Pankaj Batra is Chief Marketing Officer for Pizza Hut Asia with over 1700 units across 10 countries. Pankaj also heads Public Relations and served as a member of Yum Brand’s Global Digital Council.

Pankaj has over 20 years’ experience in Brand Management and Sales in consumer, food, retail & services sector. He specializes in nurturing western brands in Asian markets. He has deep know-how of start-up ventures and is highly accomplished at managing diverse franchisee relationships.

Pankaj has a Master in Business Administration from the prestigious Faculty of Management Studies, New Delhi. He joined Yum Brands (then PepsiCo Restaurants) in India in 1996 to launch Pizza Hut and was instrumental in positioning Pizza Hut as “An Indian brand with an International heart”. During Pankaj’s tenure, Pizza Hut grew from 1 to 150 restaurants and was rated as India’s most trusted restaurant brand in 2003 and every year thereafter. He moved to Singapore to join Yum’s Asia business around 10 years ago. He has consolidated Pizza Hut’s dominant position in Asia by spearheading the adoption of a new delivery model. He has been instrumental in doubling the web ordering business in the last 3 years.

Pankaj was awarded CMO of the Year at The Asian Customer Game Changer Awards (Oct. 2014) and is also listed in the 100 Most Talented Global Marketing Leaders by The World Marketing Congress (Nov. 2014).

Prior to working for Yum!, Pankaj worked with Nestle in India as Brand Manager on a portfolio of brands (Nescafe Vending, Nestle Confectionery & Nestle Milks) and with American Express Travel Related Services as Product Manager for Indian subcontinent.