Suhel Seth (born May 1963) is an Indian businessman and columnist who is the founder and managing partner of the consultancy firm Counselage India.
Seth is also a
columnist, actor,
keynote speaker, and a TV
Pundit.
He currently serves as the Chairman, Marketing Committees of
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India.
History
Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla and ...
(
FICCI
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India.
History
Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla an ...
). He is also on the Experts Committee of Indian
Railway Board
The Ministry of Railways is a ministry in the Government of India, responsible for the country's rail transport. The ministry operates the statutory body Indian Railways, an organisation that operates as a monopoly in rail transport and is h ...
.
Early life and education
Seth was born in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
and lived there with his parents till the age of 28. His father owned a chemical factory in Calcutta, which was closed down on account of the then prevailing political unrest, largely due to
Naxalite activities, union conflicts, and strikes.
Career
In 1996, Seth and his brother founded the advertising agency Equus.
He also founded Quadra Advisory with Shunu Sen.
He started Counselage India, a consultancy firm in 2002, of which he is still a managing partner.
Seth was inducted to the global Advisory Board of the San Francisco-based blogging platform
LiveJournal
LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary.
American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, a ...
Inc. in 2008. After working with the
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continents ...
during the management crisis to reconstruct their brand image in 2016, Seth was hired by the
Adani Group
Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises. The Group's diverse businesses include po ...
as a brand consultant in 2018. Seth is an established speaker on social and commercial trends for the Indian consumer base at business, advertising, and marketing events including several
Indian Institute of Management
The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are central government-owned-public business schools for management offering undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive programmes along with some additional courses in the field of busin ...
(IIM) colleges. He is a regular columnist for the
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
,
Hindustan Times
''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia.
It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...
,
The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
, and the
Indian Express
''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...
.
Seth is also a theatre enthusiast and has performed in over 135 English plays, and 6 films.
Books
Seth has four books to his credit. His first book, ''In Your Face'', is a compilation of interviews and columns by him published in different national dailies and magazines.
He has co-authored the book ''Kalighat to Calcutta'', with
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh (born Khushal Singh, 2 February 1915 – 20 March 2014) was an Indian author, lawyer, diplomat, journalist and politician. His experience in the 1947 Partition of India inspired him to write ''Train to Pakistan'' in 1956 (made ...
and
R. K. Laxman
Rasipuram Krishnaswami Laxman ''Pg. 11 in the source says that Laxman & his brother Narayan were Tamil Iyer Brahmins.'' (24 October 1921 – 26 January 2015) was an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He is best known for his creation ...
.
His last individually authored book ''Get to the Top'', published in 2011, acts as a perfect guide for the aspirational Indian. It tells readers how to get ahead in life by connecting with the rich and famous. He has also co-authored ''The Target'' with Shantanu Guha Ray. It talks about the downfall of business tycoon Jignesh Shah's global empire.
Filmography
Seth has acted in several English plays as well as a few Bollywood films. He sits on the international board of
Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...
(RADA).
His first role, in the movie
Rog, was one that he took up on the request of a friend. He did a very small role in critically acclaimed movie 'Ek Din Achanak' in 1989. He was then seen in the much-acclaimed multi-starrer
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
''Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'' (), also abbreviated as ''ZNMD'', is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language buddy road comedy drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment. The film features ...
, where he played the father of one of the female leads. Seth was also a part of the critically acclaimed film
Guzaarish. He was last seen in the movie
Calendar Girls
''Calendar Girls'' is a 2003 British comedy film directed by Nigel Cole. Produced by Touchstone Pictures, it features a screenplay by Tim Firth and Juliette Towhidi, based on a true story of a group of middle-aged Yorkshire women who produ ...
, playing a character based on liquor baron
Vijay Mallya
Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman, former politician and fugitive. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to return him from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India.
T ...
.
Philanthropy
Seth also sits on the board of the Max Foundation that works to provide access to cancer treatment for people across the globe. Seth is a donor at the
Partition Museum established in
Amritsar in 2017. He made a donation of 50 lakhs towards a gallery in the
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...
which is dedicated to his parents. He has a seat on the
advisory board of the Indian Head Injury Foundation (IHIF). The foundation works towards building brain trauma care systems in India.
Controversies
In 2011, tobacco major
ITC filed two separate suits against Suhel, claiming his tweets and newspaper articles against its chairman,
YC Deveshawar, as defamatory. ITC officials alleged that Seth had been making such comments since 2007, when the company terminated its contract with his firm, Equus. Suhel responded through a tweet claiming that his account was constantly hacked into and that he was taking steps.
In 2014, during a panel discussion on sports conducted as part of the
Times
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems.
Time or times may also refer to:
Temporal measurement
* Time in physics, defined by its measurement
* Time standard, civil time speci ...
Literature Festival
A literary festival, also known as a book festival or writers' festival, is a regular gathering of writers and readers, typically on an annual basis in a particular city. A literary festival usually features a variety of presentations and readings ...
in Mumbai, Seth failed to recognise
Viren Rasquinha, the former captain of India's national
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...
team, and questioned the latter's involvement in the event. Seth was subsequently forced to apologise after a public outcry.
In 2018, Seth was accused of sexual harassment by over 20 women that included model
Diandra Soares, filmmaker Natashja Rathore, and writer
Ira Trivedi, in a social media backlash referred to as India's
Me Too movement. This led to
Tata Sons
Tata Sons Private Limited is the parent company of the Tata Group and holds the bulk of shareholding in the Tata group of companies including their land holdings across India, tea estates and steel plants. It is a privately owned conglomerate of ...
, the holding company of the
Tata Group
The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continents ...
, terminating Seth as its brand consultant.
This followed beverage maker
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
's public release that its long-standing association with Seth and his company, Counselage, stands dissolved. "He is not a consultant for the board or company presently", the statement said, adding that it took this step in the wake of ongoing allegations against Suhel in the #
MeToo movement.
Post
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlant ...
,
Adani Group
Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises. The Group's diverse businesses include po ...
too reportedly terminated Suhel's contract as branding consultant. The group stated the contract that had ended in September 2018 shall not be renewed. "Mr Suhel Seth was consulted for a short-term project which expired in September 2018. He is no longer associated with the
Adani Group
Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It was founded by Gautam Adani in 1988 as a commodity trading business, with the flagship company Adani Enterprises. The Group's diverse businesses include po ...
.", it said on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
. Two other Indian
conglomerates,
Mahindra Group
Mahindra Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai. The group has operations in over 100 countries, with a presence in aerospace, agribusiness, aftermarket automotive components, construction equipment, defenc ...
and
JSW Group
JSW Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, based in Mumbai. It is led by Sajjan Jindal and part of the O.P. Jindal Group. The Group's diverse businesses include steel, energy, infrastructure, cement and paints, across India, the Unit ...
, followed suit claiming not to be associated with Seth on any project.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seth, Suhel
Male actors from Kolkata
Indian columnists
Living people
La Martiniere Calcutta alumni
Businesspeople from Kolkata
Punjabi people
Jadavpur University alumni
1963 births
Indian consultants
Indian atheists