Sohini Sen: Associate Director – Marketing & Communications | Captain Fresh

Introduction

Some marketing journeys begin with an obvious degree in communications or advertising. Sohini Sen began with Statistics. And perhaps that is precisely what makes her perspective on modern marketing so distinctive.

For Sohini, numbers and narratives have never existed at opposite ends of the spectrum. Her early years were spent organising events, building audiences, representing institutions and bringing sponsors on board, activities she instinctively pursued before recognising them as marketing. It was the observation of professors and seniors that helped her connect those dots, eventually leading her towards an MBA in marketing.

Today, that unusual combination of analytical thinking and storytelling has become central to how she approaches her craft.

“The hypothesis of a statistician sits well next to the instincts of a storyteller.”

It is a philosophy that feels particularly relevant in an era where technology is accelerating execution, while human judgment continues to define what deserves attention.

From Channels to Systems

Sohini’s experience across branding, PR and communications has shaped another important belief: great marketers need to think beyond individual functions.

Where specialists may naturally begin with a channel, Sohini approaches business challenges as systems. The question, for her, is not which discipline should lead, but which combination of levers the business actually needs.

Sometimes the answer is sustained consistency over several quarters. Sometimes it is one sharply focused campaign. The real skill lies in knowing the difference.

That breadth has also strengthened her leadership approach. Having experienced different functions firsthand, Sohini understands the pressures within each and can connect them into a more cohesive business narrative.

Interestingly, this generalist path was not something she consciously designed. It emerged from a simple willingness to say yes to opportunities. In an AI-powered marketing landscape, she believes that the ability to understand which specialised skill to deploy, and when, is becoming increasingly valuable.

Building a Brand Where No Playbook Exists

Her move to Captain Fresh represented one of the boldest chapters of her career.

Coming from Intel, Sohini stepped into a company operating at the intersection of technology, seafood, supply chains and global markets. What drew her in was a striking whitespace: while categories such as chicken and dairy have globally recognised consumer brands, seafood has yet to create an equivalent household name.

Captain Fresh gave her the opportunity to participate in that transformation.

When Sohini joined in 2024, the company was evolving from its perception as an Indian supply-chain player into a global house of seafood brands, following its first major US acquisition. Her mandate evolved alongside the business, from communicating a company story to helping shape a global brand architecture for a category historically viewed largely through a commodity lens.

That is where the real excitement lies for her: demonstrating the value of brand-building in a category with enormous consumer potential.

When Marketing Creates Its Own Playbook

One of Sohini’s most memorable experiences came earlier in her career, during upGrad’s association with the first season of Shark Tank India.

As the programme itself was being introduced to India, the partnership offered an opportunity to create rather than simply follow an established formula. One particularly clever integration connected founders on the show with relevant upGrad courses when the Sharks identified specific skill gaps.

The result was remarkable brand salience, with the period recording the highest brand search volumes upGrad had seen at the time.

Even the social conversations that emerged around the brand became meaningful signals. For Sohini, when audiences begin taking a brand’s work and reshaping it in their own language, that is evidence that the work has entered culture.

The New Currency of Great Brands

For Sohini, product, consistency, relevance, emotional connection and customer experience all matter. But in 2026, she increasingly subscribes to a well-established school of thought in marketing: mental availability.

In a world where AI can generate endless creative possibilities, creativity itself is becoming easier to access. The greater challenge is building a brand that comes to mind precisely when a consumer needs it.

That makes consistency more powerful than ever.

Not consistency for a campaign cycle, but consistency sustained long enough to become memory.

For Sohini, the question has therefore shifted from how many creative variations a team can produce to something far more discerning:

Which one is truly worthy of carrying the brand’s name?

AI Can Accelerate Creation. Humans Still Define Meaning.

Sohini sees AI as an extraordinary enabler, particularly when it solves problems that were previously limited by geography, scale or production complexity.

At Captain Fresh, with a portfolio spanning more than 500 SKUs, products packaged across supplier factories in over 30 countries and brands operating across the US and Europe, AI has opened up possibilities that conventional production could not easily deliver.

Yet technology has also raised the creative bar.

When high-quality production becomes accessible to everyone, production itself is no longer the differentiator. Judgment becomes the differentiator.

Knowing what feels authentic, what strengthens a premium position and what genuinely deserves audience attention remains deeply human.

Leadership That Leaves a Legacy in People

Perhaps the most revealing part of Sohini’s philosophy is not about brands at all. It is about people.

Over a decade into her career, her understanding of leadership has evolved from seeing leaders as people operating on another level to recognising the deeply human relationships that can emerge between leaders, mentors and teams.

Looking ahead, she hopes her legacy will be measured less by what she personally built and more by the people she helped grow along the way.

As a woman who has experienced what it means to be among the few women in senior rooms, she wants to help create more pathways for women to earn their place at those tables, and, eventually, help lead them there.

For Sohini Sen, perhaps that is the most meaningful definition of marketing leadership: bringing together data and instinct, technology and humanity, business ambition and people—and turning all of it into something that lasts.

-By Muskan Dengra