The Team

Ananth PadmanabhanChief Executive Officer

Anantha Padmanabhan is Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Publishers India.

Since Ananth’s appointment as CEO, the company has grown its revenues and expanded its publishing footprint in English language publishing for India. Strategic initiatives included investing in new categories and voices, imprints and new capabilities. The company’s strategic partnerships with various publishers both Indian and international and strong relationships with booksellers and distributors across the subcontinent have been instrumental in HarperCollins’ growth story. HarperCollins is India's most awarded publisher and has been awarded the Publisher of the Year Award six times.

Collins Learning, the education publishing division of HarperCollins continues to be the fastest-growing education publisher in India. Collins Learning publishes across a range of subjects including ELT, Maths, Science, Computer Science, award-winning Dictionaries and Atlases and digital teacher resource material for the Kindergarten to Grade 10 age groups. In 2020 the division introduced a portfolio of digital products including Collins Infinity, a learning management system to enable blended learning, Collins Evaluate, Collin Perfect Assessments and a free platform Collins Digital Home Learning to reach the millions of schools going kids impacted by the pandemic. Over 6 million students in over 10,000 schools between kindergarten to Class 10 learn through Collins Learning teaching material everyday.

Ananth is Co-Chair of the Publishing Committee within FICCI. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the Association of Publishers in India (API). He is actively involved in policy making that enable a level playing field for Indian publishing, championing inclusion and diversity, protecting authors against Copyright and Territorial Infringement and fighting digital and print piracy in the market.

Ananth has spent over three decades in bookselling and publishing and began his career at a bookstore in Chennai, India, in 1992 where he discovered his love for books.

Madhur GuptaChief Financial Officer

Madhur Gupta is a seasoned finance professional with an experience of over 22 years. A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Madhur has successfully led finance teams, driving process improvements and implementing best practices to enhance financial operations. He has worked in various industries such as pharma, IT, and publishing. Before joining HarperCollins India, he worked at Penguin Random House India for 15 years, heading Finance where he was leading financial reporting and analysis, risk assessment, internal controls, taxation, compliances, and business strategy. An alumna of Panjab University, Chandigarh, he likes to read and listen to music in his spare time.

Udayan MitraExecutive Publisher, HarperCollins

Udayan Mitra heads the literary and non-fiction publishing divisions which publish a wide range of literary fiction and translations, general non-fiction and business books; he also supervises HarperCollins’s Hindi publishing. Udayan has been an editor and publisher with leading publishing houses in India for over two decades.

Poulomi Chatterjee Publisher

Poulomi joined HarperCollins India as Publisher in July 2022, in her twenty-second year in the Indian publishing industry. Prior to this, she worked at Macmillan India Ltd, Penguin Books India and Hachette India. In the course of her career, Poulomi has acquired and edited the works of some of the most talented and prominent Indian writers writing in English, led teams responsible for rights and contracts, and represented Indian publishing in English on a variety of platforms across the world.

Tina Narang Publisher – HarperCollins Children’s Books, HarperCollins

Tina Narang joined HarperCollins India in early 2017 to launch the children’s imprint, HarperCollins Children’s Books. Prior to that she was with Scholastic India for over a decade. Tina started her career with the Times of India in 1987 and worked with PSi for a couple of years before she stepped into children’s publishing. As editor and publisher, she has worked with some of the finest names in children’s literature in India.

Akriti TyagiDirector – Marketing, HarperCollins

Akriti joined HarperCollins India as head of marketing in February 2018. Prior to that, she had a successful stint at NDTV for twelve years. She oversees marketing as well as corporate communications, both internal and external. This includes maintaining brand integrity across all company marketing initiatives and communications (offline and online), and brand strategy and vision. She’s particularly enthusiastic about mining new business opportunities, cheering a dynamic team of marketing mavericks and finding humour in the everyday.

Rahul DixitSVP – Sales, HarperCollins

Rahul joined HarperCollins India in November 2017. He is a science graduate but his love for books and reading has been the force behind his long and successful career in publishing. With a good understanding of local publishing business and decade - long relationships with international publishing houses, he is instrumental in driving HarperCollins India’s growth strategy. Besides selling books and helping them climb bestseller charts, he loves to travel.

