Priyanka Ann Saini
Priyanka Ann Saini, Chief Strategy Officer at US-based Charlie Pesti, is a marketing and PR strategist who works with customers in the shipping and logistics sector. For her clients, she handles a gamut of services that range from brand awareness, PR, Digital Marketing, and Ad management to Content Architecture, Media & Event Management. Her aim is to create opportunities for her customers to ensure their message reaches the desired audience, while always positioning them as thought leaders in the industry.
A marketing, content and PR aficionado, Priyanka has worn many hats since the beginning of her career, almost 15 years ago. Her foray into the professional space began with her love for writing. She has authored children’s books and penned a a motivational biography series to encourage reading among young adults under Shree Publications. She has worked with publishing giants like The Hindu on a limited edition luxury bridal magazine that enabled her to connect with Richard Branson’s PR team as well as that of the Burj-Al-Arab. She has worked with the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT) to develop Teacher Learning Programs (TLPs) in the humanities domain and was on the Editorial Board of the prestigious Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, India.
Additionally, she briefly worked with The Princeton Review as a Mentor and Counsellor to prospective MBA and Ph.D students, helping them to understand their strengths, realise their goals and get into their dream universities, many of which were Ivy League Colleges.
However, Priyanka found her true calling only when she entered the maritime space by landing a job as Managing Editor with a leading UK-based maritime news publication. Because of her personal background (a marine engineer’s daughter), her inclination toward the maritime industry came naturally and the more she learned, the more she wanted to learn.
As Managing Editor at Sea News (seanews.co.uk), she worked on building up the brand (from scratch), commissioning content for the daily news website, developing the editorial strategy, interviewing industry leaders for an audience of ship owners, managers and operators, port authorities and other players in the maritime ecosystem. Seafarer welfare is an area she is extremely passionate about and she has written extensively on their plight, especially on seafarer mental wellbeing, which led to her being nominated for the Sea Horse Journalist Award. She also launched the first edition of the digital magazine that can be found here.
She was later appointed as Chief Marketing Officer of Singapore-based Proternio Consulting which allowed her the opportunity to marry her two major areas of interest – maritime technology and events. She took on various consulting projects here and organized global maritime events on technology trends such as Big Data Analytics, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and other emerging digital trends. The event brand, #DataccioConnect, that she managed, is a one-of-a-kind technology event platform for the maritime sector that interacted with a passionate community of IT leaders and maritime industry experts, leading and emerging vendors, technology enthusiasts, traditionalists, and colleagues who wanted to connect and share experiences on the implementation of various digital trends. #DataccioConnect engaged the entire maritime ecosystem in a discussion about the digitalisation paradigm shift the maritime industry is embarking on. During these events, technology solutions providers delivered presentations on technology applications that the once traditional maritime industry can now begin to think about and even embrace. She has moderated several panels consisting of women professionals during these events with a view to promoting diversity and inclusion in the once very male-dominated maritime space. The panels discussed pressing issues, shared stories and offered recommendations on how the shipping sector can accommodate and empower women.
Priyanka has also worked with the startup – SeaMiles – the first-ever loyalty program for seafarers as Chief Communications Officer and appeared on the podcast Pitch Deck Asia to talk about the product.
Priyanka is a Director on the board of The Mission to Seafarers in India which works to improve the lives of seafarers. For more than 150 years, The Mission to Seafarers has brought compassion and care to seafarers in desperate need around the world. Day and night, the Mission is on call for seafarers in over 200 ports around the world.
She holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology and a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology & Anthropology from the prestigious St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, India.
Fun fact – Priyanka has always worked remotely as she is married to an Indian Air Force Officer and has not lived in the same house for more than 2 years since she began working. She has a 10-year-old human son and a 5-year-old canine one. She loves meeting people, learning from them, and collaborating with diverse professionals the world over.