Sam Balsara is the founder, chairman and managing director of Madison World and Madison Communications.
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Early years

Balsara was born in Balsar, now called

Valsad Valsad (Pronunciation: �alsɑɖ (Gujarati: વલસાડ), historically known as Bulsar, is a city and a municipality in Valsad district of the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the district headquarters of Valsad district. The city of Vals ...

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. His father was a forest contractor, and due to his work the family later moved to

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

. Balsara graduated from St. Joseph College, Bangalore. He completed his MBA from

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies is the Department of Management Studies of the University of Mumbai. The institute is named after industrialist and philanthropist, Jamnalal Bajaj. Programmes JBIMS offers full-time Masters in ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

in 1970. He worked as a marketing executive at Sarabhais and Cadbury. Later, he switched to advertising, working with Hindustan Thompson Associates (the current

J Walter Thompson J, or j, is the tenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its usual name in English is ''jay'' (pronounced ), with a now-uncommon vari ...

Madison

Balsara started the advertising agency Madison on 21 March 1988.

Association

Balsara was president of the Advertising Club Bombay (1989-1992), chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India (2000-1), president of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (2002-4), chairman of Triple A (Advertising Agencies Association of India) Awards, member of the Board of Governors of the Advertising Standards Council of India.

Awards and recognition

* Media Service Person of the Year 2004 at the Dainik Bhaskar Indian Marketing Awards 2004 * Sam Balsara in Srijon Samman 2012

Ranked 5th most influential person in the Indian Advertising Industry by Brand Equity Ad Agency Reckoner 2005. * Ranked 50 most powerful people in Indian Marketing, Advertising and Media Business by ''Pitch'' magazine * Ranked 4th most powerful person in Indian advertising by ''Mid-Day'' in June, 2004 * Kolkata Ad Club Hall of Fame * AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award for 2009 *Srijon Samman Award 2012 by

Sangbad Pratidin ''Sangbad Pratidin'' ( lit.: news every day) is a daily Indian Bengali newspaper simultaneously published from Kolkata, Barjora and Siliguri. It was founded by Swapan Sadhan Bose, the owner and also All India Trinamool Congress representative a ...

Family

Balsara and his wife Homie have two daughters, Tanya and Lara. Balsara's elder daughter Tanya is visually handicapped and runs a small computer institute and teaches similarly visually impaired people. Lara joined Balsara's business as director, business development, after completing a master's degree in marketing from Bristol University. Lara is married to Kaizad Vajifdar, a pilot with

Air India Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balsara, Sam Living people Indian advertising people Businesspeople from Mumbai Year of birth missing (living people)