Karunesh Bajaj (left), Mohit Jain (right)

Karunesh Bajaj, executive vice president (marketing & exports) at ITC Ltd, was unanimously elected as the chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) for 2025-26 term. Mohit Jain, chief operating officer (Publishing) of Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd and publisher-member on the council, was also unanimously elected as the deputy chairman for the same period.Bajaj has almost 3 decades in brand building, marketing strategy and leadership across FMCG and retail, and has been with ITC for 25 years. In his current role as executive vice president, he has played a key role in building some of India’s most recognisable brands and strengthening the company’s market position. He has previously served as general manager marketing, product development and supply chain, as well as group brand head, biscuits.Before joining ITC, he was head of brands at Bharti Retail Ltd (Bharti-Walmart JV), where he shaped brand strategy during a crucial phase of modern retail’s expansion in India. Earlier in his career, he worked in roles such as national head – modern trade, marketing manager, and regional sales manager (north). He began his professional journey at Shriram Industrial Enterprises Ltd as manager – corporate communications.He is an alumnus of The Wharton School, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management and Delhi University.Alongside his appointment, Mohit Jain, executive director at Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, is taking over as deputy chairman of the Bureau.The ABC also announced its council of management for 2025-26, which includes representatives from advertisers, publishers and advertising agencies:Advertisers’ representatives:Karunesh Bajaj (ITC Ltd – chairman)Aniruddha Haldar (TVS Motor Company Ltd)Partho Banerjee (Maruti Suzuki India Ltd).Publishers’ representatives: Mohit Jain (Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd – deputy chairman)Dhruba Mukherjee (ABP Pvt Ltd – honorary secretary)Riyad Mathew (Malayala Manorama Co Ltd)Girish Agarwal (DB Corp Ltd)Shailesh Gupta (Jagran Prakashan Ltd)Karan Darda (Lokmat Media Pvt Ltd)Pratap G Pawar (Sakal Papers Pvt Ltd)Adimoolam (Dinamalar).Advertising agencies’ representatives: Vikram Sakhuja (Madison Communications Pvt Ltd – honorary treasurer)Srinivasan K Swamy (RK Swamy Pvt Ltd)Prasanth Kumar (Group M Media India Pvt Ltd)Vaishali Verma (Initiative Media India Pvt Ltd)Sejal Shah (Publicis Media India Group)