Tehseen Zaidi has been recognized as Most Inspiring Communication Professional of the Year - 2022 Delhi by Business Mint
The professional armor of Tehseen Zaidi is studded with multiple glowing feathers and each of them has a story to narrate about her perseverance to excel. At Sasakawa India’s Leprosy Foundation, she developed, organized, and delivered a communication strategy right from conceptualization to awareness campaigns in collaboration with various teams, government bodies, and industry representatives. As a specialist in revamping communications, she restructured communications from reactive to proactive at Syngenta India Pvt Ltd.
At NDTV 24 x 7, she handled for over a decade various portfolios from reporting to corporate communications, research, and lining up panellists for prime time and weekend special programs. She was the editorial producer for NDTV’s flagship programs like ‘The NDTV Dialogues’, ‘Your Call’, 9:00 PM news and ‘Left, Right and Centre'.
While working with NDTV, she developed strong professional relationships with Ministers, Members of Parliament, Socialites, Celebrities, and Senior Editors who are key assets for public affairs and helpful to any organisation centred on communications or public relations. Her specialisation includes strategic communications with expertise in media relations, government relations, liaison, social media management, and networking.
Tehseen strongly support rights of women and child, gender equality, diversity and inclusion. These are the social aspects, which are so close to her heart, and she appears regularly as a panellist or a speaker for these topics at various events. However, her penchant towards leaving a mark in the industry and setting a roadmap for aspiring communications professionals remains ever intact.
It not only takes professional expertise but a sense of belongingness towards the employer and a sense of responsibility towards society to be a communication and public affairs expert. Hence, public affairs and corporate social responsibility go hand in hand. She firmly believes that she has balanced belongingness and responsibility to derive maximum benefit to the brand and the best outcome for society.
Tehseen has bagged many awards and accreditations for successful social media campaigns and effective communications and secured the limelight for the brands she has represented. She has evolved as a Public Affairs and Communications specialist by acquiring crucial skills like brand management, networking, leadership, and team building. She has many milestones during her professional stint with various organisations. Still, the absolute pleasure she gets while helping her women colleagues grow and carve a niche for themselves while honing their skills.
Tehseen was a key speaker on gender equality at E4M PR and Corp Comm Women Achievers Summit and Awards 2022; one of the main organisers of ‘The NDTV: 25 Years’ held in 2013 at Rashtrapati Bhavan where 25 living legends of Indian were honoured by then President Dr Pranab Mukherjee; and delivered PR expertise from conceptualisation to execution as a core team member for NDTV Indian of the Year 2009 -2017.
Some of great celebrity guests she lined up for ‘The NDTV Dialogues’ included Lord Jeffery Archer, Melinda Gates, Hillary Clinton, Jhumpa Lahiri, Justice AP Shah, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Amitabh Bachchan, Javed Akhtar, Kailash Satyarthi, Shabana Azmi, Nandan Nilekani, Prof Sunil Khilnani, Dr Rajmohan Gandhi, Saina Nehwal, Nandita Das, Anurag Kashyap, Rishi Kapoor, Gopal Gandhi, Piyush Goyal, Ravishankar Prasad, Kapil Sibal, Jairam Ramesh, NR Narayanamurthy, Naina Lal Kidwai, Prof Stephen Cohen, Dr Shashi Tharoor, Dr Ram Guha, Prof Dinesh Singh, Dr Binayak Sen, and Prof Dipankar Gupta to name a few.
As a PR professional, she also undertook 360-degree PR functional projects such as ‘Banega Swachh India’ campaign; NDTV Road to Safety campaign; NDTV Fortis More to Give; NDTV Lo’real Women of Worth; and Philips NDTV Breathe Clean. She conceptualized and executed Greenathon, Dettol-NDTV Banega Swasth India, and Usha - Kushlata Ke Kadam from Root To Reel. She designed the #YouAreNotAlone campaign for the Global Appeal 2019 to end stigma against people affected by leprosy and to their families. Roped in Dimple Kapadia for the campaign, who suffered from leprosy before entering Bollywood. She also handled media and the entire book launch of ‘No Matter Where the Journey Takes Me.’ Tehseen Zaidi, a multifaceted personality, indeed!