Puja Bharwani is a Partner at APRW. She is a communications leader, content strategist, and founder with over 20 years of experience spanning journalism, venture capital, and technology across Asia and the US. Her forte lies in translating complexity into clarity — building credible narratives, high-trust content ecosystems, and stewarding reputation for leaders and organisations operating in fast-moving, high-stakes environments. Her work spans strategic narrative design, public relations, thought leadership, podcast and event creation, and community-building. She has partnered closely with CEOs, investors, and founders to build influence, trust, and long-term engagement.

At APRW, she works with AI enterprise technology companies, financial institutions, including venture capital firms, private equity funds, and family offices, and select consumer and luxury lifestyle brands, including creators and influencers. She is also integrating her proprietary Owned Story™ programme into Knowledge Studio by APRW (APRW KnowS), the agency’s communication readiness and advisory arm — a framework for defining precisely what an organisation’s story is, who it’s for, and how to tell it in ways specific enough to be believed.

Most recently, she was the co-founder of Wizly, an AI-powered decision intelligence platform that helps executives access verified expertise and market insight to make faster and smarter decisions. She led go-to-market, communications and community growth for the platform — building over 200 Knowledge Twins, onboarding more than 1,500 experts and building a knowledge platform with enterprise level users.

At Antler, one of the world’s most active early-stage venture capital firms, Puja served as the first Head of Marketing & PR for Southeast Asia, working with the founders to define the firm’s brand philosophy and differentiate its position across a crowded VC ecosystem. She managed brand strategy end-to-end from campaigns, content, digital and social marketing. She also supported executive communications, crisis response, and corporate messaging, and built a network of media and content partnerships that raised Antler’s visibility across Asia. She produced and hosted the bi-annual Antler Southeast Asia Demo Days, and conceived, produced, and co-hosted the Antler VC Cast podcast, which reached the Global Top Ten on Apple Podcasts in the Tech News category in Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, and the Netherlands.

Before that, Puja founded What’s The Story, a content and communications agency she ran for eight years, working with brands including Grab, Abbott, Condé Nast Traveller, Temasek, the Singapore Tourism Board, Novus (now part of Dentsu) and Pampers, as well as entrepreneurs and social enterprises building their narratives from the ground up. She also wrote a special Singapore guidebook for Condé Nast Traveller India, and produced and hosted “The Story of You,” a podcast on entrepreneurship and leadership in Asia, with e27.

Puja built the foundation of her career as an award-winning television producer and journalist, spending nearly a decade at Thomson Reuters producing and reporting financial, general, and lifestyle news across the US and Asia-Pacific. Her reporting took her to the front lines of major global events, including 9/11, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the Nepal riots. She won the Reuters Journalist of the Year award in the “Story of the Year” category for her multimedia coverage of the Myanmar protests.

She currently advises non-profit Social Alpha on strategy and partnerships for systems-change innovation, building the bridge between India’s deep-tech innovators and Asia’s philanthropic capital, and writes Life Amplified with AI, a newsletter on how AI is reshaping the way we work, learn, and live. She believes deep tech and AI, applied with intent, can change lives at scale, and that solving problems this complex takes people willing to think differently. But her instinct remains human first- however far the technology goes, she believes people are still persuaded by people, and that trust is built through authentic and relevant communication, not automation.

Puja holds an MA in Broadcast Journalism from New York University and a BA (Hons) in English Literature from the National University of Singapore. When not building a communications strategy for a purpose-led company, she can be found playing padel, doing yoga or trying out the latest wellness offering.

On a personal note, Bharwani is a mother of three, and runs that outfit with serious play and a huge dose of humour.