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Storyboard18's Marquee Nights returns - an evening of exclusive candid conversations, creativity, global insights
May 28, 2025: Storyboard18's Marquee Nights is back - and this time, it promises an evening of sharp ideas and soulful stories. The invite-only series, known for its unplugged conversations with some of the world's most influential minds, returns on June 2 at The Oberoi, Gurgaon with a marquee name in global business, media and marketing: Yannick Bolloré, Chairman and CEO, Havas.
From the future of creativity in an AI-powered world to the evolving business landscape between India and France, this special evening will open a rare window into the mind of one of the most visionary leaders in the global media and communications arena. It's more than a fireside chat - it is a front-row seat to the forces shaping global commerce, culture and content.
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The previous editions have seen the likes of Carl Pei, Read Hastings and William Dalrymple engage in meaningful and impactful conversations on technological innovations, streaming, newest trends in consumer technology, and much more.
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Yannick Bolloré
Yannick Bolloré co-founded the production company WY Productions in 2002. In 2006, he joined his family group, the Bolloré Group, to launch and develop its media division. Within five years, Bolloré Média became a leading independent French TV group and was subsequently sold to Canal+, making the Bolloré Group a shareholder in Vivendi.
He then joined Havas in 2011 and became Chief Executive Officer of Havas S.A. in 2013. Upon his arrival, he began an in-depth transformation of the group through the 'Together' strategy, making Havas the most integrated group in the industry. He also orchestrated
the repositioning of the group around the mission 'Make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and people,' for meaningful, committed and responsible communications.
In June 2024, Bolloré unveiled Havas' new strategic plan, Converged, aiming to supercharge the integration of the group's expertise in creativity, media, production, and technology through a unified operating system. In December 2024, he orchestrated the group's return to the stock market, now listed on Euronext Amsterdam.
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Bolloré was appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Vivendi in April 2018. In connection with the Vivendi Spin-Off, in October 2024, he was appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Canal+ SA and Director of Louis Hachette Group.
Bolloré was named a Young Global Leader in 2008 by the World Economic Forum. He has received numerous honors and awards from international associations and the business press. He is also a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Bolloré graduated from Paris-Dauphine University in 2001.
So come, be part of a night where ideas are uncorked, perspectives are reshaped and the spotlight is not just on success, but the stories that built it.
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Indian Express
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Tavleen Singh writes: Trump and his trumpeter
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A comment that in the eyes of most political analysts was both offensive and foolish but not in the opinion of the Leader of the Opposition. When reporters accosted him outside Parliament House and asked what he thought about Trump's remark, he said, 'But the Indian economy is dead. Trump is right. Everybody knows that the Indian economy is a dead economy…except the Prime Minister and the finance minister.' He added that the BJP had destroyed the Indian economy to help Gautam Adani. Now I am no economist, but you do not need to be one to know that this remark is both bizarre and bewildering. But, very much in keeping with the economic ideas Rahul Gandhi expressed during the election campaign in 2019 when it was Anil Ambani he was obsessed with. Remember those days when he and his sister campaigned with toy fighter jets in their hands to make the point that Modi made money out of buying Rafale jets. Mr. Ambani, in his view, was the launderer of this bribe. This was never established. Never proved. So Ambani was forgotten. To come back, though, to the 'dead Indian economy', may I say that Rahul Gandhi appears not to have any memories of those years when Granny was prime minister and the Indian economy was dead, dead, dead. Ask anyone who lived through those times, and they will tell you what shopping for groceries used to be like. There were shortages of the kind that countries experience only when there has been a war or a massive natural disaster. We queued and queued and queued. Daily necessities like bread, milk and sugar were always in short supply. And, when it came to 'luxuries' like cars, you could remain in the queue for ten years. The richest Indians did not dare invest for the fear that if they exceeded their quotas to produce cars, scooters and air-conditioners, they could be fined and sometimes jailed. The only businessmen who thrived in those times were smugglers. They smuggled in gold and household goods like toasters, irons, kettles, coffee makers and mixers and sold them for a huge profit. As for us ladies, we would sneak off to smugglers in Karol Bagh to buy cosmetics, perfumes and fancy underwear. Things began to change only when the license raj ended. And one of the beneficiaries of this was Narendra Modi. I have never forgotten that first campaign of his when he talked of how government had no business to be in business. One of the reasons why people like me supported him was because of the hope that he would dismantle what remains of the licence raj and curb the evil officials who end one regulation only to make two more. They lived better in those central planning days than big businessmen and they had more power. They could destroy major industrialists with just a single signature. And they knew that they would get away with this because the political leaders who were their bosses were all lefties of the most committed kind. If the Leader of the Opposition wants to understand the real meaning of a 'dead economy', he needs to go back to his economics tutor and ask him to loan him some books on Nehruvian socialism. A short course is all he needs, not a degree, but a short course is essential because he leads our oldest political party and the only one that can challenge the BJP. Meanwhile, he would do well to keep his economic ideas to himself because they are ideas that are truly dead. My grievance against Modi is that he has failed to dismantle the remnants of the licence raj. He allows his bureaucrats too free a hand to make rules and regulations that crush real enterprise. Government-sponsored startups and unicorns are just a new incarnation of the public sector. What we need is a new generation of economic reforms that would truly make it easier to do business and India will take off beyond anyone's imagination. Trump's tariffs could turn into a real opportunity for India instead of being the threat that they currently appear to be. But for this to happen, Modi needs to remember that he once believed that the government had no business to be in business. Meanwhile, Rahulji can go back to his economics tutor and ask him to explain clearly why the Indian economy is not dead.