Rohit DharPublisher - Collins Learning

Rohit Dhar has been in publishing industry for more than 30 years. Skilled in Educational Publishing, he brings a light touch and old-world passion to planning and developing strong publishing lists. Before joining HarperCollins, he co-founded Eupheus, an EdTech start-up. In his long publishing tenure, Rohit worked as V.P., Learning Solutions, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Publishing Director in renowned publishing organisations such as Oxford University Press, Pearson Longman, Vikas Publishing House, to name a few.

In his spare time Rohit enjoys to read, listen to Sufi music and try his hands at various musical instruments.

Rageshree Niyogi Director – Marketing, Collins Learning

Rageshree joined Collins Learning in 2017. She leads the overall marketing strategy and execution, driving partnerships and customer relationships, market intelligence, product positioning, professional development programmes for educators, and initiatives for learners, with a focus on delivering results for all school stakeholders.

Prior to this, Rageshree worked with publishing, education, and media organizations for over 20 years, including Oxford University Press and NDTV. Her work experience spans a diverse set of functions, including content development and editing, content marketing, digital marketing, product marketing, brand building, stakeholder management, and channel marketing.

An alumna of Tilburg University in the Netherlands and University of Delhi, Rageshree holds master’s degrees in Business Communication and Digital Media, and Physics.

T.M. Denny Director, Sales – Collins Learning

T.M. Denny has over 22 years of experience in the publishing industry. In 2015, he joined the Collins Learning India division as general manager for south India and established the business in all southern states, delivering robust growth across all formats of schools – private, matriculation, CBSE, ICSE and state boards. In 2018, he took on additional responsibility for the western region. Denny has made valuable contributions to the division’s publishing strategy by working closely with the editorial and marketing teams. Prior to Collins Learning, Denny spent over 15 years at Oxford University Press in their education business, starting as sales executive and going on to become regional manager for south India. In 2019, he was appointed director, sales – Collins Learning, and is responsible for both Indian and international school boards in India.

Palak Vats Director – Human Resources

Palak joined HarperCollins India in June 2017. She is responsible for overseeing all functions of human resources for HarperCollins India. Palak has more than 18 years of experience in IT/outsourcing and the publishing industry. She is a multi-disciplinary HR professional with experience spanning across talent acquisition, staff development, compensation, rewards and benefits.

Rashmi Verma General Manager - Strategy & Business development

Rashmi has over 10 years of experience in Corporate Planning and Strategy Development. She joined HarperCollins in 2019 with the responsibility of driving business performance, strategic collaborations, streamlining new initiatives and digital transformation. In her previous role, Rashmi steered the launch of WileyNXT.com, an Industry-4.0 aligned technology-led skills training platform enabling strategic shift into a new business space for Wiley. She has also worked extensively in setting up new functions, leading operations, market entry planning and business outreach in assignments with American Express and Trilegal among others.

Rashmi holds a Masters Degree in Economics and Business from the University of Wales and has studied Business Transformation and Innovation at the Indian School of Business. Rashmi is a system thinker and enjoys being a Design Thinking trainer.

Amit SharmaDirector – Publishing Operations

Amit brings over two decades of expertise in Strategic Procurement and Print Production. Since joining HarperCollins Publishers India in 2006, he has been an integral part of the company's remarkable growth journey over the past 17 years.

Guiding a skilled team proficient in sustainable procurement, he has played a key role in refining multiple business areas. His team's expertise spans from cost control and quality assurance to inventory management, process advancements, innovative practices, metadata handling, and effective supplier management, all grounded in environmentally conscious methods. Together, they have garnered numerous awards, recognizing their collective excellence in book production.

Holding an M. Tech in Print and Graphic Communication, Amit is passionately committed to cause of education in his field. He frequently visits his alma mater to teach, conduct workshops, and engage in academic seminars.

Mugdha SadhwaniArt Director

Mugdha is an award-winning designer and has over 15 years of experience in the publishing industry, having designed for all the major Indian publishers including Penguin, Rupa, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Bloomsbury, Speaking Tiger, Oxford University Press. She started with Penguin Books in 2007, going on to work there until 2011, and then between 2014-2020 she was Rupa's Art Director. Most recently, she was guest faculty at Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University teaching Digital Media covering Book Design and Semiotics.

Mugdha enjoys playing badminton, baking cakes, listening to Indian classical music and reading up on alternate medicine.