Kiran Khalap was born in Mumbai.

Kiran started out as a schoolteacher at J Krishnamurti Foundation experimental residential schools (in Banaras) before moving into advertising in 1983.

Advertising career

He started his career in advertising in 1983, as a trainee copywriter in Lintas (now Lowe). He won the first Ashok Jain Award for Public Service advertising. He became the youngest Creative Director in Lintas, then joined Clarion Advertising (1991), became its national creative director, and ended up, in 1997, as its first ever Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer (CEO and CCO).

During his tenure in advertising, he worked in Sydney, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong and London. He also worked on all major advertising industry bodies: Advertising Club Mumbai, Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Advertising Standards Council of India.

In 1999, he co-founded chlorophyll, India’s first end-to-end brand consultancy. Kiran used the Group Thinking technique to solve business problems for the following organizations/brands: Times Guaranty Mutual Funds, Filmfare & Femina, part of WorldWide Media, a JV between BBC and Bennett Coleman; and Ayush, a brand belonging to Hindustan Unilever.

In January 2010, Kiran was chosen the Chairman of the Brand & Marketing Advisory Council to the prestigious and challenging Nandan Nilekani-led Unique ID Project of the Government of India.

chlorophyll

chlorophyll has been handpicked for brand creation, transformation, translation and experience projects by all the top names in Indian and international business: Unilever, Infosys, J&J, Pepsico, Tata Group. In 2008, Kiran became the first Asian, along withhis partner, Anand Halve, to be invited to write in coolbrands The Guru Book, a global project of Cool Unlimited, Amsterdam, since 2003.

In August 2009, chlorophyll launched litmosi?, the world’s first online corporate brand alignment tool. chlorophyll also launched brandideantity?, the world’s first e-book on the myths about brand and design. In the same year, chlorophyll became the first Indian consultancy to win Best Website in the Professional Services Category at the global Internet Advertising Competition Award.

Kiran plays the role of a brand guru and is invited to write and speak on branding , as also marketing and the economy by leading publications and organisations.

He was one of the 13 professionals handpicked to write the definitive book on brands in crisis in 2007. He has been speaking to CEOs and CFOs on branding issues since 1995 at the IMA Forum.

In November 2009, as a chosen Professor for TED University, Kiran spoke at the first TED India conference in Mysore, India on ‘Ideas as Enemies.’

Kiran won the Indo-UK Asian Age Short-Story Writing competition in 1995. His novel “Halfway Up the Mountain” was first published in 2003 in India and then in the UK and US in 2005. His travel writing on exotic locations like Angkor Wat, Spain, Morocco, Venice and Banaras have been regularly published in Man’s World, India’s premier men’s magazine.