecasting, and competitive intelligence, with deep sector knowledge in consumer electronics, FMCG, and retail.
As Co-Founder of “ANT International”, he has continued to build the bridge between rigorous market intelligence and practical business application, advising companies on go-to-market strategy, category entry, and growth architecture. His advisory work is grounded in the belief that better decisions come from better questions — not just better data.
Vinod Agarwal is a Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary with over 30 years of cross-functional finance leadership across MNCs and high-growth businesses. He has served as CFO at Canon India, HCL Global Alliances, and Guthy Renker India — combining deep financial discipline with a strong understanding of operations, compliance, and business growth.
At Canon India, he played a central role in building the financial and operational infrastructure for one of India's leading imaging and office equipment brands. His experience spans MRP and ERP system implementation (Oracle, Fourth Shift), treasury management, regulatory compliance, and M&A advisory across organisations including Bausch & Lomb, Ray-Ban India, and Times of India.
Vinod has also worked with startups at their most formative stages. As CFO of Ultra Motors, a company commercialising electric motor technology, he was part of the founding team that engaged with Crompton Greaves and Hero Cycles to introduce electric scooters in India between 2007 and 2009 — well ahead of the EV curve. The company was later acquired by Hero Electric. He currently advises Indian and multinational companies as a consulting CFO and financial advisor.
Shiv Burman is a sports marketing strategist with over 17 years in the business of sport — across leagues, federations, franchises, rights, fan engagement, and brand partnerships. He began his career on the team side with an IPL franchise, then moved into fan engagement and community-led wellness gamification, before founding a non-live sports content company in 2015.
He joined IMG Global — the BCCI's commercial consultants — where he led the IPL's commercial programme, overseeing a portfolio of approximately USD 100 million. In that role, he set commercial frameworks for franchises, structured rights deals, and closed large-scale partnerships across cricket's biggest property. His time at IMG built a global network spanning sport, talent, and entertainment that he continues to draw on today.
In 2021, Shiv founded Burman Sports on a clear strategic distinction: where most of the industry sells inventory, Burman Sports starts where the rights sheet ends — forming 360° campaign strategies built on fan passion points rather than logo placements. The agency's work has shaped strategy for Indian and global brands across cricket, football, golf, and tennis, and has won multiple industry awards. His deep expertise lies in commercial rights structures, and in how to build brand partnerships from first principles rather than templates.
Girish Shah is a senior operations and customer service leader with 38 years of experience in the consumer electronics and durables industry. He served as Senior GM and Head of Customer Service at Voltas (Tata Group) from 2017 to 2024, where he led the after-sales and service network for one of India's leading air conditioning brands, driving service excellence across a national distribution footprint.
Earlier, he spent over 13 years at Samsung India as GM of Manufacturing (1995–2008), where his division earned the "World Best Productivity Plant" award for seven consecutive years — a recognition of operational discipline at international standards. He has also served as AVP at Videocon, building a career rooted in manufacturing excellence, quality systems, and service leadership.
Girish holds Six Sigma Black Belt certification and is trained in Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean manufacturing — methodologies he has applied at scale across large factory and service operations. His advisory work focuses on after-sales service strategy, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction improvement, and service network design for consumer durables brands.
Kapil Kumria is a serial entrepreneur and a corporate affairs & strategic alliances professional with over three decades of experience building businesses at the intersection of government relations, brand partnerships, and corporate governance. As Chairman and Managing Director of Corporate Group Network, he has led engagement across industry, government, and civil society — building institutional relationships that drive meaningful business outcomes.
He is the founder of Corporate Flyers, Eventz Unlimited, Optimax Aces, and White Horse Marcom — a portfolio of ventures spanning events, marketing services, and corporate communications. His corporate social responsibility work includes co-founding the KHUSHI Foundation alongside cricket icon Kapil Dev, focused on child welfare and education. He also serves on the Board of United Way India.
Kapil's advisory work brings deep networks across government, media, and industry, with particular strength in reputation management, regulatory navigation, and stakeholder engagement for brands operating in complex environments.