Author: Sonam Dave
Creative Intelligence
December 20, 2021
Ashwin founded Incivus to celebrate his vision of transforming creative production in the advertising and entertainment industries through the use of AI. His staunch belief is that technology can substantially complement human creativity to create better outcomes around business goals and consumer experience.
Ashwin is also the CEO of Course5 Intelligence and has architected its growth into one of the world’s leading analytics and AI solution providers to global corporations. He has been recognized by several global bodies for his leadership including the Economic Times, which lauded him as one of India’s leading entrepreneurs. During his tenure, Course5 received corporate accolades from various global authorities including Gartner, Forrester, Fortune Magazine, Deloitte, Economic Times, Red Herring, and others. Besides work, Ashwin is involved in various CSR activities related to children’s health in partnership with the Indian Academy of Pediatricians, and children’s education. He is also one of the founding members of Mumbai Angels, India’s first organized group of Angel investors, and an early investor in many leading companies in India’s tech ecosystem. Additionally, Ashwin is a member of the Mumbai chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization and Entrepreneurs’ Organization.
Academically, he is a Chartered Accountant with a Master’s degree in Commerce and holds a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School at UCLA and London Business School. He is the President of the Mumbai Alumni Chapter of UCLA Anderson.
Incivus co-founder Manish believes that the infusion of AI in business strategy is still in its early stages and the deployment of AI for creative excellence, content curation, and audience targeting will transform the multi-billion dollar advertising industry.
Manish has over two decades of experience in Applied AI, Analytics, and Market Research, as well as a deep understanding of the evolving AI business landscape. In the last ten years, he has helmed large successful initiatives in business expansion and innovation through AI and other leading technologies for market and business intelligence companies. Manish also co-founded MarketGate Dimensions, a market research consulting firm that was sold to Publicis Groupe in 2012. He is a recognized expert in the industries of AI, research, and analytics and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as ESOMAR, TMRE, ILC, R&R, The ARF, and World Marketing Congress. He is frequently invited for guest lectures at leading management institutes in India.
Baskar heads the product team at Incivus. As a self-taught coder, he is passionate about solving business challenges using technology and has worked at the crest of every technological wave over the last two and a half decades.
Baskar spent the last 13 years as an entrepreneur, building products for B2C and B2B businesses as well as his two start-ups.
Baskar founded IndianStage in 2008, one of the first online businesses in India, and subsequently grew it into a multi-million GMV, followed by venture funding and acquisition.
He is also a co-founder at PriMersion, an immersive technology-based B2B MarTech product company, focused on blue-collar training. The product they created was deployed with leading e-commerce, manufacturing, and service businesses in India.
Baskar holds an MBA from Kelley School of Business, with a double major in MIS and Marketing, from Indiana University, Bloomington.
Richard Thorogood is a senior Consumer and Market insights leader with extensive global experience. Over the past three decades, he has worked with insights teams at global giants like Colgate Palmolive, The Gillette Company, and m+m/Mars.
He led the transformation of the insights function at Colgate Palmolive, including significant organization, methodology and mindset changes, leading to GRIT survey recognizing them as the one of the most innovative insights team in the world. Richard has extensive experience working in Europe, UK and North America and has also been a former board member of ARF.
Richard believes in always being curious and is guided by the motto of “People never Consumers”.
Richard advises Incivus in the areas of product strategy and marketing.
With over 20 years of experience, Dan is an experienced entrepreneur and leader. Dan began his career at WPP before progressing to senior client service, advertising and consulting roles. He specializes in emerging technologies and developing markets, having helped organizations grow from incubation to multi-million-dollar revenues. He is an industry veteran and currently chairs or advises the boards of several technology, marketing, social media, data and research companies. Dan has been the Former President of ESOMAR(the first under the age of 40) and has won several professional awards. He holds a BSc in Psychology and Mathematics.
Dan advises Incivus in the areas of strategic business direction and growth.